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“… you knew I was a snake”

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Tuesday night, the tea party wing of the Republican Party turned on one of their own. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) lost his primary to Dave Brat, a professor who teaches Ayn Randian economics to college students. Brat spent $122,000 to Cantor’s $5 million.  

Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You’re so beautiful,” she cried

“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died”

Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight

But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite

[chorus]

“I saved you,” cried that woman

“And you’ve bit me even, why?

You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”

“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin

“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in

Tweets …

@imillhiser: “The Tea Party’s been a tremendously positive input, I think… certainly for our party, you see the benefit.” -Eric Cantor, Nov. 10, 2010

@JuddLegum: Lesson GOP will take from Cantor’s loss: Kill immigration reform. Real lesson: No matter how much you pander to Tea Party, it’s never enough

@DanaHoule: This shows a resurgence of the Republican establ…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

@lizzwinstead: ERIC CANTOR IS TOO LIBERAL FOR THE REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA! #murica #YourPartyIsCurdled

The Republicans made a deal with the devil and released the hounds of hell … who are biting them in the hinder.

So, does this scare Republicans further right or back to the center? Will moderate Republicans unfurl their own banners, like the Tuesday Group tried to do?

Brookings Institution Congressional expert Thomas Mann told the Daily Beast the moderates were now powerless: “None, absolutely zero, zippo. … It’s sad but it’s true. The handful that remain lie low and change positions as needed. The party is much more homogenous, and the center of gravity has moved sharply to the right.” While the [“moderate”] Tuesday Group’s members, in theory, could have blocked any of the GOP’s agenda items by uniting with the Democratic minority, in practice they didn’t do so.

Does it reinvigorate the calls to form a “governing wing of the Republican Party” as former Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) suggested last fall?

As a Republican watching a handful of conservative extremists push to either defund Obamacare or shut down the government, it was obvious from the start it wouldn’t end well. To make such a prominent and painful mistake makes Republicans like me worry for the survival of our party as a national force. […]

We are told Romney lost because he wasn’t conservative enough, despite the fact that he adopted every single ultra-conservative position suggested to him during the primaries. He signed every tax and women’s health pledge, filled out every right-wing questionnaire and promised to do anything and everything he was asked to by the people who now claim he wasn’t “one of theirs.”

The first thing congressional Republicans need to recognize is that we have an obligation to govern, not just sit on the sidelines saying no.

Methinks it is too late. Once you lay down with pigs, it is difficult to get the stench off. And by the time you do, it is often too late to convince people to give you another sniff.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Eric Cantor’s defeat:

   The American people should take notice. Tonight, the Tea Party defeated Republican Leader Eric Cantor who is one of the most extreme Members of Congress.

   Eric Cantor has long been the face of House Republicans’ extreme policies, debilitating dysfunction and manufactured crises. Tonight, is a major victory for the Tea Party as they yet again pull the Republican Party further to the radical right.

   As far as the midterms elections are concerned, it’s a whole new ballgame.

It is too early to tell if it is a whole new ballgame or just one bad inning. But what it does do is change the narrative. Anyone can win if they outhustle the opposition and there is no guarantee that money will win elections.


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/ 52 Comments

52 comments

  3. JanF

    Tea Partiers Dance On Eric Cantor’s Grave With Celebratory Tweets

    Tea Partiers were downright giddy that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) lost the Republican primary in his district to tea party challenger David Brat on Tuesday night.

    They may be 80% of Republican primary voters but they are only 20% of the general public. You have to wonder about the outright hatred for brown people that this victory signifies. Is “illegals takin’ my job!!” really that big of a problem in VA-07? Or do they just need someone to hate on? This tweet pretty much spells out the real anger:

    @RMConservative

    Hey if GOP establishment wants they could move to Mexico and run for office

    There you have it.

  4. JanF

    USA Today: GOP leader Eric Cantor loses in shock Tea Party upset

    The demise of the Tea Party has been greatly exaggerated.

    The anti-establishment force within the GOP was strong enough Tuesday to oust House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a stunning upset by a political newcomer, Randolph-Macon College economics professor Dave Brat.[…]

    Cantor, the second-most powerful House leader, is the highest-ranking Republican to lose renomination to a Tea Party challenger since the movement rose to prominence in 2010. It is likely to go down as one of the most stunning primary defeats in congressional history.[…]

    Brat entered the race in January pledging to be “Eric Cantor’s term limit.” He vowed to fight for “real, conservative, free-market change” and voiced opposition to a bipartisan budget deal passed by Congress in December. He also opposed an effort by some in the GOP to overhaul federal immigration laws.

    Cantor can’t run as an independent because Virginia has a “sore loser” law, aka, the “No Joe LIEberman’s Here” law.

    This!

    Cantor’s loss scrambles the House calendar. The majority leader is tasked with coordinating the House agenda, which is particularly sensitive in an election year. Cantor’s ability to lead the House GOP Conference could be undermined by his Tuesday defeat,

    Ya think? Anyone want to follow the lead of a losing loser?  

  5. JanF

    Cantor’s Gone, Let the Republican Infighting Begin


    [Cantor’s opponent] accused Cantor of being too willing to accommodate Democrats on issues such as immigration and fiscal matters. In a strange twist, Cantor was seen in Washington as among the most inflexible party-liners among top House Republican leaders. He also is especially close to Wall Street interests. It’s worth noting that Cantor’s district, while Republican, isn’t exactly the Deep South and Barack Obama won more than 40 percent of the vote in the last two elections.

    … the remaining four months of this session will be dominated by internal jockeying for leadership posts among the majority House Republicans. Speaker John Boehner may escape without a challenger but there will be intense rivalry for the No. 2 and No. 3 House posts. The top contenders will be House Whip Kevin McCarthy of California, who would like Cantor’s job, and Texas Congressman Jeb Hensarling. Emboldened by the shocking Cantor upset, the Tea Party caucus almost certainly will demand one of the top three leadership posts for one of their own. The most likely standard bearers from this contingent might be Louisiana’s Steve Scalise or Georgia’s Tom Price.

  6. Shaun Appleby

    Absolutely stunning, thanks for posting this. Looks like the GOP is truly doomed.

    What do you suppose this portends for the general election postures of a party in perpetual crisis? Or the chances of a Cruz or Paul insurgency in 2016?

    I’ve lived long enough to see the Republicans isolate and marginalise themselves as thoroughly as the Left did in the early Seventies; it took decades to recover if at all.

  7. DeniseVelez

    not hardcore red – is DC suburbs.

    This may be an opportunity to defeat Brat in the general – since some of the Repubs and indies may not feel comfortable voting for a complete loon.

  8. princesspat

    9 Reasons Why Eric Cantor’s Primary Defeat Is Very Bad News for Everyone

    1) David Brat is a hardcore, extreme-right-wing John Calvin-admiring Christian Reconstructionist, which, among other things, endorses theocratic government. And we totally need more of those people voting on laws that impact the entire nation.

    ~snip~

    The Republican Party establishment has got to be wondering how the hell it came to this. But the party only has itself to blame for allowing its far-right flank to wag the dog. Worse yet, this is very simply bad news for the discourse. Any notion of Democrats and Republicans actually engaging in a reasonable, rational debate died a little more last night, with theocratic, climate crisis-denying, impeachment fetishists gaining ground. Sure, Cantor’s voting record showed that he wasn’t particularly willing to break ranks, but at least he wasn’t apeshit crazy in the process. Sadly, the Crazy Caucus will probably gain a new member next January.

    Dave Brat: Jesus, Not Another One of These A**holes

    Here’s your quote of the day:

    “It’s a miracle… God acted through the people on my behalf.”

    – Dave Brat, the Tea Party candidate who just toppled House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary, during a post-victory interview with Sean Hannity

  9. JanF

    NY Times BREAKING NEWS

    Wednesday, June 11, 2014 1:05 PM EDT

    Cantor to Step Down as Majority Leader

    Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican, will resign his leadership position, effective July 31, following a stunning defeat in a primary election Tuesday in which voters rejected him in favor of a more conservative candidate, congressional sources say.

    READ MORE

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06…

  10. JanF

    Dave Wasserman @Redistrict

    Also, don’t fall for theory that Dems “crossed over” to vote for Brat. Brat’s biggest margins were in heavy R Hanover & New Kent #VA07

  11. JanF

    This was probably not about immigration but a deeper resentment.

    … a couple of polls of the 7th indicate that on some issues, it may be well to the left of the Republican Brat. A PPP poll of registered voters released Tuesday found that 72 percent supported comprehensive immigration reform including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Even among self-identified Republicans, 70 percent back a path to citizenship and 58 percent consider reform “very important.”

    So what else could be at play?

    Maybe rightwing populism?

    American populism is rooted in middle class resentment of those who are seen as enjoying the benefits of the goods and services the middle class produces without having earned them through work. Its ideology is what historians call “producerism.” It first appears in the Jacksonian Workingmen’s Parties and then in the Populists of the late nineteenth century. But it takes a leftwing and a rightwing form.

    Facing an ailing economy, leftwing populists from Huey Long to Paul Wellstone primarily blame Wall Street, big business and the politicians whom they fund. Rightwing populists from George Wallace to Pat Buchanan also blame Wall Street, but put equal if not greater blame on the poor, the unemployed, the immigrant, and the minorities, who, like the coupon-clipper on Wall Street, are seen as economic parasites.[…]

    “Eric is running on the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable principles,” Brat told a Tea Party audience. “They want amnesty for illegal immigrants. They want them granted citizenship. And it’s in the millions-40 millions-coming in. If you add 40 million workers to our labor supply, what will happen to the wage rate for the average American?”

    Brat’s appeal was frankly demagogic. Cantor was not supporting amnesty, and there are about 10 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States.

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