Are Republicans dissing themselves when they say "vote for McCain, he's a maverick and will change Washington?

I'm not questioning whether McCain is or isn't a maverick. But in order to say that McCain's being a maverick is good, they have to say that being like the rest of the Republican party is bad. Aren't they saying, "yeah, we screwed up the last eight years, but give us another shot because now we have someone who won't act like a conservative"?