The Associated Press’ Terrible Accordion Metaphor

There are many uses for the accordion, but the worst I’ve seen is as a writer’s crutch in this painfully-written piece on John McCain by Glen Johnson for the Associated Press:

John McCain embraces and expels Washington like an accordion player belting out a song.

Squeeze in and he touts his vast knowledge of the capital city. Draw out and he casts himself a reformer bent on changing its ways.

The accordion metaphor gets tortured for the rest of the article.