Posted on 06/11/2014 5:51:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
If you think Barack Obama has trouble dealing with House Republicans now, you haven't seen anything yet
Asked his reaction last night to the stunning primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, an Obama administration official offered this: "Who?" That's how quickly the White House has forgotten Cantor, a thorn in the president's side from day one. Don't let the door hit you on... well, you know the rest.
As the president famously reminded Cantor, "elections have consequences," a lesson the Virginia Republican surely knows this morning more than any other. But aside from his humiliating defeat — no sitting House majority leader has lost since 1899 — there is a silver lining: At least Cantor can now partake in the jobless benefits and food stamps that he fought so long and hard for.
But all jokes aside (Cantor is in no danger of going on food stamps, I assure you), the White House probably won't gain much from Cantor's loss. It's not like the seat is really in play now — the winner of the GOP primary, the Tea Partier Dave Brat, will be favored in Virginia's deep red 7th District. With his probable win in November, the House GOP could move even further to the right than it is now. It's hard to believe an uber-conservative like Cantor isn't right-wing enough for the GOP, but there you go.
So if you think Barack Obama has trouble dealing with House Republicans now, you haven't seen anything yet. Not only is the GOP favored to pick up an additional five to eight House seats in November — adding to its 233-199 majority (there are three current vacancies) — it could also pick up four to eight more Senate seats. A gain of six would give the Republicans a majority. Believe it or not, the next Congress could be even more obstructionist than it is now.
This in turn means the lame duck that all presidents eventually become will start quacking quite soon. Issues at the top of Obama's to-do list that Cantor had been working on, such as immigration, are probably dead for now. There was only a slim chance that the House would do much on immigration anyway; but now slim has been reduced to none.
Like him or not, Cantor was also seen as a gifted politician who straddled both wings of the House GOP — the establishment wing led by Speaker John Boehner, and the fire-breathing young guns that swept into town in the wave election of 2010. His loss suggests the war within the Republican party is far from over. The establishment group would prefer to at least talk to President Obama and look for common ground on key issues; the far right sees this as a waste of time. To them, there's no common ground to be had. Obama must be resisted — completely, on everything, and with no room for compromise.
And that's the new worry for the White House: that the last two-and-a-half years of the Obama administration will be even tougher legislatively than ever before. It has been all downhill since 2010, when the Democrats lost Congress, and now it could get worse. For years the White House wished Eric Cantor would go away. His loss is yet another reminder to be careful about what you wish for.
8<)
This guy needs a diaper change.
>> The establishment group would prefer to at least talk to President Obama and look for common ground on key issues; <<
This is the political stance known as “complete and utter capitulation/subjugation” which the eGOP endorses.
“It’s hard to believe an uber-conservative like Cantor isn’t right-wing enough for the GOP, but there you go.”
Not so much to ask that you are a Palin/Cruz Conservative.
Uber conservative???? The left are fools.
Why attempt to negotiate with someone who said “I will not negotiate”?
Was there a Democrat effort to cross party vote in mass for Cantors opponent in mass because they believe their candidate can beat him? Thats a lib tactic in other primaries.
This guy should read Ann Coulter’s commentary on Cantor’s loss. Cantor lost because he pushed for amnesty and immigration reform. These politicians are so far out of touch, they have no idea that people are still hurting, struggling, working hard and don’t want even more competition for the scarce number of jobs out there. They think its 1927, when its really 1933.
Not really. No one expected Brat to be within striking distance. Why spend resources on a race Cantor was going to win in a very conservative district? The ‘rat opponent didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell and still doesn’t.
Full disclosure...I figured this would be closer than what the pre election polls were saying. Maybe even a squeaker. No way I expected to see the weasel lose by 11 points.
I think the book 'The 5000 year leap' explains it best. The left lives in a paradigm where the farthest Left is Communism and farthest Right is Fascism; we live in a paradigm where farthest Left is Tyranny and farthest Right is Anarchy.
The idea of world without big gov't intrusion is incomprehensible to them.
I saw more than the usual numbers of Democrats at my polling place, but would bet they voted for Cantor. Better to keep the known milquetoast.
For those outside Virginia, we do not register or identify people by party - one just has a radar for this sort of thing.
First, it’s bad news for the Rats, then it’s bad news for the Republicans, now it’s bad news for Obama.
You know how it’s really bad news for? Eric Cantor.
You can't be for amnesty and be a conservative. Let's just say that Cantor has flexible principles. Cantor is for Cantor and is willing to say anything to advance that cause. If it's conservative, he's for it, if it's liberal, he's for that. Whatever it takes. But the whiplash is too much for the voters, finally.
Ah, the GOP is the opposition party. It's role is to oppose, not to give in to everything Obama wants. Is that really so difficult to understand.
I did not see Harry Reids name in this article at all. He’s responsible for blocking all action in the Senate. There are dozens of bills passed in the House, which will never see a vote. Harry Reid has blocked ALL, ALL chance for the GOP to offer amendments. This is unprecedented. But no, it’s all the fault of the minority of the House GOP, which identify as Tea Party. The minority of 1/2 of 1/3 of the US Government run the show apparently. What does this say about the absolute weakness of Obama. Doesn’t make that dude look good.
Sounds more like good news for America.
This made my day. Week even.
Ann isn’t from the area and has it mostly wrong. The immigration thing might have been a contributing factor but it wasn’t any one thing. Here are the reasons as I see them;
-First and foremost the weasel overplayed his hand. He tried to play DC power politics in central VA. And it was not appreciated. He treated his district as if it were a DC suburb, not central VA which has a significantly different culture. One of his top political cronies was given the bums rush about a month ago.
-His district was redrawn in 2010. While the legislatures intent was to give him a seat as long as he wanted it, they packed it with too many conservatives and folks who were very much of a traditional Virginia mindset. He also ended up with a lot of new constituents who didn’t know him from Adam and didn’t care.
-The weasel deeply pissed off the gunnies over the years. Very bad move in central VA.While the NRA endorsed the weasel, it was kiss but no tongue. And VCDL and GOA were very much on the side of Brat. Again, this is without a doubt an extremely conservative district and the more vigorous gun rights groups hold more sway.
-Dave Brat is actually a very good candidate. He didn’t make any dumb mistakes, is articulate, and very importantly is of central Virginia culture. He scrupulously minded his manners, worked very hard to talk to people, and played his cards very, very well.
-And yes, the amnesty issue did play a part.
By and large the weasel thought he was a lot hotter property than those in his district did. And he lost as a result.
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