But to do what?

Turns out we will have John McCain to kick around longer than just the next two years:

Arizona Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee this year, said he will run for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Speaking at a press conference in Phoenix televised by the MSNBC network, McCain, 72, said one of the principal reasons he lost the Nov. 4 election to Democrat Barack Obama was because of the slumping U.S. economy.  Americans decided “that the economy was of vital importance” and voted for a change in stewardship, McCain said.

Thanks to probable departure of Gov. Janet Napolitano, John McCain’s 2010 looks to be a smooth ride to re-election.  The same cannot be said of the next two years nor the likely six that will follow them.  McCain’s historically noteworthy meeting with Obama right after the election notwithstanding, the Arizona Senator’s odd of being relished to the D.C. backburner are high. 

The fundamental question for at least the next two years is which John McCain will roam the Senate chambers – the somewhat apologetic Republican leader seen since he was made the defacto nominee in early 2008 or the media lavished “maverick” who spent the better part of eight years decrying anything with a GOP label. 

Returning to either role will be difficult.  Frustrated by his campaign and resentful of the ‘08 results, few Republicans will be eager to butter up the senior senator nor seek perhaps much more than token advice.  And while McCain’s opinion will earn him obligatory coverage for the next year or two, the media will likewise find less of a need in a Democrat-saturated Congress for a token anti-Republican voice from the GOP.  Like John Kerry before him, one day John McCain will wake up and find he has no interviews to attend on the Sunday Morning Circuit nor major pieces of legislation to push.

Why does any of this matter to a party trying to move past McCain and Bush?  Because McCain could make things extraordinarily difficult should he chose to revert to form and spend his salad days blasting the GOP for not having a go-along-to-get-along attitude.  Whatever media life McCain has in him can only be extended by catering to his old behavior.  Every Republican leader – or would-be GOP candidate in ‘12 – can expect to be grilled about how the Grand Old Party’s grand old former standard bearer thinks his party’s jumped off the deep end on [insert issue de jour here].  Minnesota Republicans can relate every time a microphone is put in front of Arnie Carlson, David Durenberger or Al Quie.

Here’s hoping McCain can find a political life of solitude for the sake of himself and his party or that what John McCain is able to do is mostly keep quiet.