During his failed bid for president in 2000, the national media ordained Republican Sen. John McCain a political maverick whose “Straight Talk Express” offered the American public a much-needed departure from politics as usual. While the Bush/Cheney campaign team was able to shut McCain down, the former Vietnam POW licked his wounds and has all but announced his candidacy for presidency in 2008.

Unfortunately, it appears that McCain is now willing to sacrifice his straight-shooting style to prevent another embarrassing defeat. The same darling of the press who once strove to place principles over party currently faces what would almost certainly be his last grab for the White House (at 72, McCain would be the oldest first-term president-elect in American history) and his contradictory scramble to become the Republican establishment candidate would be entertaining to observe, if only it weren’t so depressing.

Just last week, McCain defended his ongoing outreach to Christian conservatives one day after he met privately with religious broadcasters in Orlando. Although he argued to an Associated Press reporter that his networking with the Christian Right does not amount to “political pandering to win the GOP nomination,” one finds this answer hard to believe when he is cozying up to the same far right leaders of the Republican Party that he blasted in a 2000 speech for being divisive “agents of intolerance.”

It wasn’t the best strategy for winning the nomination, but it was a powerful message for independents and moderate Democrats, who have been largely supportive of him ever since. Now that he’s committed to running for president again, McCain is mending fences with the extreme wing of his party. Last spring, he spoke at Liberty University, the theological playground of evangelist leader Jerry Falwell, who McCain once derided as one of the “corrupting influences on religion and politics.” In this 2006 speech, he flip-flopped and called Falwell “a great American.”

A great American agent of tolerance? I know McCain is getting up there in years, but really? Falwell is the same right wing nutjob who has said that “AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals” and that feminists and the ACLU helped provoke 9/11. McCain-Falwell 2008!

McCain rose to such great popularity as an elected official by distancing himself from typical partisanship, which is exactly why his dishonorable backpedaling is so unfortunate. According to Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, McCain sure did the trick during his most recent hobnobbing with conservative Christian leaders, “He helped himself in that room tremendously today.” Tremendously? What on earth has he been saying privately to this crowd to win their support? There’s a good chance we’ll never know, and that’s terrifying.

Even on his seemingly untouchable trademark issue, campaign finance reform, McCain is raising eyebrows. According to a Feb. 11 Washington Post article, “McCain the reformer relentlessly argued that six- and seven-figure ‘soft money’ checks that corporations, wealthy individuals and unions were giving to political parties to influence elections were corrupting American politics.”

Now, as a candidate, “at least six of McCain’s first eight national finance co-chairmen have given or raised large donations for political parties or 527 groups, campaign and IRS records show. In all, the finance co-chairs have given at least $13.5 million in soft money and 527 donations since the 1998 election.” Whoops!

McCain became one of America’s most popular politicians by crafting a brilliant image as an anti-establishment crusader who would rock the political system. But during his second trek on the long and treacherous path to the White House, he has already lost his way. In a modern presidential campaign, the temptation to become part of the problem is almost irresistible, so McCain’s self-betrayal is certainly comprehensible.

The real tragedy, however, is that the foundation for his greatness has crumbled under the weight of his ambitions. What price glory? For the new McCain, it appears you need only name it.