Tag: eric cantor

Eric Cantor’s loss shows why DC pundits should follow @AoSHQDD.

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I was surprised, too.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s unexpected drubbing in the Virginia Republican primary, and the ensuing flood of breathless new stories, marathon TV talkfests and overdrawn analyses trying to explain it and its implications, laid bare a serious flaw in political news reporting these days: It is way out of touch with the average voter.

If it were in touch, many Washington reporters would have picked up pre-election clues from real people that Cantor was in trouble.

…but I at least saw the possibility of this race going to interesting place, thanks to the folks over at AoSHQ’s Decision Desk. While I thought to myself, Well, if Brat had maybe a week more he’d be able to pull it off, I was still made sufficiently wary enough that I didn’t go with my first impulse and call it for Eric Cantor the second the polls closed. Moral of the story: pay attention to @AOSHQDD.

Eric Cantor is being an adult about losing.

Bit of a relief, honestly, after some of the stuff that some quote-unquote Republicans have done after losing a primary.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he has no “regrets” after a crushing primary loss that cost the Virginia Republican his job.

Instead Cantor says he’s looking forward to helping Republicans keep the House and take back the Senate, saying he even planned to vote for the tea party challenger, David Brat, who unseated him.

Continue reading Eric Cantor is being an adult about losing.

Eric Cantor will not pursue a write-in candidacy. People should say ‘Thank you.’ #va07

Because you have to positively reinforce, too.

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told key aides and trusted former staffers on Wednesday that he will not try his luck with a write-in campaign after his shocking GOP primary defeat at the hands of largely unknown tea party-backed economics professor Dave Brat.

“I am not going to do a write-in. I am a Republican and proud of that,” a source familiar with the Virginia Republican’s message quoted him as saying in a closed-door meeting.

Continue reading Eric Cantor will not pursue a write-in candidacy. People should say ‘Thank you.’ #va07

So… Eric Cantor loses to Dave Brat in VA-07.

I’m not going to even remotely pretend that I’m not flabbergasted. I did not see that coming. Fortunately, I also stayed out of the dang primary, as near as I can remember. One thing to be surprised; it’s another to tuck into a big dinner of crow.

A couple of observations. First two:

And the third is that everybody’s going to have an answer on why this happened; but some of those answers are going to be a little bit of a stretch. For example: the Democrats barely have a candidate for this race (they got this guy picked by the local committee and now have to get him established on the ballot), which suggests that shenanigans by the Democrats were, at best, ad hoc. I would have had a state senator or representative prepped and ready to go.

So, basically, it could just simply be that the voters have chosen. Like they’re supposed to, you know, do.

Moe Lane

PS: Needless to say: Dave Brat for VA-07.

Is there a better category than “Safe Republican?”

Because if so, Eric Cantor just hit it:

doofus

You don’t walk into a R+10 district and tell a bunch of lawful gun owners that they’re actually a bunch of illiterate bigoted losers who have to wear white sheets to cover up their failure*. Unless you’re an idiot, of course.

:cough cough: “Get over,” as opposed to “Get off.” :cough cough:

Moe Lane

*If you’re a member of a minority group and you’re curious about how the NRA feels about you being armed, go ask one. Just be warned: the average NRA member will do his or her best to turn that discussion into a shopping trip.

Eric Cantor: Here’s a 3-month debt ceiling increase. Use it to pass a budget, Senators.

Or you don’t get paid.

“The first step to fixing this problem is to pass a budget that reduces spending. The House has done so, and will again. The Democratic Senate has not passed a budget in almost four years, which is unfair to hardworking taxpayers who expect more from their representatives. That ends this year.

“We must pay our bills and responsibly budget for our future. Next week, we will authorize a three month temporary debt limit increase to give the Senate and House time to pass a budget. Furthermore, if the Senate or House fails to pass a budget in that time, Members of Congress will not be paid by the American people for failing to do their job. No budget, no pay.

There’s a lot of arguments going on right now about the best thing for Republicans right now (I default to agreeing with Ieyasu when it comes to birds that will not sing), but one thing that absolutely must change is that we have to find some way to make Senate Democrats do their damned jobs. If you don’t like this method of getting them to pass a budget, by all means: feel free to suggest a better one.

One that might work.

Moe Lane Continue reading Eric Cantor: Here’s a 3-month debt ceiling increase. Use it to pass a budget, Senators.

E.J. Dionne finds an acorn on debt ceiling.

Ignore the rest of his article on the ongoing debt ceiling controversy – Dionne is the kind of person who is comfortable trying to portray House Majority Leader Eric Cantor as being some kind of Machiavellian mastermind running a shadowy conspiracy to control the Republican party behind the scenes, if you know what I mean* – but as Mickey Kaus notes, Dionne’s got a good (if probably unintended) idea here for putting President Obama on the hot seat:

…Cantor takes every domestic spending cut that was discussed as part of the negotiations with Vice President Joe Biden, declares that the administration has blessed them, and packages them together for a vote.

Dionne calls this a worrisome scenario: I call it a good idea that hasn’t really been assessed and discussed yet by us folks over here at the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, which is why I’m highlighting it now.

Thanks, E.J. Dionne!  If this works out, maybe we’ll buy you a fruit basket or something.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*And I think that you do.

Eric Cantor on deficit: progress, and no tax hikes.

Allow me to summarize for my readers this Hill article (“Cantor to Democrats: See, cutting spending’s not that hard”) on some hopeful (repeat: hopeful) signs of deficit reduction on the horizon:

Eric Cantor: …See, cutting spending’s not that hard*. And there’s not going to be any tax hikes.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: …OK, now that you’ve getting spending cuts, we want our Holy Grail, too. Raise taxes!

To which let me add:

Moe Lane: Not a chance on this world, or any other.

Continue reading Eric Cantor on deficit: progress, and no tax hikes.

Cantor, Kyl, and NO OTHER REPUBLICANS to deficit panel.

The AP doesn’t really explain the significance of the fact that the GOP is sending just House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl to the President’s much-ballyhooed deficit reduction panel, so let me do it.

When the President set up this thing in the first place, he told the four party leaders in Congress – Speaker Boehner (R) and Minority Leader Pelosi (D) in the House; Majority Leader Reid (D) and Minority Leader McConnell (R) in the Senate – to each send four Congressmen to it, for a total of sixteen.  That effectively translates to “President Obama’s deficit reduction panel was intended to be ineffectual:” you generally cannot get sixteen people to agree on anything.  While Congressional Democrats theoretically were taking this panel more seriously [by only sending two apiece] – well.  The Senate Democratic picks are Inouye and Baucus, which as the NYT notes are both hostile to the idea of deficit talks.  Pelosi picked Van Hollen and Clyburn, which are described as obedient mouthpieces for the former Speaker (who herself hates the idea of deficit reduction) by that noted right-wing shill The Huffington Post.  So that’s the Democratic side.

Continue reading Cantor, Kyl, and NO OTHER REPUBLICANS to deficit panel.

DNC risks dead GOP Congressman… for $505.

Even the amount is insulting.

As you have undoubtedly heard by now, the FBI has arrested one Norman Leboon for death threats made against Congressman Eric Cantor, in the wake of the Democratic National Committee’s fear-mongering fundraising drive regarding… threats of organized GOP violence. This is not, by the way, the first time that Leboon has fallen for the Democratic’s party cynical agitprop; he was one of the plaintiffs in an anti-FISA lawsuit a few years back. So there’s a history there of him believing whatever nonsense that the Democrats fed him.

Well. Turns out he’s an Obama contributor from 2008, too. See here for the H/T, and see here for a video where he identifies himself as “Norman Leboon Sr.”  Sounds good enough to avoid the question mark I had in the title, so I’d like to ask Brad Woodhouse of the Democratic National Committee something (seeing as he was the guy who so publicly dismissed the need to ratchet down the rhetoric): what are you going to do to get rid of this blood money, Brad?  I mean, personally.

And another question: what were you going to say to Eric Cantor’s wife if the FBI hadn’t caught this guy in time?  Assuming that it wouldn’t have been a moot point anyway.

Brad.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.