Debt limit catfight

Sharron Angle is not a hobbit!

In fact, she's frighteningly real, a fact of which we're frequently reminded as she travels around trying to hawk her self-published memoir about losing an election to Harry Reid.

And aren't we glad she lost? Can you imagine what Angle would be doing right about now, while the adults in Congress -- including Reid -- are desperately trying to figure out a way to prevent America from not paying all its bills?

Well, you don't have to imagine: Angle's only too happy to tell you.

In fairness, she didn't start this fight. It was The Wall Street Journal, in a Wednesday editorial endorsing the John Boehner Two Step Plan to Raise the Debt Ceiling. Remarking on the fantastical notion that President Barack Obama will get the blame for the chaos that may ensue if the tea party contingent in the House defeats Boehner's plan, the Journal embarked on a flight of fancy.

"The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame," the Journal wrote. "Then Democrats will 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."

Ouch, baby. Very ouch. But things got worse when former Republican presidential nominee John McCain read those words approvingly on the Senate floor, prompting Angle to write (or, at the very least, sign her name to) a response published on The Hill's website.

"Ironically, this man campaigned for Tea Party support in his last re-election, but now throws Christine O'Donnell and I [sic] into the harbor with Sarah Palin," Angle writes. "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."

Ouch, again.

McCain -- who later claimed he was attacking the idea that Obama would be blamed if the Republicans failed to raise the debt limit, and not the tea party -- actually campaigned in Nevada last year for Angle.

Like most Angle supporters, he was motivated more by dislike of Reid than any particular love for the Republican candidate, and the feeling was apparently mutual. A former Angle insider reports the true believer wing of Angle's campaign feared McCain's moderate reputation would stick to Angle, and there was talk of canceling the engagement while McCain was flying to Las Vegas. It was briefly considered to keep Angle and McCain from appearing on stage at the same time, but the final compromise -- an oh-so-awkward, passing half-hug -- saved the day, albeit not the campaign.

The problem pointed up in the Journal's unusually close-to-home editorial is this: The reality of governing has yet to intrude upon the tea party, which views any compromise with Democrats or sensible Republicans (aka, Republicans In Name Only, or RINOs) as defeat. No matter how many experts line up to predict the awful consequences of not raising the debt limit, the tea party is convinced nothing much will happen if it's not raised. In fact, they see not raising it as a key to taking a whack at one of the many tentacles of a leviathan that many came to Washington to destroy.

Thus, they view Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as less unsavory versions of Harry Reid and Obama, silver-tongued serpents whispering heresies, trying to corrupt them so many of their predecessors.

No, Sharron Angle and her ilk are not hobbits. Hobbits are fictional characters who can do us no harm. Listening to the tea party on this one is truly dangerous.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/SteveSebelius or reach him at 387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.