One thing is clear from the detailed dissection of the immigration bill and the inside baseball deal brokering behind the scenes: this is tense and ugly.

One things is now also crystal clear: McCain mirrors both of these traits.

As if the screaming match from John F. McCain wasn't enough, the AZ Senator tries to hang with the blogging crowd by pulling out a trio of half-legitimate issues and performing his own mash-up insult on Mitt Romney.

In case you missed it here's the audio:



Dean Barnett sees this as a key milestone (or millstone) for the McCain campaign:

Aaah, as Robert Duvall said in Apocalypse Now, I love the smell of a campaign imploding in the morning. At least I think that was the quote.

I'm not that optimistic. McCain still has the ground game (which in my book is the only game in town).

The offending quote is this:

"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes... maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard."

That is an insult, plain and simple. McCain makes his own blogger mash-up adding in a misguided flip-flop, a 2nd amendment non-issue, and a borderline bigoted immigration swipe. It's both tense and ugly. Tense because he knows the mass of people pounding his phone and ugly because it is, ugly.

Ken Madden, spokesman for Romney, has this to say:

“Governor Romney has been very clear that he opposes this immigration agreement, which clearly falls short of the American public’s expectations. It seems that certain candidates who brokered this flawed plan are having a very difficult time grappling with or coming to terms with the political fallout that has ensued in a substantive manner.”