Eric Cantor Defeated by David Brat, Tea Party Challenger, in Primary Upset
WASHINGTON — In one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history, the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, was soundly defeated on Tuesday by a Tea Party-backed economics professor who had hammered him for being insufficiently conservative.
The result delivered a major jolt to the Republican Party — Mr. Cantor had widely been considered the top candidate to succeed Speaker John A. Boehner — and it has the potential to change both the debate in Washington on immigration and, possibly, the midterm elections.
With just over $200,000, David Brat, a professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., toppled Mr. Cantor, repeatedly criticizing him for being soft on immigration and contending that he supported what critics call amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally.
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Republicans were so sure that Mr. Cantor would win that most party leaders had been watching for how broad his victory would be. His defeat will reverberate in the capital and could have major implications for any chance of an immigration overhaul.
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“I don’t think they even knew how much activity was going on underneath the surface down here and how large the A-B-C — Anybody But Cantor — mentality was,” said Larry Nordvig, executive director of the Richmond Tea Party.
Mr. Cantor had won primaries in his district, which stretches from Richmond to the Washington suburbs, with as much as 79 percent of the vote, and he won the general election race for a seventh term in 2012 with 58 percent.
Within the Republican Party, he was seen as a star, with the ability to tap into the energy of the House’s more conservative members while at the same time not alienating the party’s establishment wing.
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An informal dinner party at the Georgetown apartment of Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, turned into a celebration.
“I never thought I’d see the day that Eric Cantor would be losing his primary,” said Representative Louise M. Slaughter of New York, the senior Democrat on the House Rules Committee.
Ms. Pelosi said, “I still can’t even believe it.”
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Read on.
All I can say is that I wish there was an equivalent opposition among the Democrats. An “extremist” liberal base that would mobilize to kick some PermaGov DemRat asses…like Pelosi’s. The quoted comments from her “informal dinner party” should be borne in mind.
“I never thought I’d see the day that Eric Cantor would be losing his primary…”
“I still can’t even believe it.”
The PermaGov dinner party (leftiness wing) “turned into a celebration.”
Riiiiight…
Because these neoliberal DemRat numbnuts still feel safe in their Georgetown apartments, giving (undoubtedly catered) “informal dinner parties.” There is no effective opposition to their act…not yet there isn’t, anyway…so they can party until the cows come home.
But the chickens come home, too.
They “come home to roost!!!” as Malcolm X so brilliantly observed over 50 years ago.
Always and forever.
Bet on it.
I was channel surfing after the wonderful third NBA championship playoff game tonight. (The San Antonio Spurs play with honor. And they are totally multicultural. Two French players and an Argentinian are among their top starters; their best sub is from Italy; they are overall too hip to be selling their asses down the river to do commercials plus they are led by the inimitably calm, almost Zen-like Tim Duncan and a brilliant, acerbic coach with the unlikely name of Popovitch. My kinda people!!!) I ran across a clip of Barack Obama looking sincerely puzzled as he talked about the latest gun nut shooting in Portland, OR. He said words to the effect of “This is the only developed country in the world where this sort of thing happens. The only one! These types of shootings are occurring weekly now. Why?” Of course he’s a very busy man so I suppose I should cut him some slack for being behind on the news, but these kinds of killings…and the other, less sensationalistically covered ones, the ones that occur in poor neighborhoods to poor people…occur daily in the U.S. In multiples. And if he doesn’t know why, he’s not looking at the culture or the news.
The U.S. has been uninterruptedly involved in overt and covert wars of economic imperialist aggression for almost 64 years now. The culture is presently completely dominated by violent films, TV shows, video games and music. Large sections of the population have lost all hope of the system righting itself and thus eventually the weaker members of the society go batshit nuts with whatever weapons are at hand.
Why not? The bosses do it.
“Bada-bing!!!”
I am ashamed of my erstwhile “liberal” compatriots. Ashamed that they have not already formed a Tea Party equivalent, only with some brains. I guess they’re too smart to put their asses on the line. At least the wingnuts have some passion. All the left has left is middle class ennui and a 401K.
Over and out.
Time to sack.
Tomorrow?
Maybe no school shootings tomorrow.
Wouldn’t that be nice!!!
Later…
AG
