Tea Party 'Hobbit' Flare-Up: Sharron Angle Lashes Out At John McCain

Nevada Republican Sharron Angle, who made an unsuccessful run to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the 2010 election season, lashed out at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday.

Angle, a Tea Party favorite, took aim at McCain on the heels of the Arizona senator criticizing lawmakers affiliated with the conservative coalition of activists who remain unwavering in their opposition to raising the debt ceiling. In speaking out on the matter on the Senate floor on Wednesday, McCain read from a Wall Street Journal editorial offering a critical assessment of how some members of the Republican party have approached the pressing fiscal issue. Here's an excerpt of the piece concerning Angle:

...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.

Angle hit back at McCain in "A statement from a 'Tea Party hobbit'."

One man in Washington, who chose Sarah Palin to be his VP running-mate and came to Nevada to campaign for me last year in the Senate race against Harry Reid, is now promoting attacks against Tea Party activists, ordinary American citizens, and fiscally conservative members of Congress -- all of whom are adamantly opposed to continuing the deficit-spending strategies proposed by some congressional members and the president.

Ironically, this man campaigned for Tea Party support in his last re-election, but now throws Christine O’Donnell and I into the harbor with Sarah Palin. As in the fable, it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land. This Lord of the TARP actually ought to read to the end of the story and join forces with the Tea Party, not criticize it.

The Tea Party favorite added, "It is regrettable that a man seeking dialogue, action and cooperation for votes on the floor of the United States Senate has only one strategy to achieve that effort: name-calling. Nice."

McCain did in fact campaign for Angle last year during Nevada's general election Senate race. Below, a picture of the pair of Republicans in what can be considered more amicable times.

Comments

[Brian McCoy]

11:35 AM on 07/31/2011

This whole Hobbit comparison is more evidence of Murdoch's king making. If anything the Tea Party is Denethor-willing to send his people and his son to their deaths in a desperate attempt to keep power. Better yet these Tea Party members are like the woman who said Solomon could cut the babe in half, Obama is like the actual mother giving up so much and getting nothing in return so now it is up to Boehner to decide whether he is Solomon, or just the guard who cuts the babe in half.

[Jeff Carter I]

02:59 PM on 07/30/2011

So now the Tea Party has claimed to represent "ordinary Americans" - meaning that anyone who disputes the wisdom of so-called Tea Party orthodoxy is "extraordinary". Seems as if the whole underlying concept of the T.P. has been hijacked by demagogues. Woe to those Joe Plumbers who still believe that the T.P. represents their "ordinary" interests. They are as foolish as Gandalf was when he still thought Saruman was an ally…Frodo yet lives…but nowhere near Washington…

[Meldy1]

03:52 AM on 07/30/2011

But McCain is like the man who had accident after boozing and blamed the bartender.He is useless he should retire at Sedona and a private nurse to change his wet diapers....dementia has set in for Mcmisled I guess.I don't know anymore what McMisled believes in...he change position so often that I guess he himself doesn't know what he is talking about anymore....typical republican backward mind...he needs a shot!

[Meldy1]

03:48 AM on 07/30/2011

@enigma2 Yes we will bring in Manny KO Pacquiao into the scene,don't worry about that.We will work massively in 2012..Yes he owns one in California..and many American Filipino businesses...So he is a force for President Obama.He and his wife have already visited at the Whouse....About the republicans making voters ID'S complicated?we will counter attack them,don't worry every destruction from the repthugs we the demolition force are ready to fight them....ALLER!!!!!Eye for an eye..

[Darth Hater]

11:57 PM on 07/29/2011

Senator Gollum has mistaken the Orks for hobbits again!

[Barbara DeZan]

10:39 PM on 07/29/2011

Definition of hobbitt.....Oxford dictionary

▶noun a member of an imaginary race similar to humans, of small size and with hairy feet, in stories by J. R. R. Tolkien.

– origin 1937: invented by Tolkien in his book The Hobbit, and said by him to mean ‘hole-dweller’.

[nothingchanges]

08:19 PM on 07/29/2011

Obviously none of the people involved have ever even read J.R.R.Tolkien.

Calling members of the Tea Party, or the Republican Party "Hobbits", is an insult.........to Hobbits.

IMPO.......It would be far more accurate, and truthful, to call them "Trolls"

[Bude]

08:05 PM on 07/29/2011

Everything is fine. McCain groveled before Sean Hannity last night, and begged for his forgiveness.

Hannity graciously gave it to him.

[Will737]

07:36 PM on 07/29/2011

The Tea Baggers want to beat up Senator McCain for reading a Wall Street Journal editiorial page comment about them. Let's face facts. When the profoundly far right wing WSJ editiorial page tells us that someone else is so far right wing that they are mentally ill hobbits, you can be sure that the hobbits in question have completely left the realm of sanity.

[amaboss52]

07:26 PM on 07/29/2011

And the old coot caved! For a war hero, he sure is a coward.

[ScottyD1982]

07:22 PM on 07/29/2011

McCain is absolutely right.

[storeysound]

07:18 PM on 07/29/2011

"This man...throws...I into the harbor..."?

And this woman was a teacher for 25 years? Granted, a substitute teacher, but still. Even substitute teachers should know the basic rules of grammar. Thank God the people of Nevada were smart enough to know she didn't belong in the Senate.

[storeysound]

07:07 PM on 07/29/2011

Hobbit? Looks more like an orc to me...

(My apologies to anyone who may have previously posted this observation.)

[Mas]

06:33 PM on 07/29/2011

Let's see from the Republican side: There is Sue Lowden, Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell. The Chicken Lady, The half term Governor, Ms. 2nd amendment at the ballot box if we don't win, and Ms. I'm not a witch. Now add "We don't need governement handouts save our farm subsidies or our Fannie/Freddie Mac government home loan Michele Bachmann. Are the wheels coming off the Republican Party?

[Giverny]

06:40 PM on 07/29/2011

They've been up on blocks for a while.

[Duppy]

05:16 PM on 07/29/2011

McCain's comments were brilliant.