Stories to Watch: 7/27/11

A lot of things will happen if the US loses our AAA credit rating.None of them are good.

House GOP compare themselves to a street gang beating people up. Not the best PR move ever.

Cranky old Grampa McCain tells the right kids to get off his lawn for once. He rails against the Tea Party and GOP leadership on the Senate floor — which is good — but in the process unfairly maligns hobbits.

Boehner responds all the “rudderless House Republicans” headlines by saying that a lot of Tea Party freshmen want to force a default. Is Boehner really worried about this or is he just using crazy ‘baggers to play “good cop/bad cop?” I honestly don’t know.

16th minute alert: Tea Party rally-goers answer the call to show grassroots opposition to any plan that falls short of ‘bagger purity. How did that go? Not well. “At the start of the rally, which was organized by the American Grassroots Coalition and Tea Party Express, there were roughly 15 attendees waiting to hear… conservative lawmakers speak,” Politico reports. “By the time the senators had spoken there were still fewer than 50 tea partiers in attendance.”

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is headlining a Tea Party event in Iowa. If you figure the DCs rally and the attendance of Palin’s movie, expect upwards of dozens to attend.

Although the president has ruled it out, House dems call on Obama to invoke the 14th amendment and raise the debt limit on his own.

Finally, think you aren’t going to get enough drama, histrionics, and stupidity out of the debt limit debate? Cheer up, the gas tax renewal is right around the corner… So there’s a another chance for Republicans to run up the deficit, so they can complain about it later.