Eric Cantor had fashioned himself as a conservative for many years. But the cracks began to appear almost as soon as Obamacare was passed in 2010. Brand new in the job of House Majority Leader in 2011, Obamacare was Cantor’s first big “conservative” obstacle, which he has yet to learn how to negotiate. It is still out there, staring him down. This and Immigration will likely define him, which is why he’s facing a primary challenge from Dave Brat this year. It’s unlikely Cantor ever will ever surmount this these obstacles and for good reason. Like Obama, three years is plenty of time to show you have the right stuff, and it simply doesn’t seem to be there for Eric Cantor. There is simply too wide a gulf between his lip service and his actions.
Still, the word is that he really covets the Speaker’s gavel, which seems only to illuminate the paucity of his strategic vision, for he is always conflicted between the good of the country and personal ambition.
Like John Boehner, Cantor is inextricably wedded to the party’s wishy-washy reputation for turning tail on almost every confrontation with the Left once the talk is over and the shirt-sleeves are rolled up.
I first introduced Dave Brat here in January concerning the expected sell-out by the GOP leadership on immigrations, a work still in progress. Cantor is still pushing their plan as a conservative solution, and for what it’s worth, it is a plan I could live with if I could only trust the brokers (Cantor and Boehner) to deliver the goods they’re promising right now. Only no one believes they will, or even intend to. And that is where the line between the GOP Establishment and the citizenry base rests; lack of trust and a fear of saying “no” to illegal immigration, choosing instead a false canard, namely that the Latino community will turn on them. That is a lie, yet the GOP clings to it much like the White House does the video story from Benghazi. The fear of being labeled by pathological liars (the media), worse, seeking their approval, is the stuff for couch analysts, but interestly, it’s Obamacare that has magnified the people’s understanding of this pathology deep within the GOP leadership.
So it’s not Eric Cantor’s policy positions, but his fecklessness that is his major rub, and why I think voters should consider Dave Brat to be a good replacement. The next four years may be four of the most crucial years in American history…and I think voters instinctively understand that protecting the economic and political status of our side’s leaders cannot be allowed to be the most important factors in their leaders’ decision making. We can’t afford this any longer.
It’s not Cantor’s words that offends, but the hollowness of his intentions in keeping his word, literally from one day to the next. He has a worm-like quality that cause everyone to blanche at having to take him on faith about anything. With Eric Cantor everything is political. He has the moral compass of a Bristol doxie.
Which makes Eric Cantor’s early ad campaign against Dave Brat all the more strange. It may well have backfired, for you see, Cantor had never had to run against a Republican before, worse, a Republican to his right, which puts his conservative masque at risk among his conservative followers in Virginia’s 7th District.
So he’s felt the need to spend money, and spend money early (the past six weeks), in order to paint Dave Brat as being to his left, while still trying to convey that Brat is a also microbe, hardly worth noticing at all. Thanks to these ads, Brat is now also a household name in the district, and voters are generally aghast at the things Cantor has said about Brat being a liberal solely because he sat on an economics panel under former governor Tim Kaine.
In defense of sitting on a council appointed by a leftist governor, I’d sure take such a job. In a heartbeat. I always think of F A Hayek who was the token “conservative” (European liberal) on various socialist economic councils. Still, no slander ever accused Hayek of being soft on socialism. His writings spoke for him loud and clear, as does Brat’s. Now, if Brat had hung out with Kaine, or swapped wives, or used the same bookie, or plotted together on stealing votes, or helped a phony libertarian defeat a fellow Republican, as Cantor has done, I’d think twice about Dave Brat as a conservative candidate. If Cantor had such a smoking gun, trust me, he would have used it. Like Obama with Benghazi, his campaign has gone all-in just by the mendacity of this lie.
But consider the hutzpah, the sheer hypocrisy of Cantor’s charges against Brat, when one of his top aide left his employ in 2013 to help Terry McAuliffe (Democrat, Clinton crony and aluminum siding salesman par excellence) defeat Ken Cuccinelli, of Cantor’s own party, and a decidedly greater conservative than himself. In this light, his ad is one of the grossest acts of hypocrisy since Barack Obama sang “Away in the Manger”.
If you don’t already know, the Cuccinelli was nominated for governor directly by the Republican base, a process against which Cantor operatives are struggling to undo right now. It’s all a part of the Virginia Establishment GOP’s attempt, led by Cantor chief aide, Ray Allen, to cannonball the conservative base and put them back in their place. That fight continues, but this election tomorrow has much to say how it will play out. The Republican Party is nearing a crossroads in Virginia, and believe it or not, Dave Brat has a role to play in it.
On election eve, the race is much tighter than most think. But Cantor should still win, although I expect Brat will get another go at it after Cantor retires, maybe as soon as 2016, since from his showing in this election, and the craven way he was shown himself in front of his colleagues, who he’s supposed to be leading, he may (will) likely lose his leadership post come January. In that case, he will find his old office cleaned out, and moved to another one, far down the hall. Next to the broom closet.
All in all, I think God is still a God of justice. And with a sense of humor, to boot.
