Gerald Seib wrote a thoughtful piece in the Wall Street Journal this week profiling Eric Cantor's enhanced stature coming out of the debt ceiling debates and bill.
Seib's conclusions matched my own, i.e., that Cantor is as much a voice and leader of the House GOP Tea Party freshmen as anyone, and provided the necessary pressure on John Boehner to keep him out of deals involving more or higher taxes.
I was surprised to learn of Cantor's apparent bonding with Washington court jester Joe Biden. However, with luck, that's not going to be a relevant relationship in a little over another year.
Mostly, though, I appreciated Seib's characterization of Cantor as providing a mix of Tea Party anti-spending, anti-tax fervor with a recognition that failure on the part of the GOP to deliver some sort of legislation which avoided Wonderboy claiming default, while at least beginning to cut spending, was unacceptable.
The House GOP leadership is pretty much where I had hoped and thought it would arrive. Boehner having years in the House to provide some seasoned political sense, with Cantor, Ryan and McCarthy delivering the fresh thinking and Tea Party-driven spirit of lower spending.
Showing posts with label Cantor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cantor. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Constitutional Checks & Balances: Eric Cantor vs. Wonderboy
It's Thursday morning as I write this post. The media has been rife with stories of Wonderboy's temper tantrum last night over Eric Cantor's remarks, allegedly ending with his taunt,
'Don't call my bluff, Eric.'
Then the First Child reportedly slammed his chair into the table and stormed out of the meeting.
You know Cantor was on to something because this morning, Harry Reid is criticizing him.
But, seriously, you have to respect our Founding Fathers' design of the Constitution at moments like this. Why?
Well, we have a president, elected nearly three years ago, whose grandiose spending, borrowing and taxing schemes have come a cropper. They've failed. The economy continues to stagnate, employment hasn't rebounded, and, now, the federal debt has risen to its legal limit.
Meanwhile, a GOP House majority elected less than a year ago, on a tide of Tea Party anti-spending and -taxing fervor, are responding by passionately blocking Wonderboy's attempt to blithely continue his spending, while raising taxes, too, as his terms for signing a debt limit raise.
The specter of dozens of freshmen GOP Representatives intent on upholding their promise to constituents to cut spending while not raising taxes is a key part of James Madison's Constitutional check and balance system.
At present, however, we have a president given to tantrums and egotistical grandstanding. He demonizes those who disagree with him.
Perhaps the most ironic moment came yesterday, as Wonderboy was reported to proclaim that his presidency 'may go down' on the debt limit issue, but he wasn't going to give in to House demands for spending cuts without tax hikes.
It's the president's job to manage Treasury issues, which now include having sufficient money to fund obligations. Too bad Obama pushed Congress to spend so many trillions in the past 2 1/2 years, while his party held majorities in both houses of Congress, but neglected to take the opportunity to raise the debt limit.
This is how you know the First Rookie is, well, a rookie. A more seasoned executive would have realized, in advance, to attend to that important detail.
Now that his spending binge has hit the debt limit, Wonderboy is behaving like a three year-old, blasting everyone else and claiming to be the only adult in the room. The reality is that his own spending and borrowing, combined with his lack of managerial experience, led to this impasse.
Now a recently-elected House GOP majority is fairly representing their voters' wishes for less spending, less borrowing and no more taxes.
In opposition to those voters' wishes is an imperial president who believes he can do no wrong. And intends, as he threatened Cantor, to take to the airwaves- again and again, as he has done recently- to try to convince Americans that he is right and Cantor/Boehner are wrong.
Trouble is, as of Wednesday night, Dick Morris was explaining on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News program that polls show Americans see the president as the source of this standoff, not the GOP.
Should be an interesting July in Washington. But one thing to take solace with is that what you see is nothing more than Madison's intended design of checks on presidential imperialism specifically of the sort. Wonderboy is attempting to exercise.
'Don't call my bluff, Eric.'
Then the First Child reportedly slammed his chair into the table and stormed out of the meeting.
You know Cantor was on to something because this morning, Harry Reid is criticizing him.
But, seriously, you have to respect our Founding Fathers' design of the Constitution at moments like this. Why?
Well, we have a president, elected nearly three years ago, whose grandiose spending, borrowing and taxing schemes have come a cropper. They've failed. The economy continues to stagnate, employment hasn't rebounded, and, now, the federal debt has risen to its legal limit.
Meanwhile, a GOP House majority elected less than a year ago, on a tide of Tea Party anti-spending and -taxing fervor, are responding by passionately blocking Wonderboy's attempt to blithely continue his spending, while raising taxes, too, as his terms for signing a debt limit raise.
The specter of dozens of freshmen GOP Representatives intent on upholding their promise to constituents to cut spending while not raising taxes is a key part of James Madison's Constitutional check and balance system.
At present, however, we have a president given to tantrums and egotistical grandstanding. He demonizes those who disagree with him.
Perhaps the most ironic moment came yesterday, as Wonderboy was reported to proclaim that his presidency 'may go down' on the debt limit issue, but he wasn't going to give in to House demands for spending cuts without tax hikes.
It's the president's job to manage Treasury issues, which now include having sufficient money to fund obligations. Too bad Obama pushed Congress to spend so many trillions in the past 2 1/2 years, while his party held majorities in both houses of Congress, but neglected to take the opportunity to raise the debt limit.
This is how you know the First Rookie is, well, a rookie. A more seasoned executive would have realized, in advance, to attend to that important detail.
Now that his spending binge has hit the debt limit, Wonderboy is behaving like a three year-old, blasting everyone else and claiming to be the only adult in the room. The reality is that his own spending and borrowing, combined with his lack of managerial experience, led to this impasse.
Now a recently-elected House GOP majority is fairly representing their voters' wishes for less spending, less borrowing and no more taxes.
In opposition to those voters' wishes is an imperial president who believes he can do no wrong. And intends, as he threatened Cantor, to take to the airwaves- again and again, as he has done recently- to try to convince Americans that he is right and Cantor/Boehner are wrong.
Trouble is, as of Wednesday night, Dick Morris was explaining on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News program that polls show Americans see the president as the source of this standoff, not the GOP.
Should be an interesting July in Washington. But one thing to take solace with is that what you see is nothing more than Madison's intended design of checks on presidential imperialism specifically of the sort. Wonderboy is attempting to exercise.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Eric Cantor For Speaker- Again!!!!!
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page noted earlier this week that John Boehner quietly deep-sixed Paul Ryan's attempt to force money cut from budgets to be sequestered in an untappable account until the fiscal year's end. Further, use of the money would be subject to a full House vote.
This way, Ryan reasoned, individual committee fiefdom's couldn't play bait and switch with budget cuts, using supposed-savings to grease other wheels in sub- or committee votes.
Before Ryan knew what was happening, according to the Journal, Boehner quickly gaveled the question to a voice vote and defeated it.
This is deeply troubling. Some say that Boehner appreciated the Tea Party movement early on and accommodated it. I never bought this line.
What Boehner did this week signals, to me, that my worst fears are coming true. Unless and until Boehner is braced, 24/7, by Eric Cantor on one side and Paul Ryan on the other, he's going to cave back into the arms of waiting old-line spending bulls in the GOP House caucus.
New brooms sweep cleanly. I always felt, and continue to feel, that Boehner's membership in the GOP House leadership that lost control of the chamber four years ago should have prohibited his becoming Speaker.
Eric Cantor is the obvious new face who should have been elected Speaker. Boehner's antics with floor votes and bushwacking his own Budget Committee chair, Ryan, tells you he's no true Tea Party friend, nor has he gotten religion about changing the way things are done in Washington.
This way, Ryan reasoned, individual committee fiefdom's couldn't play bait and switch with budget cuts, using supposed-savings to grease other wheels in sub- or committee votes.
Before Ryan knew what was happening, according to the Journal, Boehner quickly gaveled the question to a voice vote and defeated it.
This is deeply troubling. Some say that Boehner appreciated the Tea Party movement early on and accommodated it. I never bought this line.
What Boehner did this week signals, to me, that my worst fears are coming true. Unless and until Boehner is braced, 24/7, by Eric Cantor on one side and Paul Ryan on the other, he's going to cave back into the arms of waiting old-line spending bulls in the GOP House caucus.
New brooms sweep cleanly. I always felt, and continue to feel, that Boehner's membership in the GOP House leadership that lost control of the chamber four years ago should have prohibited his becoming Speaker.
Eric Cantor is the obvious new face who should have been elected Speaker. Boehner's antics with floor votes and bushwacking his own Budget Committee chair, Ryan, tells you he's no true Tea Party friend, nor has he gotten religion about changing the way things are done in Washington.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Eric Cantor's WSJ Interview
Last weekend's 'Weekend Interview,' by Steve Moore, was GOP House leadership member Eric Cantor of Virginia.
One could wax on at length about Cantor's comments. I'm a huge fan of both Cantor and Moore, and can only guess how much fun they both had in the interview.
For me, though, the major insight came near the end. Moore was probing about how Cantor really gets along with Boehner. Specifically, he wrote,
"I can't avoid asking about the rumors that his relationship with Mr. Boehner has become prickly. "First, I support Boehner as speaker, period. And it's a good working relationship," Mr. Cantor says. But he doesn't deny there are policy disagreements, which he attributes to the fact that "he's in a different generation." Then he hastens to add: "It's the Democrats who are in utter disarray right now . . . Pelosi can't hold her caucus together. We're the ones who are unified." "
You can almost hear Cantor's relief when he seizes on Pelosi and the Democrats, thus steering the conversation completely away from Boehner's values and policies.
A few days later, on CNBC one morning, Cantor was drilled about the differences in values between him and Boehner. About earmarks, and why they weren't in the Pledge.
Well, in Moore's interview, he quotes Cantor as saying,
"Don't mistake this year's Republican caucus with next year's," Mr. Cantor responds. "We're going to do real earmark reform even though it was missing from the pledge. If you look at the makeup of the conference right now, and then add on that the incoming freshmen class, those folks aren't coming to Washington [for]....pork-barrel spending. They really aren't."
I believe Cantor's right. I also believe he is simply ignoring the obvious- that those same freshmen who will force earmark reform, probably over Jerry Lewis' still-warm corpse, will also, without prompting, vote for Cantor to be the next Speaker.
It's even reasonable that the three authors of the just-released "Young Guns" book, of which Cantor is one, will brace Boehner, if the latter is allowed, against common sense, to be elected Speaker by a GOP House majority.
I think Cantor is simply biding his time, saying the right things in public, giving nobody, least of all Boehner, cause to eject him from the caucus pre-emptively.
But after the election, if the GOP retakes the House, look for Cantor to be open to running a close second to Boehner come the post-swearing-in GOP leadership elections.
Cantor knows most of the prospective incoming GOP Representatives won't prefer Boehner to one of the Young Guns. Ryan's a bit too wonky and focused on the budget.
No, Cantor is the best choice for Speaker in a GOP-controlled House come January.
One could wax on at length about Cantor's comments. I'm a huge fan of both Cantor and Moore, and can only guess how much fun they both had in the interview.
For me, though, the major insight came near the end. Moore was probing about how Cantor really gets along with Boehner. Specifically, he wrote,
"I can't avoid asking about the rumors that his relationship with Mr. Boehner has become prickly. "First, I support Boehner as speaker, period. And it's a good working relationship," Mr. Cantor says. But he doesn't deny there are policy disagreements, which he attributes to the fact that "he's in a different generation." Then he hastens to add: "It's the Democrats who are in utter disarray right now . . . Pelosi can't hold her caucus together. We're the ones who are unified." "
You can almost hear Cantor's relief when he seizes on Pelosi and the Democrats, thus steering the conversation completely away from Boehner's values and policies.
A few days later, on CNBC one morning, Cantor was drilled about the differences in values between him and Boehner. About earmarks, and why they weren't in the Pledge.
Well, in Moore's interview, he quotes Cantor as saying,
"Don't mistake this year's Republican caucus with next year's," Mr. Cantor responds. "We're going to do real earmark reform even though it was missing from the pledge. If you look at the makeup of the conference right now, and then add on that the incoming freshmen class, those folks aren't coming to Washington [for]....pork-barrel spending. They really aren't."
I believe Cantor's right. I also believe he is simply ignoring the obvious- that those same freshmen who will force earmark reform, probably over Jerry Lewis' still-warm corpse, will also, without prompting, vote for Cantor to be the next Speaker.
It's even reasonable that the three authors of the just-released "Young Guns" book, of which Cantor is one, will brace Boehner, if the latter is allowed, against common sense, to be elected Speaker by a GOP House majority.
I think Cantor is simply biding his time, saying the right things in public, giving nobody, least of all Boehner, cause to eject him from the caucus pre-emptively.
But after the election, if the GOP retakes the House, look for Cantor to be open to running a close second to Boehner come the post-swearing-in GOP leadership elections.
Cantor knows most of the prospective incoming GOP Representatives won't prefer Boehner to one of the Young Guns. Ryan's a bit too wonky and focused on the budget.
No, Cantor is the best choice for Speaker in a GOP-controlled House come January.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
