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The wounds were still fresh from his damaging defeat in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 5 when Mitt Romney was looking for a way to regain momentum heading into the New Hampshire primary. On that cold morning at a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, Romney stood beside an illuminated sign that unveiled his retooled message: "Washington Is Broken."

“We face extraordinarily challenges that we have heard the politicians talk about for decades without getting anything done,” Romney said on that day. “And it is finally time to have somebody go to Washington who is not a lifelong politician worrying about his career, worrying whether his party is going to get an edge, worrying whether he is going to settle a score with the other politicians, but rather worrying about one thing: solving the challenges of the problems that face America.”

The implication was clear: Romney was arguing that McCain, his chief rival in New Hamphsire, was just the kind of "lifelong politician" who wouldn't be able to deliver real change. In fact, in the run-up to the critical Florida primary a couple weeks later, Romney dug at McCain's D.C. ties even deeper, saying that his GOP rival was engaging in "Washington talk" and that it would take someone with Romney's private sector experience to heal Washington's ills.

But now John McCain is employing the line Romney once used to contrast himself against the Arizona senator. "Washington's broken," an announcer says at the beginning of the new McCain TV ad, which highlights McCain's record on combating special interests.

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The campaign of John McCain dubs the Arizona senator "the original maverick" in a new 30-second television ad out today, "Broken."

"Washington's broken," an announcer says as the spot opens with a black-and-white shot of the Capitol. "John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago." As he says "we're worse off," a shot of a gas pump fills the screen.

"Only McCain has taken on big tobacco, drug companies, fought corruption in both parties," the announcer continues as the spot shifts to color and McCain is shown. "He'll reform Wall Street, battle Big Oil, make America prosper again."

"He's the original maverick," the announcer says. The words "The ORIGINAL MAVERICK" appear onscreen. The ad closes with the announcer saying, "One is ready to lead: McCain."

"Washington is broken," the phrase that opens the ad, became former McCain rival (and current potential running mate) Mitt Romney's catch phrase in the run-up to the New Hampshire primary. Romney was looking to make the case that it would take a Washington outsider like himself – not a "lifelong politician" like McCain – to fix Washington's problems. (Read more about that here.)

The McCain camp says the spot will air in "key states," though it does not specify where.

Watch it:



UPDATE: Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton responds to the spot: “Senator McCain wants Americans to forget that during the Republican primary, he said that Americans were better off than we were eight years ago, and that he thinks we’ve made ‘great progress economically.’ He wants us to forget that he’s fully embraced the Bush policies he once opposed, and bragged about supporting those policies ‘more than 90 percent of time.’ The truth is, being a maverick isn’t practicing the same kind of politics we have seen from Washington for decades, it isn’t having a campaign run by Washington lobbyists, and it’s certainly not promoting the same policies that have led America down the wrong path these past eight years."