MAINSTREAMING MCCAIN, MELTING CUBE McCain and Cube before and after

In 2000, we got to know the maverick, John McCain. He boarded his Straight Talk Express and took the lesser traveled road through politics, stopping along the way to call bullshit on bad decisions, whether they came from Republicans or Democrats. He came with credentials, having spent five and a half years in a POW camp. We got a sense it left dude a bit off. And we liked that. Even if we didn't always agree with his views, we liked that he was saying something different.

Seven years later, McCain is hardly recognizable. Who has he become? A run-of-the-mill Bush supporter? Just another compromising politician? Who is this guy?

He's the Ice Cube of Republican politics.

McCain and Cube were at one point both men of rebellion, known for hurling paeans of rippling anger at an unjust world. Ice Cube focused on his deep loathing for police officers, white people, and Hammer (as recently as last year, he even lashed out at white people's icon, Oprah, for hating on hip-hop stars). McCain mirrored him in the Congress by defying Republican orthodoxy on issues like tobacco regulation, campaign finance reform, and by focusing on his own deep loathing for Trent Lott, Jerry Falwell, and, you might remember, the Hammer.

But both men have taken big, uncharacteristic steps away from their pugnacious pasts in the quest for something more. To follow, a few of their dueling betrayals ...

• McCain makes up with Falwell and Robertson.

• Ice Cube makes up with cops, going from "Fuck the Police" to "Help the Police."

• McCain hires key Falwell staffer, then a DeLay middleman.

• A&E hires Ice Cube for Good in the Hood.

• McCain veers right, makes nice with Falwell, and continues to win over Bush insiders.

• Ice Cube wins over soccer moms with his cute new domestic comedy features, Are We There Yet? and the recently-released sequel, Are We Done Yet?, which deals hilariously (no AK-47s or Glocks or anything!) with a little kid in a car who has to pee.

• McCain befriends old enemies.

• Ice Cube films a blooper reel.