An early glimpse here at Maverick having already internalized the lessons of that Politico story and moving quickly to quash a talking point before it achieves liftoff. Dave Weigel’s right, though: Cunningham is notorious for this sort of rhetoric, so much so that it’s earned him recurring appearances on Hannity’s TV shows as the resident right-wing provocateur. McCain probably had nothing to do with choosing him as the warm-up act but his boys had better be more circumspect going forward, as having to retreat from this rhetoric over and over again will eventually start to smell a tad disingenuous. It’s early, though, so for now the left is cutting him a break.