In a little reported development a few weeks back, senior McCain adviser Charlie Black relabeled his man, "slightly right of center." After having already adopted virtually the entire Bush agenda and just weeks after running an ad titled "True Conservative" during the Republican primaries, John McCain had started his mad dash back to the political center for the general election.

But when it comes to running away from his moribund party, its discredited brand and its wildly unpopular president, no Republican can match the extreme makeover of Oregon Senator Gordon Smith. No doubt, he is running as the UnRepublican.

A quick glance at the Smith web site tells the tale, or at least part of it. Nowhere does the word "Republican" appear on Gordon Smith's home page. In contrast, "Democrats for Smith" is a prominent link available from every page in the site. A Google search shows that the word "Bush" appears exactly three times on the Smith campaign web site; twice in reprinted news articles about Smith's supposed bipartisanship and once to let us know that "Smith broke with Party leaders and President Bush" on the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Smith's latest spot, "Middle Ground," is the culmination of his centrist facelift project. Touting Smith as "moderate, independent and bipartisan," the ad highlight issues such as stem cell research, energy and the environment where he bucked his party and GOP. The spot cites rankings from National Journal to place Smith in the Senate's political center. All told, it's a far cry from his 2002 TV spot featuring President Bush, back when Gordon Smith was only too happy to let Oregonians know that he carried Bush's water.

Of course, given the current poisonous atmosphere for Republicans, Gordon Smith isn't about to tout the fact that he voted with George W. Bush 90% of the time. His support for John Roberts and Samuel Alito, conservative Supreme Court justices almost certain to support overturning of Roe v. Wade and the undermining of economic, environmental and workplace safety regulations, is unsurprisingly absent as well.

And don't expect the Smith campaign to intersperse footage of his December 2006 protestations about the "absurd" and "criminal" American presence in Iraq with his endorsement of John McCain for President. (The Smith web site's issues section offers exactly two sentences on bringing home the troops.) And to be sure, Gordon Smith's resurrection of Trent Lott (R-MS) will be forgotten as well.

Smith's campaign may be a Potemkin facade, but like other Republicans, he has little choice. With approval ratings for President Bush and the direction of the country reaching record lows, even Republican analyses show Democrats enjoying the support of the American people across virtually every issue. It's no wonder that in the wake of John Boehner's hilarious effort to produce a new slogan for the GOP, outgoing Virginia Congressman Tom Davis concluded, "the Republican brand is in the trash can...if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf."

In August 2002, President George W. Bush came to Oregon and spoke in glowing terms about Gordon Smith at a Portland reception. This week in Phoenix, John McCain allowed himself to be publicly seen in Bush's company for exactly 47 seconds. Facing a close Senate race so far, that is 47 seconds more than we should expect Bush to spend here with UnRepublican Gordon Smith in 2008.

(This piece originally appeared at BlueOregon.)