THE original maverick was Samuel Maverick, a 19th-century Texan land baron and politician, whose habit of allowing his herd of cattle to wander freely and unbranded was derided by fellow farmers.
The term was revived politically in the 1930s when Maury Maverick, his grandson, was elected to the House of Representatives from Texas and insisted on vocally supporting Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, in stark contrast to established party opinion in his home state.
For his troubles, Congressman Maverick was defeated in 1938 after a campaign in which he was accused of being a communist, a rabble-rouser and unnaturally sympathetic to the black and Hispanic communities.
One American politician today has a virtual monopoly over the description “maverick”.
Senator John McCain of Arizona, who addressed the Republican convention last night, has sought to distance himself from the mainstream of his party over the past six years.
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There are many among the Republican leadership (not least those in the White House) who refer to him privately in tones not wildly dissimilar to that used of the second Mr Maverick 66 years ago.
Yet, despite this, the Bush camp has decided that it needs Mr McCain’s backing and is determined to appease him.
The senator himself is positively strolling towards re-election to a fourth term this November. The market for mavericks is larger than it used to be. The tension between the Bush team and Mr McCain is formally denied but absolutely obvious. This is in part because the man whom the President defeated in a bitterly fought primary campaign four years ago cannot resist twisting the knife.
In one television interview on Sunday Mr McCain let it slip in the course of little more than ten minutes that he disagreed with Mr Bush over the size of his tax cuts (too big), his approach towards the accusations made against John Kerry’s record in Vietnam (insufficiently respectful to his opponent), his call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage (divisive) and his stance on stem cell research (unduly restrictive).
He also casually aired the fact that he had spoken to Mr Kerry on the telephone 24 hours earlier.
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In another broadcast yesterday, the Arizonan slammed the current presidential campaign as the “meanest, most partisan” that he had seen during his political career — hardly a ringing endorsement of Mr Bush either.
All of this is galling enough for many Republicans. What is worse is that the American media swarm to Mr McCain like bees to honey. This is partly because the overwhelming focus on defence and foreign policy since September 11, 2001, naturally leads reporters to an acknowledged expert in these fields who endured more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
It is also, frankly, because he has acquired a reputation (never really proved by the polls) of speaking on behalf of all the independent or uncommitted voters in America.
The senator is, like the first Maverick cattle, free to roam at will and is not thought to be branded by partisanship.
This raises the question (often expressed by conservatives) as to why he remains on the Republican farm at all. There was speculation that he might switch to the Democrats three years ago, and he clearly enjoyed the chatter this year that Mr Kerry might ask him to serve as his vice-presidential running-mate — a notion that he eventually disavowed completely but only after the story had circulated for several weeks.
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In reality, Mr McCain’s votes in the Senate reveal a man who is more conservative than his image. He would be an implausible Democrat and is shrewd enough to know that forming a third party in the US is a hopeless cause.
More significantly still, however, his presidential ambitions do not appear to have been abated. He looks as if he is considering another bid for the White House in 2008, when he would be 72 (a liability, but younger than Bob Dole was when nominated in 1996).
His best springboard to the presidency would be if the Republicans held the Oval Office this year. In that sense, Mr McCain appreciates that he needs Mr Bush just as much as Mr Bush needs him.
There are now even rumours that Mr McCain might displace Mr Cheney as Mr Bush’s Vice-President at the last minute.