There is a reason Cantor saw this:
President Barack Obama “abruptly” walked out of today’s White House meeting with legislative leaders on the federal deficit, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters.
And everyone else saw this:
Democrats offered a different characterization of the meeting and that exchange, though House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told The Hill that the “gravity of the challenge” that confronts negotiators “was weighing certainly on the president.”
In a brief interview, Pelosi said she had never seen a president more gracious than Obama, who she described as trying to end a meeting he had hosted.
“He stayed for two and a half hours and listened to what members had to say. It was his meeting and the meeting had come to an end,” she said.
“The president could not have been more gracious. I have never seen a president spend so much time with the leadership of Congress day in and day out, respectful of their concerns,” Pelosi added.
House and Senate Democrats have ripped Cantor for days, and a House Democratic leadership aide described the majority leader’s account of Wednesday’s meeting as “Cantor’s Gingrich back-of-the-plane moment” – referencing a moment in 1995 when then Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) complained about being seated near the back of Air Force One and was quickly depicted in the media as a cry-baby.
“Obama was concluding the meeting giving the closing remarks and talking about meeting tomorrow, Cantor interrupted him and raised for the third time doing a short-term, and Obama shut him down,” the aide said. “Cantor was playing the role he’s been playing throughout this whole thing – being not productive.”
The reason the “YOU LIE” Republicans see things differently and simply can not control themselves around this President? Uppity.
rob!
The more Cantor is involved in this, the happier I am. Not that Yertle McTurtle or the Oompa Loompa are geniuses, but Cantor is clearly running on a lean mixture. Obama is running circles around this guy, intellectually, morally, politically.
I would love it if Cantor replaced Boehner as leader of the GOP House in 2012. The Dems will get everything they want!
abo gato
Man, John, you are HOT tonight.
Another Bob
It kinda shows what a waste of time it is to try to deal with or even be nice to these GOP fuckers. It literally doesn’t matter what happened — they’ll just lie about it anyway. It’s not even possible to have a good-faith interaction with them any more, especially not with a lying punk like Eric Cantor.
Sasha
“The Rock” Obama SMASH puny House majority Leader!
MikeJ
And now the meeja will say, “see! you should have let us bring our cameras and scream at you!”
Keith G
Obama just unnerves them. He is sooo fucking smart, calm, and focused. At times like this, he gets inside their heads and it freaks them out.
Little Boots
Cantor makes a great villain. Is it the adam’s apple? or the pure, boneheaded stupid? either way. great villain.
Violet
Give Cantor enough rope to hang himself.
Little Boots
at last, I think Obama knows what he’s doing. politically. not economically. but politically, at least.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The belief-beggaring events of the last two-and-a-half years, to say nothing of the last ten, have left my brain a little fuzzy (okay, there’s been some booze involved, too, also) but didn’t Cantor once call a press conference to announce a budget plan while using a bound but blank stack of papers as a prop? Back in the pre-Paul Ryan days when Cantor was the Serious Young Budget Wonk of the GOP House caucus?
Litlebritdifrnt
If other accounts of this exchange today are correct my only sorrow is that POTUS didn’t give Cantor a wedgie as he left the room cause I am sure that Cantor shit his pants.
You don’t want to make him angry. You wouldn’t like him when he is angry.
beltane
Was Boehner off by himself in a corner of the room, tears flowing into his Old Grandad?
JPL
Why did Bloomberg print this? Did Fox news lead with this?
Maude
@Violet:
He has lied about what went on at the meeting. He can’t walk it back. Oops.
FlipYrWhig
The only flaw in the pictorial comparison to Die Hard Coked-Up Weasel Guy is that Die Hard Coked-Up Weasel Guy really did want to make a deal.
Cat Lady
Cantor’s going to have to come up with another office shooting story, stat. What a total fucking asshat.
dmsilev
I think there’s a reasonable chance that Boehner let Cantor make a fool out of himself as a way of knifing a potential rival.
Violet
That was weird. As the page was loading, the Reply button appeared momentarily. Now it’s gone again.
Little Boots
Cantor continues to amaze. and probably always will. he just seems so incredibly stupid.
beltane
@Violet
The problem with Cantor is that he is too stupid even to hang himself with the rope. The best we can hope for is that he will get hopelessly tangled in the rope and then run around in a panic as often happens with kittens in the same situation.
Montysano
Driving home from an out-of-town trip, I was listening to a bit of Mark Levin, and yeah, I’m told that the “arrogant” Prez stomped out. Levin must have dog-whistled “uppity” at least 2 dozen times in an hour. I must have “job creators” a dozen times in an hour. They’re flailing.
FlipYrWhig
Remember when Eric Cantor’s own entourage pushed the wholly false rumor that Cantor was being considered for McCain’s VP? That guy is the biggest self-promoter in America not named Kardashian.
Little Boots
true, beltane, although the biggest thing he has going for him is the incredible stupidity of the average Republican, in Congress and out. He is playing to the stupidest base in the history of this country. that will benefit him.
gf120581
I’d believe that. I think Boner’s reaching the point where if he came across Cantor on fire, he’d throw gasoline on him.
Violet
@beltane:
Cantor will claim the rope shot up his office.
dmsilev
And Obama’s the guy sitting in the corner holding the laser pointer.
Maude
@Violet:
*18
It does that. It’s a teaser reply button.
dmsilev
Fixed that for you.
Little Boots
that will only make him seem more manly, violet.
(how do you reply to a post these days?)
kd bart
This is good news for McCain, right?
FlipYrWhig
@ beltane: Nice!
Montysano
@Little Boots:
Economically, there’s nothing to “know”. We’re at Deck Chairs On The Titanic phase. The exponential function has caught up with the whole debt-as-money scheme. The only question is when.
gf120581
Hah! I never thought of the coked-up A-hole from Die Hard as a Cantor comparison, but when you think about it, it’s perfect. I can even imagine Cantor going, “Obama, bubbie, I’m your white knight!”
Now, I’m not suggesting Obama go the full Hans Gruber on him, but you want to smack him around a bit, be my guest.
JPL
If I were a betting person, I would say the morning news programs lead with the story about the agitated President.
Southern Beale
Tea Party vs Manatees.
I’m so sick of these Tea Party assholes, you have NO idea.
jl
Times may soon get interesting. As said earlier, Econbrowser says banks and financial firms preparing big move into cash if debt ceiling not resolved very soon.
My understanding, from years ago when I was larning stuff, is that the US government typically pays everything out of general fund, or almost everything, including social security checks, and settles accounts with trust fund, etc.
This requires normal environment on financial markets. That normal environment is already starting to change. So, if the WH has decided that there will be no short run plan B, then their room for maneuver may be cramped very quickly of can’t do the transactions to pay bills out of general fund and then do the trades needed to reimburse general fund, and get money out of special funds without issuing new securities.
So, any financial mavens here who knows the details? I would be interested.
Anyone interested, Econbrowser has presented various recipies with details on how Executive can evade limit for longer periods of time and pay bond holders their interest, however, with more and more risk of bad side effects if everything does not go according to plan. If capital markets are making a big shift, then hard to predict if things can go according to plan.
Why am I even thinking this? I’m probably a little manic, like Cole.
Interesting to see if any Republican leader will back Cantor’s version. If not, then he has walked himself out onto a long limb.
Boehner probably knows the guy better than most. Funny how Boehner seemed to disappear. Boehner decided that Cantor is such a goofball that he would shoot himself down in a day or two if allowed to think he was taking over the joint?
@17 dang it. Should always read all the comments first! What @17 said.
Elizabelle
AP rather sticks it to Cantor too.
AP Sources: Obama Ends Talks Brusquely
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/13/business/AP-US-Debt-Showdown-Obama.html?hp
Mr. Cantor.
Eat your f*cking peas.
Martin
So, when comes the prime-time address to the nation to calm markets and tell seniors they aren’t getting their checks because Eric Cantor is a fucking baby.
Ok, so as to the whole ‘is it really a default’ question, I’m not entirely sure this is correct, but I’m reading more and more to suggest that it is:
The problem in August isn’t that we can’t afford the interest premium on the debt. I think the problem is twofold:
1) Each week, bonds mature, and new bonds are issued. The net interest we pay is a relatively tiny sum compared to the amount that the Feds need to pay out on the principal of a matured bond. It’s not just that we’re issuing ~$100B in new bonds each month. Bondholders are actually redeeming, say, $300B in bonds each month and we’re issuing $400B in bonds each month and using some of the new bonds to make whole the maturing bonds. If they issue the new bonds first, they break the debt ceiling, so they need enough cash on hand to pay off the old bonds and then they can issue new bonds. And since we hit the bond ceiling back in May, we’ve exhausted our ability to actually pay off the bonds that are maturing.
2) There’s the question of whether we can just borrow from SS, or use the trust fund to pay the benefits. Well, the problem there is that SS keeps all of it’s money in, you guessed it, treasury bonds. The only way they get the cash needed to write the checks is if Treasury can pay off SSs bonds that come due first, so Treasury can’t borrow from SS the money that it owes SS. Now, one solution to this is a selective default. Treasury defaults only on the SS bonds (about 1/6th of the total), and uses what money it has to pay off all of the other bondholders avoiding a default that impacts the markets, but causing SS to have no money to pay seniors.
There’s a whole cashflow aspect to this – how much the IRS brings in, the timing of when checks go out, what days bonds mature and new auctions take place, etc, but at some point that whole thing will lock up tight. It’s not like the federal government gets a big $2.2T check from Congress at the start of the year, or a monthly paycheck or whatever, so whatever insanely complex dark accounting magic is taking place inside Treasury is pretty much only for them to know, but from what I can tell, when they say ‘default’ they actually do mean it.
Joseph Nobles
The news that this was a 2.5 hour shows that this was a Eric Cantor dirty trick to hang his own bad press around Obama’s shoulder. In 2.5 hours, Eric Cantor didn’t get his say in? Bullshit. If anything, the smarmy bastard talked a full hour in that meeting. But suddenly he gets a wild hair when Obama is winding up the meeting and Obama shuts him down? Nah. Cantor went into that meeting planning this ratfuck.
General Stuck
Time for mental health break with a nice new tune from The Band Perry, politics free, and soothing to boot.
Little Boots
jl, you’re wise and awesome. where the hell is the reply key?
PreservedKillick
Oh yeah. Hung out to dry.
stuckinred
Pat Lang has been on Cantor like a cheap suit.
Little Boots
there was this reply thing. I’m sure of it. what happened. do I have to do a link thing now? why is John so cruel?
aisce
not to interrupt the circle jerk too much here, but it’s not like pelosi’s fawning is any more impartial than cantor’s bullshit.
anytime people are talking about the meeting itself, rather than what the meeting was supposed to be about, you know things are going poorly.
it’s nice to know newt gingrich will remain a punchline in washington for a few decades more though.
Little Boots
apparently there is new thread. I still don’t know how to reply. that is all.
General Stuck
Needs to be a new tag, imo. For those wondering about Obama’s chops in the trenches with the wingnuts, now that they run a branch of congress.
Skinny black dude with big brass ones. “puzzy” my ass.
RossInDetroit
But he’s ‘kind of a dick’. I heard it on the TV.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Little Boots: Monkey Boy has a stylish fix that was posted in a thread a few days ago. It’s a very simple fix, but that’s the closest I can get you to it. Eric Cantor is a whiny ass dipweed, who makes the AOS look dignified. That’s hard to do. My money, however, is on the AOS in this intramural match – he’s got the banksters behind him.
jl
@37 Martin: You! you know! links?
Here is one Econbrowser link. Now you owe me one.
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2011/06/a_game_of_chick.html
Emma
Joseph:: I don’t think so. If what the Democrats are saying is true, Cantor was behaving like a kid who’s been asked to do his homework. whine… whine… whine…. And when the president called him on it, he realized what it would look like and went to whine to his favorite media.
ribletsonthepan
FlipYrWhig
Yup, he got a diet coke on ice and a shot in the head.
jl
Another Econbrowser linke, goes into how to estimate timing of Default Day.
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2011/06/slouching_to_de.html
hilts
“Pat Lang has been on Cantor like a cheap suit.”
Eric Cantor is a cheap suit. He’s also a flaming douchebag.
jl
Econbrowser analyzing various proposals from both wingnut and liberals on how to keep the great machine going on and on and on, on vapors…
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2011/07/ron_pauls_debt.html
Martin’s gotta give up his sources now.
Edit: forgot to say Hoyer is really going out on a limb: “Nothing was decided.” He was the prefect guy for that quote. Who says these reporters don’t have a sense of humor?
steviez314
Cantor is just killing the “Jewish guys who wear glasses are smart” stereotype I’ve been living off of.
Geeno
@gf120581#24 – I believe the proper phrasing is “I wouldn’t piss down his throat if his heart were on fire”. The best Carville quote of all time.
Comrade Mary
steviez314, Cantor is seriously mangling my lifelong fetish for skinny brunette Jewish guys with cheekbones and glasses.
aimai
I think its hard to imagine how these meetings must feel to assholes like Cantor–you are so close to being powerful, but you are not. You are so close to popularity, charm, and intelligence but they are all at the head of the table, and you are down on the side somewhere. You matter and you are in the room only as long as the President is of your party, or you are throwing a massive hissy fit. And when the President gets up to leave he is going off to do important stuff, and you are going off to pretend to your tea party peers that you are doing important stuff too as you crash the economy.
I heartily recommend everyone go off and watch 12 Angry Men, the old movie with Fonda, Lee J Cobb and every other scenery chewer of the period all locked in one jury room deciding a death penalty case. It will give you a feeling for what Obama is going through and how delicately you have to negotiate when everyone in the room has a fixed perspective.
Also, I object to any description of Pelosi as “fawning.” Have we become so used to the horrendous disrespect the Republicans show our President and the Democrats that ordinary politeness and its recognition can be described as “fawning.” There can be disagreement over how good a negotiator President Obama is but there can really not be any disagreement over how calm, courteous, and gracious he is. That is not in question. Pelosi’s version simply comports with everything that has ever been written or reported about Obama.
aimai
Ash Can
@dmsilev:
LOL!
Joseph Nobles
Nancy Pelosi shot this lie down unequivocally. Jane’s pushing it in 20 minutes. Hoocoodanode.
scottinnj
Once again thanks for James Fallow calling it honestly.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/07/more-on-rep-cantor-as-least-valuable-player/241912/
Money quote:
And if a leading party in a very important set of negotiations has shown that he’ll walk right out of the “bargaining” room, release a distorted version of what has just been discussed, and use it to whip us his side to more demands, that makes a difference too. For the worse. The prospects for an agreement now are worse because of Rep. Cantor’s presence in them. That’s not because he’s a conservative — so, obviously, are Boehner and McConnell. It’s because he’s acting like a weasel.
kth
Never thought I’d say anything positive about Gingrich and DeLay, even comparatively, but Cantor isn’t fit to carry the sauna towels of either of them.
Joseph Nobles
@Emma: I can buy that, too. But there’s a report that he was interrupting Obama as Obama was wrapping up, and Cantor then walked straight out to the waiting arms of the always-up-for-both-sides-do-it press corps and lied his ass off. I smell a ratfuck, but YMMV.
Sasha
We need a picture of Obama as Gandalf at Khazid-Dum.
“I. SHALL. NOT. YIELD!”
hilts
@kth
Eric Cantor is the poster boy for toolishness.
chris
@aimai
Thank you for your words regarding Mrs. Pelosi. That fawning phrase didnt seem to fit well to me. PBO is unfailing polite and so is Nancy. Much more than these dickweeds deserve. And Nancy Smash!!! fawns over no man anyway.
No one of Importance
Cantor is a weasel. An amoral, dishonest and disingenous disgrace. WHich is why I couldn’t understand why Jon Stewart was sucking his cock on the Daily Show a few months back:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-12-2010/eric-cantor
The fact Cantor is a good old ‘Virginia Jew’ and a pleasant conversationalist doesn’t make up for the fact he’s a evil little shit. Stewart can be incredibly tin-eared.
Cantor should have paid attention to how Obama treated someone Cantor doubtless worships, and not put himself in Netanyahu’s position. Fuckwit.
JWL
A public display of righteous anger by Obama is just what this county needs to rise against the party of Rule or Ruin, and drive it into the wilderness. But its got to be a public display.
Nellcote
@#38 Martin
What you say applies to “ordinary” times like a couple of months ago. But hasn’t Treasury shifted a bunch of things around to push back the date to Aug2?
Jimperson Zibb (formerly Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I don’t know why I read the comments that follow these stories like the one in the link. The people who screech about marxism and Obama’s birth certificate (still!) make me want to give up and leave the country. Once in a while, though, one of them, like the following clown, is so sublimely brain damaged that it almost makes me laugh:
I wonder, if Obama is an “abstract” failure, what does that mean? That only Jackson Pollock can see him? As I said, I almost laugh. Then it dawns on me that this asshole most likely votes. And then I weep.
Jimperson Zibb (formerly Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
@ Little Boots:
Hey, now, I have a huge adam’s apple, and I’m a downright nice guy. Seriously, it’s so big that when I taught school in Honduras after college back in the 90’s, the kids in my class called me Mr. Galía. “Galía” is Spanish for “adam’s apple”.
lol
Boehner knows they’re about to get rolled in a way that’s going to make the teatards very unhappy. As much as he can do to make Cantor be the reason, he’s going to take the opportunity.
There’s going to be a bi-partisan narrative over the weekend about how Cantor overreached and torpedoed any possibility of significant spending cuts.
No one of Importance
According to Politico, Cantor isn’t seeking greatness, he’s having greatness thrust upon him:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58941.html
cough::bullshit::cough
wetcasements
“simply can not”
No, they simply “cannot.”
Sorry, I’m an English teacher.
AxelFoley
@JPL:
That’s a sucker’s bet. We know damn well they will.
Hart Williams
Cantor’s problem is a simple one, but widespread in D.C.: He has a hard time seeing things from the other fellow’s point of view because his head is so far up his ass that he does all his navel gazing from inside.
bjacques
Hey, I kinda like Hart Bochner. And he was brilliant in “Apartment Zero” (playing opposite Colin Firth).
Paul in KY
I think Eric Cantor looks like the love child of Sylvester Stallone & Linda Tripp.
Imagine that, if you dare.
Tone In DC
Paul in KY – July 14, 2011 | 10:58 am · Link
I think Eric Cantor looks like the love child of Sylvester Stallone & Linda Tripp.
Imagine that, if you dare.
_________________________________________
Linda Tripp and Pinochet, methinks.
Paul in KY
Tone in DC, I haven’t seen any pictures of the dictator when he was a youngun. I’ll take your word for it.
Jonathan Pulliam
Obama is lazy. America is nearing the economical equivalent of a buzz-saw if real work doesn’t get done TO CONTROL SPENDING. In a moribund economy, raising taxes via the usual democratic gimmickry SIMPLY IS NOT AN OPTION.
Message to BOTH PARTIES:
The cost of these foolhardy wars in IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN & LIBYA is doing irreparable harm to our national interest.
Eric Cantor and the Republicans SUPPORT the wars that are bankrupting us and ruining our childrens’ futures.
Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership smugly and arrogantly demand a big-government, activist-government, so-called COMMAND ECONOMIC model which is unworkable. anachronistic, and will contribute to the ruinous prospects our children will face because men like Obama only had an attention span of 2 and one half hours. 2 and 1/2 hours !!!
Obama’s idea of what constitutes “hard work” is every bit as laughable as the non-existent work ethic of his predecessor, George Bush.
Obama’s the guy who makes the speech —
“I will not rest until everyone who wants to work can find a job”
while ON VACATION… walks away from the microphone to GOLF with his biggest ( literally as well as figuratively ) fund-raiser. Bet you’re glad you don’t have Obama’s nerve in YOUR tooth !
Did it ever occur to anyone in the smegma-pile Washington D.C. that Eric Cantor’s insistence on spending cuts as opposed to tax hikes might be the
SOLE remaining option?