Rather, the feeling here is that this is less about politics and more about the ego of a man who gained a national following, largely by appealing to independents with his maverick image.

While Senator Murray is known for her low-key style, Ms. Smith is a bombastic speaker and she revels in her maverick image.

"Ponytail on a hog," Steve Curtis, Colorado's Republican Party chairman, said dreamily of the Senator's maverick image.

"I think he gets ridiculed too much in that aspect," Raiders running back Randy Jordan said recently of Davis's maverick image.

And, true to their popular maverick image, the bikers are not in harmony on the issue.

In his last months, he tried to embrace the maverick image - the fighter against doctrinaire feminism and "political correctness," as he put it - but to no avail.

When Mr. Koizumi became prime minister, his maverick image and reformist talk fascinated people so much that his popularity ratings soared as high as 90 percent in some polls.

Back when he was cultivating a maverick image, Mr. McCain portrayed himself as more environmentally aware than the rest of his party.

Fox's decision to go after "Cosby"' is consistent with the network's carefully cultivated maverick image.

Yet in a rare, hourlong interview at his residence here, Cardinal Martini made clear that his maverick image had been overdrawn.