You just knew it was too good to be true, didn't you?
There was John McCain on the floor of the Senate ripping the Tea Party a new asshole, calling them hobbits out to destroy Mordor. Great stuff.
Until McCain appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Fox:
The video of McCain sucking up to Hannity is here.
I tried several times to embed it but couldn't pull it off. My html skills are similar to the Tea Party's knowledge of economics.
Anyway, McCain told Hannity he doesn't dislike the Tea Party. He was just reading from the Wall Street Journal editorial.
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.
So much for McCain stepping forward to be the voice of reason.