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Washington Wire had one of those moments today when we read the latest issue of Newsweek, which quotes Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain distancing himself from his well-established and long-nurtured national persona.

“I never considered myself a maverick,” he told Newsweek. “I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities.”

The statement is stunning on many levels, not least of which because the maverick persona was hammered by the McCain-Palin ticket in the 2008 campaign and long-cultivated by the senator and his supporters years before his presidential bid.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin apparently didn’t get the maverick memo when she campaigned as recently as March 26 for McCain’s Senate re-election bid. “Send the maverick back to the United States Senate,” Palin declared.

Washington Wire took a quick stroll down memory lane for some of McCain’s greatest maverick hits, below. And we wonder: If McCain is no longer the maverick, what should he be known as?

–Palin did her part in pushing the maverick line in the 2008 campaign, where she regularly referred to both her and McCain as mavericks. “Now John McCain, with a track record of proving he’s not just a patriot in the Senate, he’s known as the maverick,” she said during a Nov. 2008 campaign stop in Ocala, Fla.

–In the lone vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden, Palin said the word “maverick” no fewer than 15 times.

–“We’re both mavericks!” McCain said of himself and Palin during an October 2008 campaign stop.

–On NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” McCain poked fun of his maverick persona just days before the election in a skit where he names various campaign strategies. Among the top contenders: the “Reverse Maverick” and the “Double Maverick.” The latter, McCain said, “That’s where I go totally berserker and just freak everybody out. Even the regular mavericks.”

–In another memorable TV appearance on “The View,” McCain took issue with a suggestion that he’d lost his maverick mojo. “You used to be sort of the maverick,” co-host Joy Behar said. “Then you sort of turned.” “In what way?” McCain asked. “You sort of became more in lockstep,” Behar responded, to which McCain retorted: “I’m the same person as I always was.”

–“If you want real reform and you want change, send a team of mavericks,” McCain said at a September 2008 campaign appearance.

–McCain in his 2008 GOP Convention speech: “You know, I’ve been called a maverick; someone who marches to the beat of his own drum. Sometimes it’s meant as a compliment and sometimes it’s not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”

–McCain also used the maverick persona in campaign ads. In an August 2008 ad, “Debra,” the woman in the ad touts McCain’s maverick reputation. “I respect [McCain’s] maverick and independent streak, and now he’s the one with the experience and judgment. A lot of Democrats will vote for McCain. It’s okay, really!” Another campaign ad, “Broken,” touted McCain as “the original maverick.”

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