Shame On You, Eric Cantor!

Cantor with the President, Mitch McConnell, John Kyl, and Harry Reid

I’ve hardly before said a word about Republican Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia.  The House Majority Leader for the 112^th Congress posted today on Facebook: “It is an honor to serve with Speaker John Boehner. I look forward to continue working with my friend to help all Americans.”  My immediate response was “Are you freaking serious?!  Is this a joke?”  How I only wish it was…

Representative Cantor is clearly unaligned with the values that made America exceptional.  Cantor represents the typical careerist establishment politician.  Not only is he exacerbating the issues and completely out of touch with middle- and lower-class America, but he rushes to defend fellow sellout careerist buddies.  Let’s took a look at Boehner’s track record as a so-called conservative:

·         After voting NO on stimulus packages in 2008 and 2009, he called the behemoth TARP package a “crap sandwich” but voted for it anyway.

·         He voted YES on making the PATRIOT Act permanent (so much for the Fourth and Sixth Amendments!).

·         He voted YES on federal funding for technology development and commercialization (thanks for the socialism).

·         He voted YES on increasing funding for the Mexican government to fight drugs (even though alcohol Prohibition was a total federal failure and the cartels own much of the Mexican government).

·         He voted YES on (and was a cheerleader) for No Child Left Behind.

·         His policy on funding democratic institutions differs between Afghanistan (yes) and Pakistan (no) even though the Taliban controls the wilderness in both countries. (Apparently he neither wants America to win nor lose in Afghanistan.)

·         He has repeatedly caved to the unbalanced fiscal agenda of President Obama and the Democrats (with more surrender in him than Vichy France).

Speaker Boehner

It’s no great surprise that Cantor would defend Boehner instead of allowing him to receive the type of roasting disgraced Communist Party cadre receive in China.  After all, Cantor voted for TARP and the Bush Stimulus while opposing the Obama Stimulus for partisan reasons.  It must be nice to be a member of Congress who can afford to enable partisan gridlock!

The treachery of out-of-touch career politicians continues.  Cantor posted on Facebook yesterday afternoon: “Getting critical aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy should be the first priority in the new Congress. The House will vote Friday to direct needed resources to the National Flood Insurance Program.”  A bold announcement, yet I highly doubt this last-minute meeting would have been called had NJ Governor Chris Christie not blasted the entire Congress all over the press and the airwaves.  There’s simply no excuse for deliberation in the Republican-controlled House when it comes to disaster relief at home.  This public outcry is an indictment against the leadership of Boehner and Cantor—both Republicans—from one of their own (and a Romneyite no less!).

Let me also reach out to the members of Cantor’s “Advisory Council” and let them know they’re wasting their time.  Cantor doesn’t listen to them; he listens to Boehner and to his top campaign donors.  The whole concept of a citizens’ advisory committee is an age-old ploy used by politicians to condescendingly fool the constituency into believing the politician truly represents them in the legislature.  However, more often than not the case isn’t that of constituents telling the representative what he will do for them, but rather the career politician telling the constituents what they must settle for (because of some new crisis).

I can conclude with only one expression: Shame on you, Eric Cantor!

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Cantor and Obama (official White House photo by Pete Souza) image in the public domain. Boehner portrait in the public domain.  Both images were obtained from Wikimedia Commons.  Both make me lose my appetite, which really blows 'cause I was about to make a Taco Bell run.  Damn...