Apparently Tina Fey isn't the only one who's fed up hearing the word "Maverick" used to describe Sen. John McCain. According to the New York Times, members of the Maverick family, which has a centuries-old tradition of progressive politics and liberal leanings, also are steamed. They can't believe a party man like John McCain is being promoted, doggone it, as the Mavericky leader of a team of Maverickistic Mavericks -- instead of the conservative Republican that he is. (Listening to Gov. Sarah Palin mention the maverick thing over and over again her debate with Sen. Joe Biden, I started picturing a herd. I kept envisioning the Budweiser Clydesdales. Then I realize I was confusing mustangs with mavericks while pondering Cindy McCain's beer fortune).

The NYT's piece says the Maverick family's reputation as liberals took root in the 1600s when an ancestor in Boston stood up for indentured servants. A couple of hundred years later, Samuel Augustus Maverick moved to Texas and refused to brand his cattle. That's what mavericks were, once upon a time, unbranded cattle -- not standard bearers for their political party. Of course, over time the name came to mean a free-thinking person who wasn't an identifiable part of a herd.

Now the poor Maverick descendants wince when McCain takes their name in vain: "Every time we hear it, all my children and I and all my family shrink a little and say, 'Oh my God, he said it again.' "

And if they can't stand it from McCain, they probably did backflips during Palin's mavericklicious debate performance last week.

I supposed the sensation for the Mavericks is what other would feel if, say, a conservative politician called on the memory of liberal John F. Kennedy. But wait. That did happen, didn't it? Good ole Lloyd Bentsen. Thank goodness he was there to smack down Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle. Too bad there's nobody we can teleport from the 1800s to turn on McPalin and say: "I served with Sam Maverick. I knew Sam Maverick. Sam Maverick was a friend of mine. You're no Sam Maverick."

Photos: Bentsen/Quayle, Ron Edmonds/AP. Cattle, Karen Bleier/AFP Getty. McCain/Palin, Stephan Savoia/AP