The mask slips

McCain probably should have answered her question a bit more civilly, because Elizabeth Bumiller has now done the unthinkable: questioned the maverick.

Yet while it would be hard to categorize him as a doctrinaire Republican or conservative, Mr. McCain appears to have ceded some of his carefully cultivated reputation as a maverick.

Now, I'm not saying Bumiller has raised this out of pique, but it is a lesson in the danger of courting certain members of the press like lucky members of the clique, while others aren't given passes on the Straight Talk Gas Guzzler-- it gives the latter more time to fact check.

And ever so slightly, perhaps the narrative has shifted.