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.
There are none.
Seriously?
“To them, there’s no common ground to be had. Obama must be resisted — completely, on everything, and with no room for compromise.”
Shout it from the rooftops!
I thought the results for Richmond city were indicative. Very, very few votes cast. That would indicate to me that there was no organized campaign by the ‘rats to skew the election. If there were, they would have had a lot more ballots cast in an open primary in Richmond.
Excellent point.
The democrats didn’t even HAVE a candidate registered until Tuesday morning.
I guess the RATS followed the same polls Cantor followed.
I also guess TEA has finally learned to lie to or hang up on pollsters.
This exquisite ground-game needs to be repeated, and the ground-game guys need to be financed to share their M.O. with
every candidate of ours that needs it.
I’ve noticed absolutely no comment whatsoever by Tokyo Rove.
But probably not obstructionist enough. It takes a two-thirds majority in Congress to override an executive order.
Not everyone caught Paul Brandus, the author, winking, as he meant to say, "issues that might be used for some reciprocated, political 'back scratching'."
HF
Thank you for the reply. Generally speaking, a district should consider the power their rep has in congress as a factor. This should never guarantee anyone a seat, get rid of bad people or people who advance bad policy by all means. But if Cantor was tolerable - and it seems he was for over a decade - the district lost influence kicking him out. It sure was interesting to see the district pull someone with the power to deliver a lot of pork, that is why I am commenting and reading on the loss. But good for them if they felt he was advancing the wrong policies or generally neglecting his commitment.
Brat does indeed seem like a good guy, and it seems the people of Central VA made a loud statement that the GOP should hear... if they aren’t already tone deaf. I don’t mind it at all, if I can’t have very limited government then give me gridlocked government.
You’re welcome.
The gop wing of the uniparty heard it loud and clear. Unfortunately, they don’t much care. They’re aware of how rare it is for a sitting rep to lose their seat. So they don’t see any particular threat accruing to them personally. The weasel was just unfortunate collateral damage from their perspective.
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