Cantor gets Brat-wursted

[Scooter]

RICHMOND, Va. — It wasn’t enough that Eric Cantor spent $1 million in the weeks leading up to the election, when his conservative foe hardly had $100,000 in his campaign coffers.

It didn’t matter that the House majority leader, 51, branded Dave Brat a liberal hack, and himself as the guardian of the Republican creed. On Tuesday night, Cantor, who was swept into power on a tea party wave, was swept out by the same movement.

Around 8 p.m., the Associated Press pronounced Cantor’s 13-year political career over. Cantor lost the primary to Brat — a university professor who will now be the GOP nominee for the 7th district of Virginia. He’ll have a big edge in November in a heavily conservative seat.

Eighty percent of the vote was in, and Brat was up 56 to 44 percent.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/e ... z34Htr0IKf

it couldn't have happened to a more deserving twat. Except, perhaps, John Boehner.

And attempting to label anyone backed by the Tea Party as a liberal makes him a moron, in itself deserving of the pasting he received at the polls.

[Grim Reaper]

On the one hand, the soon the Tea Party falls apart, the better.

But on the other hand, watching the Republican Party beating itself up is pure entertainment.

[Lord Jim]

Needless to say, I found this quite disheartening...

It came as pretty much a political shock; polls had shown Cantor with a 20 point lead...it appears he didn't start taking the threat seriously until it was too late..

It's very unfortunate , because it will no doubt help to breath life into a Tea Party that was rolling up a pretty strong record of failure this year, (Lindsey Graham, another Tea Party target took 59% of the vote in his primary, avoiding a runoff last night ) and of course the press played this up like it was the only story of the night.

It will also have a cowering effect on many non-Tea party GOP members of Congress; any chance for the passage of an Immigration Reform Bill this year was probably was sunk last night.

Cantor's defeat , (not because I have any great love for Kantor, but because of the larger implications and effects it will have) was both bad for my party, and bad for the country.

[Econoline]

To put things in perspective: the vote in the Virginia 7th District race was Brat - 36,110 / Cantor - 28,898.

This website listed the following information (from the Virginia State Board of Elections website):

Virginia District 7 .... 2/1/2014
#of Precincts in District: ... 234
# of Active Voters: .....473,032
# of Inactive Voters: .... 31,863
# of Total Voters: ...... 504,895

So about 8% of the district's registered voters, voted for David Brat.

[Scooter]

That's fine, but he will still in all likelihood win the seat this November. And if such low voter turnouts are the norm in safe Republican seats, then that bodes extremely well for Tea Party challengers who will almost always be better at motivating their loony followers to get out and vote for them than their more sane Republican brethren, to then go on to win in the general.

[Crackpot]

The seat could possibly go democrat if this guy has foot in mouth disease (he isn't even answering basic policy questions at the moment) all he has to do is say enough things so stupid that it both depresses his own voters ans energizes your opposition.

[Guinevere]

Bratt's post-election comments (as reproduced on NPR this morning) made my hair stand up on end. Please save us from these loonies!

And LJ -- the Tea Party isn't doing that badly. They are most certainly gaining a Senator in WV, at a minimum.

[Scooter]

It's very unfortunate , because it will no doubt help to breath life into a Tea Party that was rolling up a pretty strong record of failure this year, (Lindsey Graham, another Tea Party target took 59% of the vote in his primary, avoiding a runoff last night ) and of course the press played this up like it was the only story of the night.

Because clearly, the fact that a 20 year Congressional veteran was able to fend off a "challenge" from six no-name competitors who were all too incompetent to coalesce the opposition vote around themselves was the more important story than the crushing defeat of the House Majority Leader.

[RayThom]

... separated at birth.



Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. They won't get fooled again... but I'm guessing they will. Teabaggers are so two-faced.

[BoSoxGal]

Is it a crushing defeat when only 13% of the registered voters decided the outcome?

I'm very disillusioned by democracy lately. I declined to file for re-election to my office, having realized over the past two years that despite being close to the state Capitol and two of Montana's most vibrant cities, my own jurisdiction is hopelessly behind the times, redneck, Tea Party friendly and bogged down in nepotism, cronyism and widespread public employee laziness - and entirely disinterested in changing for the better. NOT a place where this progressive type A personality could be content.

There are two candidates for my office; one a conservative Republican former lobbyist with ZERO criminal law experience and only licensed a few years, the other a private attorney with 23 years criminal law experience, both defense and prosecution, and a decade of experience as a municipal attorney - he happens to be a Democrat, but not particularly political.

The county is officially nonpartisan, but the voters are 80% Republican. Guess which candidate 'won' the primary 1100 votes to 400 votes? They'll both go on to the general election, but I doubt very much that outcome will be any different.

Neither, by the way, is a native son.

The majority of voters are sheep, lacking critical thinking skills and the ability to understand the issues. It's all knee-jerk reactive voting.

[Econoline]

(Oops. I meant to put this post in this other thread.)

Re the OP:

"Now, if they don't build our old friend the Keystone XL pipeline, America will be completely free of noxious imports from Alberta."

(credit Charlie Pierce)

[rubato]

Cantor sucked up hard to the Tea Party and embraced their "hate immigrant" platform and STILL got whupped.

This kind of craven loser is a GOP "party leader" ? I have a new slogan for the House Republicans; "Lead from the back with Boehner"


yrs,
rubato

[Econoline]

Resigning House Leader Cantor Reflects On All The Accomplishments He Thwarted
NEWS IN BRIEF • Politics • Government • Politicians • ISSUE 50•23 • Jun 12, 2014

WASHINGTON—Looking back on his 13-year tenure in the House of Representatives with reverence, resigning House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) reflected on the long list of accomplishments he had thwarted during his time in office, sources confirmed Thursday. “From obstructing a jobs bill to put Americans back to work in 2011, to derailing gun control measures any time they reached my desk, I feel blessed to have had such an incredible run of preventing productive policies, and even a few pieces of landmark legislation, from ever passing,” said Cantor, explaining that as a young man, he “never would have dreamed” that some day he would be in a position to hinder the entire American lawmaking process and completely neuter dozens of bills. “Of course, I’m disappointed because I thought I had many more years of impeding accomplishments ahead of me, and I’ll be the first to admit that I never quite managed to stall environmental policies as much as I would have liked. But at the end of the day, I’m very proud of how I helped Congress accomplish so little during my time in office.” Cantor added that he took solace that his legacy of hampering federal policy was secure, and trusted that “many, many more” in his party would be inspired to follow in his footsteps.

The source, of course.

[BoSoxGal]

(also applies to raythom's & rubato's posts )

[Long Run]

We are all relieved to see Cantor landed on his feet:

Eric Cantor plans to join boutique investment bank Moelis MC -1.07% & Co., as the recently defeated House majority leader embarks on a new career on Wall Street.

Mr. Cantor, 51 years old, will be a vice chairman and board member at the firm, effective this week, he and Moelis founder Ken Moelis said in a joint interview on Monday.

***
Moelis will pay Mr. Cantor a base salary of $400,000 and an initial cash payment of $400,000, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The firm is also granting Mr. Cantor $1 million in shares that vest over a five-year period. In 2015, Mr. Cantor is slated to receive a minimum $1.2 million cash-incentive payment and $400,000 in shares, according to the filing.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/eric-can ... 1409630638

[BoSoxGal]

All that AND a Congressional pension. Nice work . . .

[rubato]

We are all relieved to see Cantor landed on his feet:

Eric Cantor plans to join boutique investment bank Moelis MC -1.07% & Co., as the recently defeated House majority leader embarks on a new career on Wall Street.

Mr. Cantor, 51 years old, will be a vice chairman and board member at the firm, effective this week, he and Moelis founder Ken Moelis said in a joint interview on Monday.

***
Moelis will pay Mr. Cantor a base salary of $400,000 and an initial cash payment of $400,000, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The firm is also granting Mr. Cantor $1 million in shares that vest over a five-year period. In 2015, Mr. Cantor is slated to receive a minimum $1.2 million cash-incentive payment and $400,000 in shares, according to the filing.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/eric-can ... 1409630638

First the suck-up, then the payoff.

This is the party who pioneered the theory that democracy means that every voter dollar is as good as ever other voter dollar.

yrs,
rubato

[Sue U]

John Boehner is weeping in his Scotch.

But then again, when isn't he?

[wesw]

first let me say that I am an independent. always have been since my first voter registration in high school.
I once believed that the only thing worse than a democrat was a republican, as I ve aged the pendulum has swung, slightly, in the other direction.

the leadership of both parties is in poor hands. if Pelosi, reid, boehner and mc connell are the best the parties can provide in the way of leadership we no longer need these parties.

that said, it saddens me to see the insult when posters refer to those with whom they disagree. people will change their minds when they learn new things, but if you simply insult them and assign the worst possible motives to their beliefs you guarantee alienation.

from what I ve seen, most of the tea party folks believe in the founding ideals of this nation and embrace anyone of any race who believes the same. they appear to feel the same way as you about the republican leadership. find common ground. unless you want this nation to fail, you must find common ground. its there, you just have to stop hating and see it and embrace it. this sense of superiority I see is saddening.

the ideals of our constitution and declaration of independence are some thing we can agree on, yes?

[Sue U]

You're not from around here, are you?












(In case you missed my humorous tone: )