Matthews to McCain: "[Y]ou've been a maverick and a lot of people like you because of that"

Summary: Despite questioning a few days earlier how people could "still think" Sen. John McCain is "a straight-talk maverick when he's been in league with the president," Chris Matthews asserted during an interview with McCain: "Let me ask you about your Republican Party, because you've been a maverick and a lot of people like you because of that, and I want to ask you how much of a maverick you are."

On the April 15 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, while interviewing Sen. John McCain as part of Hardball's "College Tour," host Chris Matthews asserted: "Let me ask you about your Republican Party, because you've been a maverick and a lot of people like you because of that, and I want to ask you how much of a maverick you are." Matthews went on to ask, "Would you put a person on the ticket with you, like the former governor of this state, who is very popular, Tom Ridge, even though he may disagree, even though he may disagree with you on the issue of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights?"

Matthews reverted to calling McCain a "maverick" despite having said the following during the April 13 edition of the Chris Matthews Show:

MATTHEWS: Why does that survive, that image of the straight-talk guy, after he went back and made up with the religious, the televangelists and those guys, [Pat] Robertson and [Jerry] Falwell? He made some other comments that -- he hugged Bush.

[...]

MATTHEWS: How come they forgive him? They still think he's a straight-talk maverick when he's been in league with the president.

From the April 15 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about your Republican Party, because you've been a maverick and a lot of people like you because of that. And I want to ask you how much of a maverick you are.

Would you put a person on the ticket with you, like the former governor of this state, who is very popular, Tom Ridge, even though he may disagree -- even though he may disagree with you on the issue of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights? Would you put somebody on the ticket like that? On that one issue, would that stop him?

—R.C.