As the deadline to raise the debt ceiling approaches, tensions are high in the world of national politics. Not only are Democrats and Republicans fighting with each other about the politics behind the national debt but some members of the same party can’t even come to a consensus about what to do.
Yesterday, Arizona Senator and former Presidential candidate John McCain rebuked some members of his own party during a speech on the floor of the Senate. The speech, which took aim at a group of conservatives who “remain unwavering in their opposition to raising the debt ceiling,” quoted a Wall Street Journal editorial called “The GOP’s Reality Test.”
In that article, tea party members were likened to Hobbits from The Lord of The Rings. The piece that McCain read from even mentioned some former GOP Senate nominees that are affiliated with the tea party:
The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.
This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into GOP Senate nominees. The reality is that the debt limit will be raised one way or another, and the only issue now is with how much fiscal reform and what political fallout.
Sharron Angle, the Republican who attempted to unseat Harry Reid in Nevada, took issue with McCain and has blasted him both in an editorial and on Twitter. In a piece titled A Statement from a Tea Party Hobbit, Angle says that McCain “brings no new ideas” and chides his “borrowed soliloquies.”
Here are the applicable tweets –
@SenJohnMcCain, chose Tea-Party running mate @SarahPalinUSA , now tossesTea Party into the harbor: http://t.co/xtEj8aJ #UseAndAbuse #tcot
@SenJohnMcCain the Lord of the TARP is sucking up for Obama the Lord of the Rings. #RINO #tcot
Never actually saw a Leopard change it spots, but I know of a “Maverick” that does! @SenJohnMcCain #FlipFlop #tcot
What else to say on @SenJohnMcCain? Elizabeth Drew quoted a Sen: “Dealing with John McCain is kind of like dancing with a cactus.” #pricked
Political infighting: as American as apple pie. Can somebody please send Robert Kraft over there so they can get something worked out? Sure worked for the NFL.
[Lead Image Courtesy]