Now here’s an interesting little tidbit.  Minority Whip Eric Cantor has released the House Republicans’ final solution for stopping health care reform: a hit list of 37 Democrats they feel can be swayed to vote against reform.  You can read it here if you’re interested in wasting your own time (beware: pdf).

Now the obvious point is that the Minority Whip is getting a little ahead of himself.  He’s already whipped full opposition to reform in his own minority party and is now trying to do the same for the Democrats.  It doesn’t seem an especially smart strategy considering no one actually thinks reform is likely to fail in the House, the vote wasn’t as close as the numbers would suggest since some moderates who were yeses were allowed to vote no by Democratic leadership, and the likelihood of this strategy of backfiring.  But Cantor has never been one to operate on intellect.

No, the larger picture is just how desperate the Republicans have become to get a political win on this issue.  It’s long been known that parties in other nations that implement universal coverage go on to long periods of electoral dominance as voters tend to be happy with the coverage.  Of course ours isn’t quite universal, but the odds are solid that health care reform when implemented will be incredibly popular and voters will reward the Democrats for passing it for years.  Republicans have everything to lose as they stood against the popular reform from the very beginning, without ever offering their own solutions or input.  They’ve been incoherent in their opposition and have simply said, ‘no.’

It was widely reported that Sen. DeMint called health care reform Obama’s “Waterloo,” but the reality is that he got the parties wrong.  Successful health care reform, if passed, could well be the Republicans’ Waterloo.  Cantor knows this, and he’s desperately flailing to score a political win over the interests of his own constituents.

Eric Cantor, the House of Representatives ringleader for George W. Bush’s failed response to the 9/11 attacks, came out swinging today from his base of no credibility on the issue.  He claimed that President Obama hasn’t been willing to “call a terrorist a terrorist” and insisting the President Obama be more like President Bush.  Seriously.

As for the first claim Cantor is simply mimicking Dick Cheney, and like Cheney, perhaps he should use Google.  As ThinkProgress pointed out, President Obama has used “terror,” “terrorism,” and “terrorist” repeatedly in the past month, including his weekly address and his speech announcing the escalation in Afghanistan.  So Cantor is either lying or not particularly smart.  A good case could be made for either.  Cantor even used the “call a terrorist a terrorist” line twice, meaning he’s truly in love with his lie/stupidity.

As for his other claim, that President Obama should continue Bush’s policies, well, that’s up for him to explain.  I can’t even begin to fathom what he could be talking about that “worked.”  After all, it was under the watch of Bush and the Republicans that 9/11 happened.  It was under their watch that al Qaeda recruitment increased in the Middle East, it was under their watch that the “shoe bomber” made his attempt, and it was under their watch that we lost thousands of troops in an unnecessary war in Iraq without bringing the mastermind of 9/11 to justice.  Pesky details.

But if Cantor really wants to defend Bush’s record, he can have at it.  In fact I’ll donate money to his campaign if he’ll run some ads complaining President Obama isn’t hewing close enough to the Bush line.  It will make quite vivid that Eric Cantor was Bush’s staunchest defender in all of his failures.  After all, who was it that said this immediately after 9/11?

“There are now only two sides. There is no neutral ground. Individuals and nations of the world are either committed to eradicating terrorism and to defending freedom, or they are conspiring with the terrorists and on the side of the enemy.”

If you guessed Eric Cantor in the September 16, 2001 edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, pat yourself on the back.  Cantor is now and has always been a Bush clone.

Cantor 2nd from left, Presgraves on the far right

Well, well, well, the plot may be deepening with regards to Eric Cantor and his corrupt crony Daniel Presgraves, the former Page County, VA sheriff sentenced to prison on charges including racketeering, sexual harassment, and cockfighting.

Last week in the case Judge Conrad granted a request from the US Attorney to seal six letters that were sent in support of Presgraves.  The letters if released would have likely identified some of Presgraves’ victims.  However, the judge took it a bit further and sealed three more letters, hiding the identity of the senders, bringing the total number to nine sealed. The US Attorney’s motion to seal six letters was filed on December 28, and Judge Conrad filed the order to seal the nine on December 30, apparently hoping no one would notice that he added a few.

We know the disgraced former sheriff has deep ties in the Virginia Republican community and especially with Eric Cantor.  We also know that Judge Conrad is a far-right conservative activist judge and was a Bush appointee, once a failed nomination for the 4th Circuit and second for his current post.  Conrad’s wife Mary Ann Conrad has also been a player in the Virginia Republican Party, including serving as a delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention which nominated George W. Bush.

So what do you think the odds are that Judge Conrad is protecting Eric Cantor from being tied too closely to this corrupt criminal?  Based on the corruption the Cantor-Bush cabal display on a nearly daily basis, I’d say the chances are about 50/50.

Cantor 2nd from left, Presgraves on the far right

Bribery. Racketeering. Sexual harassment. Money laundering. Cockfighting.

And all from one pal of Eric Cantor.

Washington Post has the jawdropping story of Daniel Presgraves, former sheriff of Page County, VA, who was sentenced on Friday to 19 months in prison.

The 22-count indictment, returned in October 2008, accused Presgraves of accepting a $500 bribe to protect cockfighting at a pit known as Little Boxwood, sexually harassing a dozen female employees and using inmates from the jail to work on his and relatives’ properties. The indictment also said he conspired to deal marijuana, tipped off a local company about the federal investigation, embezzled $86,410 — including money extorted from the jail’s pay phone vendor — and attempted to launder about $200,000 through complex bank transactions.

Presgraves had become something of a player in the Virginia Republican community.  Eric Cantor is mentioned in the story as one of Presgraves’ “biggest political allies,” having given the corrupt sheriff’s campaign $4,000.

Cantor has a history of shady connections with corrupt Republicans including doing the bidding for Jack Abramoff as he played Indian gambling interests against each other.  It would be nice of some local Richmond newspaper could devote some resources to digging into the connections between Eric Cantor and his corrupt pal.

There’s inevitably more to come on this story.  Stay tuned.

Now this is funny.  Eric Cantor is in high dudgeon today over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton participating in an international commitment to $100 billion for developing nations in the fight against climate change.  As Greg Sargent flags, Cantor’s staffers sent a letter to budget director Peter Orszag questioning the constitutionality of the move.

Did the administration consult with Congress, which under the Constitution must approve all spending, before the commitment was made to fund this new foreign aid program? If so, with whom did the administration consult?

It’s difficult to know exactly what to make of this. But I have a theory.

Perhaps Cantor was seeking clarification because he hasn’t actually read the Constitution.  This is after all the same dim bulb who thinks that military generals decide when the nation goes to war.

Hopefully Mr. Orszag can help explain to the Minority Whip how governance works.

We all got a downright frightening preview of what Eric Cantor and the Bush Republicans will offer America if they are restored to power.  Thinking people (i.e., non-teabaggers) will be terrified.

Eric Cantor attacked legislation to provide jobs and relief for millions of unemployed Americans by attacking programs such as unemployment insurance, COBRA health insurance coverage, and the child tax credit.  Seriously, I wish I was kidding.  His office sent a letter around to press.

The bill includes $79 Billion for safety net programs (more than is actually supposedly dedicated to job creation), including:

* Extension of unemployment benefits through June of 2010;
* Extension of COBRA subsidies through June of 2010;
* Extension of Increased Medicaid Matching Rates (FMAP) from December 31, 2010 to June 30, 2011; and
* Extension of the refundable child tax credit to those with income less than $3,000 (under the original stimulus, families must have at least $3,000 in income to qualify).

This is pretty shocking.  As Steve Benen points out, these programs are inherently stimulative, by putting money directly into the economy and providing the absolute basics to people who desperately need them.  You know, like the estimated 1.6 million jobs the stimulus act created. These unemployed are the people Eric Cantor apparently most wants to deprive.  These are the people who lost their jobs because of Republican policies and Wall Street greed (another Cantor specialty), and now Cantor wants America to essentially abandon them.  Well played, Eric.

These are in many ways programs that came out of the social safety net that America built to rebound from the Great Depression.  And now Eric Cantor and the rest of the Bush Republicans want to tear that apart.  Does anyone think it will end there?  Were Republicans to take power again, these are the “spending cuts” they will implement, and they will branch out into other necessary programs like Social Security and Medicare, both programs Republicans have long targeted (see also: George W. Bush).  It’s pretty shocking that Cantor would come out and telegraph what they really mean by “spending cuts” so clearly.

It’s all so very, dare I say it, Bushian.

The enemy of my enemy is probably my friend, so it appears I have a new friend in the political world.

There’s a new-ish PAC out there aiming to take on what they call “right-wing extremists in the United States Congress.”  And one of those, obviously, is Eric Cantor.  Other targets under their fire are Jean “Birther” Schmidt, Joe “You Lie” Wilson, Michele “HUAC” Bachmann, Steve “Cockfighter” King, and John “Ayn Rand” Campbell.  Good company, Eric.

I haven’t been able to find out a whole lot of information on who’s behind the PAC yet, and I have some feelers out.  I’ll let you know when I know more.  According to the website, it’s the same group of people responsible for taking down Richard Pombo in 2006 and Marilyn Musgrave in 2008.

Visit them here.  Read about them below.  If you believe in their cause, donate to them here.

Stand Up America PAC is a grassroots organization devoted to defeating right-wing extremists in the United States Congress.

In recent years our national discourse has become polluted with right-wing Republican demagogues whose goal is not to move our country forward, but to demean and intimidate their political opponents.

The consequences?  The national dialogue shifts dangerously to the right, potent icons like Joe Wilson emerge to raise money for their fellow Republicans, and the conventional wisdom decides that no candidate is too far right to be electable in moderate districts.  What’s more, so-called moderate Republicans can advocate the most extreme positions, preserving their status as moderates simply by avoiding inflammatory language and baseless smears.

We intend to stand up to these demagogues – and defeat them. The goal is not just to shut them up, but to shut them down.

Stand Up America PAC will raise and contribute funds to progressive Democratic candidates, as well as conduct independent political campaigns aimed at defeating targeted Republicans.

The Stand Up America campaign team is an experienced group that has had great success in defeating Republican zealots like Richard Pombo in California in 2006 and Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado in 2008.

Join us and help improve the debate in our country.

Col. Van Barfoot, a Henrico resident and Medal of Honor winner who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, got into a clash with his homeowners’ association, which forbade him from flying a flag outside of his property.  Senators Warner and Webb both intervened on his behalf, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs used his megaphone to back Barfoot, and the association allowed him to fly the flag.

End of story.

Except Sideshow Eric Cantor decided to pop up, as usual, where he was not needed.  This dingbat, who has a spotty record of working to protect veterans, decided legislation was necessary, so he and equally useless Rep. Buck McKeon proposed House Resolution 952, allowing Medal of Honor winners to fly a flag whenever they wish, which applies to by my estimation  300 people, tops, one of whom ever had problems flying a flag.

I’m not kidding.  After the situation was resolved, Cantor decided to piggyback on it to enhance his political standing.

First of all, remember all those times Cantor whined about Obama thinking about something other than jobs?  Yeah, can’t do that anymore after this silly, useless stunt.

And lastly, this is a pretty obvious example of laying down political cover.  As I mentioned before, Cantor has a bad record of supporting veterans when it matters.  Sure, he’ll vote on some meaningless legislation to pretend like he cares, but when it comes to really putting it on the line, he’s  nowhere to be found.  In fact from 2003-2005, the first years of the disastrous war he supported Bush on, he received a 0 rating every year from the Disabled Veterans of Veterans for NOT supporting veterans.

That’s what this is all about.  All so he could do the easy thing and get a few good media hits without having to do the hard work of providing for veterans.

Artist rendering of Wall Street lobbyist bringing donations to corrupt Rep. Eric Cantor

Steve Benen, who is a remarkable blogger and you should read him daily, flags a wonderful headline from Roll Call.

“House Republicans Huddle With Lobbyists to Kill Financial Reform Bill.”

Yeesh.  You really don’t even have to read the article, the title says it all.

See, Democrats have this weird trait of responding to reality.  They saw an economic collapse happen in 2008.  Because they were paying attention, they ascertained Wall Street firms, their eyes wide with greed, using tricks and gimmicks to make themselves billions with no regard for what it might mean for the nation’s economy.  When it started breaking down, Democrats (mostly) knew where to look.

Republicans blamed Acorn.  Seriously.

So Democrats made the logical conclusion that working to reform a broken, corrupt financial sector was key.  Now Eric Cantor and Republicans are in bed with those same firms (well, technically he’s always been in bed with them; more on that later), and they’re working hard to keep the status quo and more deeply entrench the same system that caused the economic collapse.

Makes sense.  He’s fighting to resurrect Bush’s policies as well.

Read the post here.  The Republican leadership, including Eric Cantor, met with over 100 lobbyists at the Capitol.  The gall is unreal but predictable.  After all, Cantor has long been one of the financial sector’s favorite rep.  He gives them everything they want, and they rewarded him last cycle to the tune of $220,000.

Cantor does not care about regular Americans.  He cares only about himself (and providing bailout money for his wife’s bank) and his rich benefactors.

Eric Cantor was reportedly “unimpressed” by President Barack Obama’s speech today.  Perhaps the problem was all of the big words in it and the fancy, liberal  “ideas.”

See, Cantor’s not big on ideas, not being able to come up with any himself.  He would apparently rather do nothing to stem the tide of unemployment.

And as a counterpoint, this is how a real leader does it.

Cantor apparently thinks Obama’s plan is a “Stimulus 2.”  He clearly can’t effectively process it in the way an adult would, but leave that aside for a second.  Considering the first stimulus has created an estimated 1.6 million jobs and is creating more every day, what exactly is the problem?  Why does Cantor not want to create jobs?

The blogosphere is buzzing with the news Think Progress reported yesterday that Eric Cantor could not think of a single Republican idea for job creation.

Steve Benen offers the day’s most entertaining take with an analogy I wish I had come up with.

Eric Cantor as a congressional leader is a classic example of a post turtle — you know he didn’t get up there by himself; he obviously doesn’t belong up there; he can’t get anything done while he’s there; and you just want to help the poor, dumb thing down.

His “big idea” is an economic environment in which the employment marketplace improves from the recession’s lows? That sounds an awful lot like the stimulus package — which Cantor rejected and continues to trash — which has created as many as 1.6 million jobs in less than a year.

Benen is arguing for a “better opposition,” a point I made a few days ago.  Right now the Democrats are basically alone in the race.  They don’t have that push to compete (except with their own ranks) because the so-called opposition has presented nothing to counterbalance.

Now as to how Cantor got where he is, I haven’t the foggiest.  Sure, the party of old white guys is certainly interested in elevating a young-ish minority to enhance its public image.  He’s fairly unsullied (so far) in his own heavily-Republican district as few know much about him, so he’s not likely to suffer from the additional exposure a leadership position inevitably brings.  He raises lots of money for his party.  But in all substantial ways, he’s a complete disaster.  Utterly inept on television, mealy-mouthed, and woefully unprepared for any policy discussion, he’s proven nothing but an embarrassment to his Republican colleagues.  So why do they keep him up on his post?

C-Ville.com has a fun opinion piece this morning pointing out that several Virginia political figures share some commonalities with those most-famous of party crashers, the Salahi couple, the “walking, stalking metaphor for the entire sad, striving enterprise that is American politics.”

Cantor obviously gets the treatment.

But our favorite has to be U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, who has used his position as House Minority Whip to launch all kinds of unimpressive initiatives and failed leadership groups (National Council for a New America, anyone?), while providing little in the way of, you know, actual accomplishments. And yet, just as Tareq Salahi managed to spin a bankrupt winery into a handshake with the president, so too does Eric Cantor manage to keep his name at the top of many lists of possible 2012 presidential nominees. How he does it, we’ll never know. Maybe it’s the chin.

It says more about the pathetic state of the Republican Party than it does about Cantor that he’s even considered relevant as a future leader.

Think Progress has proven invaluable when it comes to keeping tabs on the right wing.  Today, they uncorked another gem, this one about Eric Cantor.

At a conference sponsored by The Economist, Cantor was asked specifically what ideas he and the Republicans were offering to create jobs.  He’s been making the case that the 600k-1.6 million created by the stimulus didn’t happen and that Republicans had better solutions.  The Congressional Budget Office already put the lie to the first claim, and he did the same for the second himself.

Cantor had literally no answer to what ideas the Republicans would offer.  His “idea,” after some stammering and stalling, was to “create an environment” for job creation.  That’s it.

Pretty embarrassing. Especially so, considering what Cantor has previously done when asked about the economy is to say that the majority Democrats aren’t helping small businesses.  It’s always been a vapid cop-out, intended to distract from Cantor’s lack of ideas.  It’s just so shocking that he made is so explicit.

And rewatch the video.  Notice that when covering for his lack of ideas, he immediately falls back on simple partisan politics.  He claims, despite the GOP having no ideas for jobs, that Republicans are at some sort of electoral advantage because Democrats have to clean up the mess Bush and Cantor helped create.

This is a huge gaffe.  While the effect of the Democrats’ stimulus plan is starting to clearly turn the economy around, Cantor is too busy counting his own votes for an election almost a year away to contribute anything substantial to the conversation.

David Corn slyly poses the question on the lips of thinking people everywhere.  Are the Republicans lying or do they actually not read?

Do Republicans read?

I ask that seriously. The past few days, with the president focused on his White House jobs summit, GOPers have targeted their anti-Obama crusade on the president’s economic record. And their number-one talking point has been this: Obama’s stimulus stinks. [...]

– In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor decried the “failure” of Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package.

Of course Eric Cantor can read.  That’s not in doubt.  But he has the intellectual curiosity of George W. Bush.  Bush was famous for the protective bubble his aides kept him in, making sure he was not swayed by things like “facts” or “reality.” No, it was Fox News and the Washington Times all day long which helped contribute to disaster after disaster.

Eric Cantor shares that mentality. He seems to live in a fantasy world where Bush policies are still the best and didn’t cause three separate economic downturns and that we should try them yet again.  He ignores overwhelming evidence to make claims based on absolutely nothing.

It’s true that politicians often use lies to great advantage. But this batch of Republicans is mugging the truth in the most inelegant manner, as it offers up nothing more than Bush-Cheney retreads: cut taxes, reduce regulations. Voters may be in the mood for a change next fall. But will they want to hand over control to pols who can’t read a CBO report or be bothered to come up with more thoughtful spin?

Couple Cantor’s fantasy with America’s reality.  We saw great news this morning that the unemployment rate went down against all expectations, an obvious signal that the stimulus continues to help alleviate the pain the Bush/Cantor policies caused.  But there’s no way you’d ever see Cantor or anyone in today’s extremist GOP acknowledge reality.

It’s becoming a worrisome trend.  I personally side with the Democratic Party, but for any party to be successful it needs an opposition that can keep it in check by innovating and staying competitive.  This current crop of Republicans, with Rush Limbaugh and Eric Cantor in the lead, are not living in the same reality as the rest of America. Truth is anathema to them, and ideas are not the point.

I wrote yesterday about Cantor’s failed jobs “plan” and how it comes pre-failed.  I briefly touched on how it failed when George W. Bush did the exact same thing from 2000-2008.

Mark Murray at NBC’s First Read fleshes it out a bit more.

The challenge for Cantor and Republicans is that these solutions — low taxes, free trade, and fewer regulations — existed during the Bush years, which saw three different economic downturns (in 2001, 2003, and 2008), and which produced the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades.

That’s exactly right.  There was a time, roughly 18 months ago, when even in Republican circles the Bush brand was completely toxic.  The strategy for the Obama campaign was very explicitly to tie McCain to Bush, portray him as a “third term,” etc.  You saw it all down the line, in Senate and House races, even in local elections.

For a while the strategy of Cantor and the Republicans was to just not propose anything.  They came up with no real plan for health care reform, they proposed nothing to fix the economy; their plan was simple obstruction.  But now Cantor appears to want a higher office.  He’s angling for a presidential run, so he has to come out and make big speeches pretending like he knows what he’s talking about.  But in order to do this, you have to actually propose something, and what he’s proposing is the exact same Bush policy agenda that literally caused the problems we’re currently in the middle of.

It looked like maybe it wasn’t McCain who ran for Bush’s third term.  It just might be Cantor in 2012.

Eric Cantor went on TV.  Eric Cantor lied.

These sentences always work so, so well together.

As Media Matters Action Network points out, Eric Cantor claimed that green energy legislation would be a “job killer.” As usual he does not know what he is talking about.

[A] recent study from UC Berkeley found that pollution reduction and energy efficiency measures would create up to 1.9 million jobs, boost GDP by up to $111 billion and increase families’ incomes by nearly $1,200 per year!

If Eric Cantor spent a little bit more time away from his corporate lobbyist fundraisers and a little more time out in America, he might learn a bit about how the economy actually works.  But perhaps he does know the truth and chooses to lie instead.  Could go either way.

So bad news.  I was all ready to get off work and head on home and uncork a doozy of a piece on Eric Cantor’s silly jobs speech he gave at the far right-wing Heritage Foundation this afternoon.  It was exactly the same as his Republican “plan” for fixing the economy and his Republican “plan” for healthcare reform: nothing more than warmed-over GOP talking points which will devastate the country.  In fact these ideas already did devastate the country when George W. Bush tried them.

The bad news is Salon beat me to this critique it in a big way.  In a post titled “Eric Cantor’s magic pony jobs plan,” Andrew Leonard absolutely savages Cantor’s continued lack of ideas.  I could go through the seven “planks” or whatever Cantor put forth in his “no-cost plan” to fix the economy but really, what’s the point?  It’s not a serious plan; it’s just another attempt by the Minority Wimp to get his face on TV and “win the day,” Politico-style.

I’ll let Mr. Leonard take it from here:

To recap: Cut regulations. Freeze spending. Cut taxes. No new taxes. That’s the plan.

[...]

Cantor says the Obama stimulus has failed. Just two days ago, the Congressional Budget Office (which Cantor approvingly referred to a “neutral” in his speech) declared that the stimulus had worked — that it had added 1.2-3.2 points of GDP growth that would otherwise have not occurred and added 600,000 to 1.6 million jobs.

So without the stimulus, judging from the CBO report, one can assume that the economy would still be contracting, and unemployment would be higher than it is now. But in Eric Cantor’s world, with Republicans in control, slashing regulations and freezing spending, we’d be better off. Why not? In a world where “no cost” solutions are possible, anything can happen.

Read the whole thing.  It’s great. If Cantor thought he was making a serious effort to present himself as a candidate to be reckoned with for anything beyond his current spot, he’s sadly mistaken.

Yeah, that’s the headline.  Enjoy it.  But the problem here is not with Eric Cantor.

The right wing is all up in arms, soiling their diapers over a Politico article from yesterday asserting that Nancy Pelosi spent almost $3,000 on flowers.  See, what happened was that Politico got their stupid little hands on a filing of how members of Congress spent the money they’re allotted for office expenses, staff salary, etc. and then farmed out the analysis to two of the worst writers they could find.

These two picked out, in true GOP fashion, the biggest, most shocking numbers they could find in an obvious attempt to drum up a Drudge Report headline.  This is what the “journalists” at Politico do on a regular basis because with them, it’s never about breaking the story of what’s really going on in DC or explaining the meaning of policy or making government more accessible.  No, it’s journalistic prostitution.  They point out the silliest thing they can find ($2,993 for flowers! Health care bill is 1,900 pages long! Isn’t that crazy!) and equally stupid Republicans eat it up as if it matters.

And, yes, part of this jaw-droppingly awful story is that Cantor spent over $24,000 on food between June and October.  Pelosi spent over $30,000 but as they point out, she entertains numerous dignitaries as Speaker.  And apparently Cantor spent a whole bunch of money on products from Congressional Quarterly.  What these two nimrods fail to point out is that as Minority Whip, Cantor has a great official need for such products which analyze the inner workings of Congress.

And on top of all of this, they had to issue a correction to the numbers comprising the primary focus of the piece.  I shit you not.

God, this piece is so stupefying I have to stop somewhere, so this is a good spot.  Read it to see how bad DC journalism can be.

Back from Thanksgiving break and what in my Google Reader should appear but a Politico profile featuring me.

Titled “Hater sites take flight,” Politico (the TMZ of DC) writer Erika Lovley profiles a few bloggers who oppose single candidates.  She contacted me a while back with some questions, and I happily obliged.  Here’s the key segment:

Consider Where’s Eric Cantor?, published by Bradley Herring, a 30-year-old video editor for the liberal group Media Matters who tries to spend time nearly every day commenting on — or more precisely, disparaging — Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

A sampling of recent posts includes references to Cantor as a “noted partisan hack and corrupt politician,” “a preening little twerp” and a “zombie liar.”

After launching the blog in 2007, Herring says, his site has worked its way into becoming one of the top 10 entries in a Google search of the House minority whip’s name.

“After Sept. 11, … I saw my home representative leading the charge in the disastrous policies of the Bush administration and serving as his loyal lieutenant in the House,” said Herring, who recently moved out of Cantor’s district but still maintains the blog. “Cantor’s biggest fault was how out of touch with his district he had become, spending so little time with his constituents and so much time raising money for other Republicans. Hence the name Where’s Eric Cantor?”

Pretty fair, I guess.  I’m particularly pleased she pulled out “preening little twerp” as I was very proud of that one.  I don’t necessarily agree that it’s a “hater” site; it’s more informative in a proudly biased way.  A hater site would simply call Eric Cantor a “liar.” My site points out all the wonderful ways he is one.

Later in the piece, she gets a quote from a “senior strategist” for Cantor:

“We just don’t pay much attention to it. He just reprints [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] press releases,” Cantor senior strategist Ray Allen said, referring to the anti-Cantor site. “Virginia has a lot of very active bloggers in the community that we do pay attention to. This is not one of them.”

Ha!  Cantor has a “senior strategist.”  What on earth do you think that guy does?

Eric Cantor, noted partisan hack and corrupt politician, spoke at the recent job fair he hosted in Culpeper, Virginia and called the stimulus plan an “utter failure.”

This is daffy on a number of levels.  First off, many of the employers at Cantor’s job fair weren’t actually hiring.  Some might say that’s an “utter failure” on the part of Eric Cantor.

And here’s another fun little piece!  Nearly half of those at the job fair were hiring because of stimulus money, thus providing jobs to Cantor’s own constituents because of what Cantor calls “an utter failure.”

And of course as the New York Times pointed out the other day, a broad consensus has formed that the stimulus has in fact worked to create jobs and slow the economic collapse.

So what exactly is Cantor talking about?  He can’t mean that the stimulus program hasn’t worked as advertised because it so clearly has.  Could he be– GASP!– lying while trying to take credit for stimulus-created jobs?

Call it a zombie lie, and Eric Cantor is its zombie liar.

Since he successfully pressured every Republican representative to vote against fixing the economy, Cantor has been claiming that the stimulus has “failed.”  Despite the long-term nature of it, and despite the obvious signs of the economy rectifying itself after nearly falling apart late last year, he and other Republicans kept crowing that they were right.

And now the New York Times has put together the definitive case that …

…with roughly a quarter of the stimulus money out the door after nine months, the accumulation of hard data and real-life experience has allowed more dispassionate analysts to reach a consensus that the stimulus package, messy as it is, is working.

It’s an impressive case, and you (and Eric Cantor) should read the whole thing.  What’s perhaps most impacting is the case made that tax cuts, which Republicans wanted the whole stimulus program to be, are far less effective than direct spending which produces more in economic activity than the real dollar costs.

Don’t hold your breath for Cantor to concede this obvious defeat.  That’s what an adult would do.  That’s what someone for whom the truth actually matters would do.

I wrote yesterday about the pathetic charade Eric Cantor engaged in over the “doc fix,” the permanent measure to make sure Medicare doesn’t slash payments to doctors.  Cantor and other Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee supported it before, yet for political reasons they decided yesterday  to oppose the completely necessary measure.

It turns out Cantor was actually on the House floor berating another representative Michael Burgess of Texas, the lone Republican to vote for the measure.  See, Burgess is a physician and has long fought for the same fix to help keep Medicare benefits from being cut.

As reported in The Hill, Cantor, the Minority Whip in control of making sure the Party of No votes in lockstep against everything to help fix the economy and the health care system, was seen “having words” with Rep. Burgess on the House floor.

In Eric Cantor’s disturbed world, it’s much more important to intimidate other representatives on the house floor than to work to improve the country and pass legislation he previously supported.  Surprised?

In case you weren’t paying attention, Congress today passed a “doc fix” for health care, preventing a 21% cut in Medicare payments to doctors.  This is what’s considered “a good thing.”  Unless of course you’re Eric Cantor and trying to make a political point.

See, Eric Cantor supported it several months ago when he and other  members of the Ways and Means Committee voted on it as a separate, Republican-introduced bill which basically duplicated what was already in the Democrats’ health care plan.  The Republicans were trying to make a political point by allowing their members to vote on what is unquestionably a good thing, giving them cover to vote against the same thing as included in the full bill.

Don’t get it?  Well, you can read all about it from one of the best health care blogs out there which is where I drew most of my information.

Cantor of course flipped out and cried heartily.  He was steamed about having to support something that came from Democrats despite the fact he had already supported it.  But now since it suits him politically, he’s opposed to making it permanent that we continue Medicare at its current benefit level.

Republicans offered their own fix which didn’t fix the problem, merely pushed it down the road.  Anyone surprised?

So, yeah, basically what I said yesterday.  The DCCC is leveling a new attack on Cantor for his “hypocrisy.” I would throw in “liar” but you know, different strokes.

The Washington Post reports that, once again, a showpiece job fair drummed up for a cushy Cantor photo op, is featuring a whole bunch of employers hiring after receiving stimulus money.  You know, the same stimulus Eric Cantor says isn’t helping employment.

“The continuing hypocrisy from Republican leaders, like Eric Cantor, who try to block solutions in Washington and then take credit for them back home, is reaching epidemic proportions,” said Jesse Ferguson, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “If Representative Cantor’s ‘Party of No’ policies were in effect, this event would have been an unemployment fair not a jobs fair.”

Another day, another story about what a hypocritical liar Eric Cantor is.  Maybe he should stick to fundraising and not open his mouth about topics he’s completely ignorant of.

So every time you see Eric Cantor, as he did today, squawking about “jobs” and “deficit,” please keep in mind some simple facts about Mr. Cantor.

First, Eric Cantor was a loyal lieutenant in the Bush regime, helping to force through the massive deficit spending in the form of tax cuts for the rich that did nothing to increase employment and led to the massive economic collapse.  In fact the only thing Cantor wants to do NOW to stimulate the economy is more tax cuts for the rich, despite 6 years of his Republican ideas shattering the middle class.

Secondly, Eric Cantor, as House minority whip, was responsible for making sure that, for political purposes, no Republican worked with President Obama in passing measures to stimulate the economy.  They presented no plan of their own except for one pamphlet of talking points that presented no actual numbers.

Thirdly, Eric Cantor, known to his colleagues proudly as “Dr. No,” led the opposition to the stimulus eventually forcing it to be scaled back.  Despite the numerous economists who claimed it should be bigger, Cantor is literally crying about how it did not do enough.  In fact what success the stimulus has achieved, and coupled with other legislation it has unarguably forestalled a full-scale economic collapse, was done through Democratic perseverance in the face of a Republican opposition, led by Eric Cantor.

So with all that known, the fact that Eric Cantor’s policies caused the mess we’re in, the fact that Cantor chaired the efforts to say “no” to every job-creating bill, and the fact that Eric Cantor worked day and night to make the stimulus and the president fail, just try taking this preening little twerp seriously.

Oh, wait.  He did hold a job fair with numerous companies hiring after taking stimulus money.   As usual, it’s all about politics with this guy, never about what will help the middle class.

Attentive

I get a lot of email from people, both inside and outside the district, bemoaning the fact that such a pathetic representative pretends to serve their interest in Washington, DC while not actually representing anyone but himself and his cronies.  Some I have printed before, more I will in the future.

But this morning in the Culpeper Star-Exponent is a letter to the editor absolutely brutalizing Cantor over his opposition to any meaningful health care reform.  Here’s a taste:

Then again, maybe this total disregard for his constituency is something we should expect from Mr. Cantor.  After all, he recently proved his “patriotism” by fiddling with his Blackberry during our president’s state of the union address. If he doesn’t have enough respect for the highest office in our land, why should we expect he would have any respect for us, the community that trusted him enough to vote him into office?

I urge you to click the link and read the whole thing.  These are the people that Cantor simply will not respond to because, as I said, he doesn’t pretned to represent anyone but himself and the people who give him his huge campaign contributions.  Good for Suzanne Lewis of Culpeper.  I can’t think of a rep who deserves it more.

Lee Fang asks the question of the day: Does Eric Cantor provide abortion services for his employees?

See, the right wing is up in arms that, after fighting to prohibit any federally subsidized insurance money from abortion services, the Republican National Committee’s own employee insurance program provides abortion services to those who wish to have it.  The hypocrisy is striking.  Various wingnuts are calling for rescinding all contributions to the RNC, an act I wholeheartedly agree should continue.

The question is posed then to the House leadership.  Do they provide their own staff with access to standard, legal care for women or are they complete hypocrites?  Lee notes that Cantor uses Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield for his employees’ health care, and they do provide coverage for elective abortions with an opt-out clause.

So what is it, Cantor?

The Anti-Defamation League, a non-partisan NGO committed to fighting anti-Semitism and bigotry around the world, has called out Republican leadership, especially Eric Cantor, for his refusal to forcefully condemn the hate-filled signs featured by Republican operatives in their health care protest at the US Capitol.

In the letter they addressed to John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and other Republican members of Congress, the ADL pleaded with the representatives to use their “stature and platform as national political leaders to reject and condemn the use of Holocaust imagery for political purposes, and to urge your supporters to find other ways to communicate their views.”

It will be fascinating to see if Cantor actually responds, but I would put the odds of that as very low.  Cantor is only interested in what’s politically expedient for him, and right now in order to be a Republican, you must cater to the far-right, hate-filled tea partiers.  There are already rumblings of a tea party shock trooper running against Cantor from the right, and he needs to keep his base, the frothing Republican extremists, satisfied that he is one of them.  He’s ultimately too cowardly to truly distance himself from his hateful base.

Really, CNN?  This is what you consider news?

CNN.com has a breathless profile piece on Eric Cantor, shedding basically no insight into either him or his politics.  The thrust of the piece is that Cantor’s colleagues believes he has his sights higher than Congress.  Seriously.  That’s it.  Had anyone at CNN actually been paying attention just last year, they would have known that Eric Cantor and his staff appear to have floated the rumor that Cantor was being considered in the running for John McCain’s vice presidential pick while he was actually never considered.  In fact his ambition for such rumored glory appears to have been a joke within the McCain camp.

Read the whole piece, it’s spectacular.  CNN is doing an intro piece to the number two Republican in the House.  It’s basically what you would expect a high school reporter to write if he got the chance to interview the head cheerleader who was running for class president.

This is CNN.

Slow day in Cantor news.  He’s probably off doing fundraisers or something.  So here’s an old gem for your viewing pleasure.

Chris Matthews sure loves making inadequate Republicans look like babbling dunces from time to time.

From February, 2007 Matthews tried to pin Cantor down on whether or not he thought we should attack Iran.  Cantor refused to take it off the table, not answering the question.  In Matthews’ fashion he proceeded to hound him on the topic.  Cantor said, “Chris, I’ll leave that decision up to the commanders on the ground.”  He then apparently realized how idiotic (and unconstitutional) what he said was, so he dug the hole deeper by saying it’s up to the commander-in-chief.  A simple reading of the constitution would show him that he’s wrong.  It’s up to congress.

Under Article 1, Section 8 “Powers of Congress” of the US Constitution:

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

It was then, and still is now, an embarrassment to the state of Virginia and the rest of the nation that this man, who doesn’t even understand what middle schoolers know about his own country, is in Congress.