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Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the potentially powerful Hispanic vote in the upcoming presidential election remains "up for grabs" because neither President Barack Obama nor Republicans have convinced these voters that they are on their side. The one-time GOP presidential hopeful, whose own 2008 candidacy was shaped in part by immigration, said that large Hispanic populations in his home state of Arizona and elsewhere are listening carefully to what Republican candidates have to say on immigration and could become a "major factor" in 2012. "I think that the Republican Party has to discuss this issue in as humane way...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator John McCain predicted on Tuesday a third political party will emerge in response to Americans' economic frustrations and said it might as well be called "the Fed-Up Party." The Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2008 raised the possibility of a third party about a year ago, but his comments on Tuesday suggest he has hardened his views as polls show Americans increasingly disillusioned with Washington politics. The 75-year-old McCain may now be the most prominent politician forecasting Americans will look to another party to compete with Democrats and Republicans. "Unless both parties change, then I think...

Step 1: The first rule of the establishment is: Do not admit you are part of the establishment! Step 2: Disarm them with praise Step 3: Moderate whoever they pick as the 2012 nominee. Step 4: Teach them about compromise. Step 5: Never forget reality

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain said on Thursday the fall of Muammar Gaddafi was inspiring people all over world, including citizens of Syria, Iran, China and Russia, but he twinned his praise with caution about Libya's many revolutionary armed groups, saying they had to be brought under control. Leading the first visit to Tripoli by members of the U.S. Congress since Gaddafi's fall last month, McCain added at a media conference that U.S. investors were eager to do business in the oil-exporting country but this would be difficult as long as fighting continued. Many residents of the capital...

Evidently John McCain couldn’t stay awake for the entire movie. If he had he would have discovered that the real heros in the battle for Middle Earth were not the kings, or queens, or any other establishment type. The real heros were the lowly hobbits of the shire, led by Frodo, a reluctant but lion-hearted and trustworthy warrior-poet who was capable of denying himself the corrupting influence of the ring of power. John McCain, you are no Frodo.

Several weeks ago, during the fight over the debt ceiling (remember THAT?), John McCain (Mummy-AZ) gave a speech from the floor of the Senate, during which he ripped into conservatives, calling them "Tea Party Hobbits" and claimed that their refusal to back the GOP plan for the budget would help re-elect Barack Abyss Obama (Joker--Chicago). Conservatives rightly took offense at this remark, seeing that it was intended to be both insulting and dismissive: by comparing the Tea Partiers to hobbits, he was essentially calling them inconsequential, and hoping to imply that they were overestimating themselves. But, like many elitists, especially...

Sen. John McCain was put on the defensive Sunday for comparing some of his GOP colleagues to hobbits during the debt ceiling debate. The Arizona Republican had taken to the Senate floor in July to admonish conservatives for “unrealistic” expectations and quoted a Wall Street Journal editorial that compared them to the characters from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” “What I was talking about, quoting from a Wall Street Journal editorial, was that there was a segment of the Republicans in the Senate — Republican Senators — that said we cannot raise the debt limit until we pass...

Sen. John McCain to hold town hall Tuesday in Goodyear Tuesday, August 23, 2011 3 pm Goodyear Justice Center 185 North 145th Avenue, Goodyear, Ariz. McCain town hall here Monday Monday, August 22, 2011 Noon First Congregational Church 216 East Gurley Street, Prescott, Ariz.

A member of The Greater Phoenix Tea Party politely Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to apologize for calling Tea Party members in the House and Senate "hobbits." McCain, who was quoting the Wall Street Journal, made his comments on the Senate floor. "I am sorry if it was misunderstood. I am not sorry for what I said," McCain said to a heated audience. "I mean, why should I when it’s the facts," Senator McCain added. (video at link)

GILBERT - Arizona Sen. John McCain held a town hall in Gilbert this morning and the economy took center stage. The town hall was focused on the nations' economic troubles and McCain said the on-going financial problems would be much greater had Congress not passed a bill to keep the country from defaulting on its debt. McCain said he is very concerned with the recent S&P downgrade of the United States' credit rating and views it as a wake-up call to the nation. "It will cost more to borrow money and it is a very serious situation," McCain said. McCain...

Local tea party activists felt that Sen. John McCain had some explaining to do. As a result, McCain, R-Ariz., spent some of a town hall meeting at Gilbert Municipal Center on Monday defending his comments last week in the U.S. Senate, where he read from a Wall Street Journal editorial referring to "tea party hobbits." McCain said he quoted the editorial to make a point about some Republicans' insisting on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution in exchange for agreeing to raise the nation's debt limit. "What apology is in order?" McCain responded when asked if he would apologize. "What...

Sen. John McCain defended the Tea Party against Sen. John Kerry’s “tea party downgrade” remark on Meet the Press this morning. “We could have reached an agreement a lot earlier, but the members of the House of Representatives had a mandate last November, and it was jobs and the economy and it was spending. And for them to then agree to tax increases and spending increases was obviously a repudiation of the mandate they felt they had from last November,” McCain said. He said that much of the “dysfunction” in the current political system could be attributed to “the failure...

The Wall Street Journal published a piece recently, which referred to the Tea Party as “Hobbits.” John McCain picked up on it, quoting it on the Senate floor, both virtually tut-tutting about these dear little souls, that just don’t understand how the “real world” works. Pat them on the head and send them to bed. At the risk of looking a little nerdy, let me say that I loved the story as a child, and have been known to engage in a 12 hour marathon of LOTR movies with my kids. It holds enduring appeal because it contains what so...

"I Won in a Historic Landslide and All I Got Was this Lousy Rounding Error." That's the t-shirt that Speaker Boehner should wear based on his debt ceiling plan. The scoring of the second iteration of the Boehner bill gave an estimate of $22 billion in cuts from the CBO baseline for 2012--1/70th of the annual budget shortfall, about five days worth of deficit spending. Despite the bill's nigh irrelevant scope, we are assured by many in the conservative press that those rejecting this deal are "obtuse," "vain," politically dunce "hobbits." "Of course the Boehner bill doesn't solve the debt...

PJTV catches up with CNN contributor and radio host Dana Loesch at the Smart Girl Summit in St. Louis, MO to get her reaction to the Tea Party 'hobbits' and their role in the debt ceiling negotiations

John McCain & the Wall Street Journal attacked the tea party and Christine O'Donnell as HOBBITS, who think they are going to vanquish "Mordor" (the evil kingdom) and return to the Shire. McCain (quoting from the Wall Street Journal) went out of his way to target Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle as the examples of the tea party movement that veteran Senator John McCain was criticizing. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/28/angle-odonnell-slam-mccain-over-tea-party-hobbits-speech/?test=latestnewsBut apparently this national political uproar of insiders viewing tea party political activists as "the little people" who are like "Hobbits" was no accident. Christine O'Donnell's academic interest in Tolkien's use of imagery from...

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.), a Republican presidential candidate, called Saturday morning for Republicans and the Tea Party to stop fighting and work together to help save the country, presumably from Democratic policies, although he was not specific. "On the right, take note," McCotter said on the House floor. "It is as unwarranted and injurious for a Republican to call a Tea Partier a hobbit as it is for a Tea Partier to call a Republican a RINO."McCotter was referring to a comment earlier this month from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who compared Tea Partiers to hobbits. That sparked rebukes from...

The fiery, independent version of the Republican senator from Arizona took to the floor of the Senate Wednesday morning. Demanding “straight talk,” Mr. McCain accused conservatives of abandoning reason by opposing the House Republican leader’s plan to resolve the debt crisis. Mr. McCain mocked Tea Party-allied Republicans in the House for believing — wrongly, he said — that President Obama and Democrats will get the blame for a default if Republicans refuse to increase the nation’s debt ceiling. By that flawed logic, “Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements and the...

It has been quite a while since I read any of the four major books (among Tolkien's other books) that dealt with this saga. It has been quite a while since I have read any of Tolkien's books for that matter. But... I do remember Mordor being a geographical location in Middle Earth, not a being or person that Hobbits "defeated," as McCain put it. I knew this the moment that I heard McCain utter his strange attack on the Tea Party. Hobbits never defeated Mordor... I know that it doesn't matter much, geography of this and all, but if...

BARAD-DUR, MORDOR (HA) — The Wall Street Journal offered this, er, interesting assessment of Tea Party opposition to the John Boehner plan: But what none of these critics have is an alternative strategy for achieving anything nearly as fiscally or politically beneficial as Mr. Boehner’s plan. 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...