Paul: 'Rather be a hobbit than a troll'
The "Lord of the Rings" metaphors crept into the debt-limit fight on Thursday, as tea-party heroes fired back at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who mocked members of the conservative grassroots movement as "tea-party hobbits."
"I'd rather be a hobbit than a troll," freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on a conference call when asked by POLITICO about McCain's remarks. "I think in reading the books, the hobbits were the heroes. They overcame great obstacles, and I think I'd rather be a hobbit than a troll."
Added fellow freshman Sen. Mike Lee, who co-founded the chamber's tea party caucus with Paul and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.): "It's stunning to me that some people have resorted to name calling rather than simply addressing the issue."
McCain, his party's presidential nominee in 2008, took to the Senate floor a day earlier, blasting tea-party lawmakers for opposing House Speaker John Boehner's plan to raise the debt ceiling because it doesn't require passage of a balanced budget amendment.
The five-term senator is a strong supporter of such an amendment but he dismissed their stance as "foolish," "deceiving and "bizarro," saying it is unrealistic the proposed amendment could win the 67 votes needed to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Quoting from a Wall Street Journal editorial, McCain said "tea-party hobbits" were mistaken to think that if Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling and the government defaults on its loans, President Barack Obama would get the blame.
"This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned [tea-party heroes] Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees," McCain said, citing the editorial.
Angle shot back in a series of rapid-fire tweets Wednesday night, then hit McCain in a statement Thursday noting that the senator picked tea-party darling Sarah Palin as his 2008 running mate and ran to the right last year as he fended off a tough primary challenge.
"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," said Angle, who tried to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last year.
"As in the fable, it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land," she added. "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."
While McCain's views may be shared at the highest-levels of the Senate, he probably won't be getting much public support from his GOP colleagues either.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who is seeking to move up to the No. 2 in the leadership next Congress, needs tea party support to succeed in 2012 Senate elections, which he oversees as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
In an interview Thursday, Cornyn told POLITICO that he didn't agree with McCain.
"I think what we're trying to do is accomplish a goal and I think it's best articulated by the Cut, Cap and Balance proposal which was killed by Senate Democrats," Cornyn said. "I think everybody is experiencing their own frustrations – over here we are with such little time between now and next Tuesday and a default. I don't share Sen. McCain's views about the Balanced Budget Amendment. I hope we can pass it in the House, and also in the Senate."
Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), a tea party-backed freshman, has come around to supporting the Boehner plan but took issue with McCain's invectives.
"Call them hobbits, call them what you like. I call the tea party and others who wish to fight to get this country on a proper fiscal trajectory, true patriots," Stutzman said on the House floor Thursday. "The reality here on earth, Mr. Speaker, is that America is a great nation and we wish to remain that way."
But Democrats were quick to seize on McCain's remarks.
In his floor speech Thursday morning, Reid - who has a frosty relationship with the senior senator from Arizona - highlighted his comments to attack Republicans. Democrats have put the clip on YouTube as well.
"Yesterday on the Senate floor, John McCain, the Republican senior senator from Arizona and President Obama's opponent in the last presidential election, asked his own party to return to reality," Reid said on the floor.
"It would be easy for Republicans to get nearly everything they want, if only they embraced the Senate's true compromise plan – and stop, as Sen. McCain put it, 'deceiving' the American people," Reid said.
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