The REAL Mavericks

In its Week in Review on October 4th, the NY Times ran an interesting piece by John Schwartz about the original Mavericks, a Texas cattle-ranching family who are NOT happy with John McCain using their name. In the story "Who You Callin’ a Maverick?" Schwartz writes: "considering the family’s long history of association with liberalism and progressive ideals, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Maverick insists that John McCain, who has voted so often with his party, “is in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase.” Terellita Maverick says, “It’s just incredible — the nerve! — to suggest that he’s not part of that Republican herd . . . He’s a Republican,” she said. “He’s branded.”

From dictionary.com:

1. Southwestern U.S. an unbranded calf, cow, or steer, esp. an unbranded calf that is separated from its mother.

2. a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates.
[Origin: 1865–70, Americanism; after Samuel A. Maverick (1803–70), Texas pioneer who left his calves unbranded]