Many were surprised to learn they'd just gone from being most important congressional district in the country to being least important. (2)
— billmon (@billmon1) June 11, 2014
.@joanneleon No, really. Local media (Spokane, WA) did lots of election night interviews w/ people who voted for opponent on that assumption
— billmon (@billmon1) June 11, 2014
Apart from the gloating on both sides of the aisle, Virginia’s just given up front teat at the money bar — and the leadership wanna-bes are about to turn cannibal on each other. From Politico:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning loss to his tea party challenger on Tuesday will create the biggest disruption for GOP lawmakers since the departure of Tom DeLay eight years ago, and throws open the question of who will be the next Speaker after John Boehner leaves.
It’s unclear how long Boehner plans to stay on, or whether Cantor’s defeat will alter the Ohio Republican’s thinking on his own future. There has been speculation for months that Boehner could step down after Election Day, or before the end of the next Congress, with Cantor in place as his certain successor…
Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, the current No. 3 in the House, is all but certain to run for the majority leader post, GOP sources said. McCarthy’s office declined to comment on Cantor’s loss or McCarthy’s future plans.
But the California Republican will likely be challenged by a member of the conservative wing of the House GOP Conference, potentially including Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington or Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
And a full-scale war will break out for Majority Whip, with Scalise, McMorris Rodgers and Reps. Pete Roskam (R-Ill.) and Pete Sessions (R-Texas) all possibilities for that post…
GOP Rep. Paul Ryan was nex in line for the Ways and Means Committee gavel and had already said he wasn’t running for leadership, may have to rethink that stance as well.
Other leadership hopefuls could also emerge, especially among freshmen or sophomore members, although some of the most visible members those classes are running for Senate, leaving Congress or have other roles at this time. This group includes Reps. Jim Lankford (R-Okla.), who is running for Senate; Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), another Senate hopeful; Tim Griffin (R-Ark.); and Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who is chairing the Benghazi select committee….
Cantor’s loss could also dramatically alter the Republican legislative agenda for the next five months. Cantor had been scrambling to craft GOP health-care bill to replace Obamacare – trying to piece together plans from wide corners of the party that could win support from a majority of Republicans. GOP leadership aides were tentatively planning for a series of health-care related votes following the July 4th recess…
Quite the fuster of clucks they’ve got lined up, yes? Don’t suppose Gowdy will be willing to give up his important “Benghazi select committee” just to scrum for the leadership prize, alas.
lamh36
Congress JIm Moran (D) Virginia was just on a LIVE version of Chris Hayes talking about Virginia not losing power in the House and how Cantor’s voters and non-voters don’t realize the luxury that VA had in terms of power in the House. With Cantor’s defeat, that’s ALL gone!
He also said that while this won’t probably mean much for 2014, it will affect 2016, because he suspects that GOP WILL overreach in the wrong direction.
Personally, I’m –>THIS<– close to watching Morning Hoe to see JoeScar's bitchin' and trying to somehow blame this on Obama.
Also too, is Faux News reporting this as a "victory" for the Right? How do they choose? Does this Brat guy become the cause celebre of Faux News now?
Also too, Cantor is now a sitting duck, and the last Jewish member of Congress right?
Chris Hayes trolling Cantor with the "Young Guns" book ad that included Cantor and Ryan…lol
cckids
Every time I think they can’t get any stupider, the R’s prove me wrong.
KG
Wait, so Boehner is running for reelection this year (because every member of the House is) but may resign after the election? How does that make any sense? I can understand announcing he won’t seek reelection in 2016, but why run this time and force the state of Ohio to pay for a special election?
lamh36
Suffern ACE
@KG: he can retire as speaker and just be a plain old congressman.
lamh36
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@KG: He might not stand for Speaker again.
mdblanche
@lamh36:
The last Republican Jewish member of Congress.
lamh36
KG
@Suffern ACE: ah, ok… Wasn’t really clear that’s what they meant. My other thought was “because he wanted to be a dick”
gf120581
I remember that from the 1994 Foley/Nethercutt race. It shows you just how stupid and ill-informed some voters are.
It really is going to be a complete and utter free-for-all war in the GOP ranks for power. It’s gonna be the DC version of what happened on Game of Thrones after Robert Baratheon got taken out by that boar.
someguy
The faux sadness over here at Cantor losing is hilarious. Please. We have heaped shit on Cantor’s head for a long time. We should be celebrating the replacement of this powerful, vile right wing hater with a vile right wing hater who will be powerless – one upon whose head we can heap even more shit. It makes not a bit of difference, and to the extent it makes any difference at all, it should enhance Democratic power in the house by taking out one of the more effective hacks the Republicans had.
That Brat’s election also rubs Kkkarl Rove’s nose in the big pile of poop the Tea Party left on the kitchen floor, only makes this sweeter.
gf120581
@KG: Because it’s Boner. You think the Drunk Weepy Oompa-Loompa cares?
It’s likely Boner will step down as Speaker next year. I imagine he’s counting the days until he can leave the House and go cash in on K Street. It certainly sounds better then having to deal with the walking mental ward that is his caucus, even if he now won’t have to worry about Cantor sharpening the knives behind him.
mdblanche
@lamh36: When I first read that, it got all garbled up in my head and I thought it said Boehner’s kidneys had died. Which would be somewhat unusual since you would usually expect his liver to die first.
someguy
@mdblanche: The last Republican Jewish member of Congress.
Yeah, I forgot that part. One wonders how much the screaming white supremacists who lead the Republican Party let their anti-semitism control how the party supported (or failed to support) Cantor in his bid for re-election. Probably they had a lot to do with it but we’ll never know.
Tommy
@cckids: I am 44. Not a saga. But for 20+ years followed politics on a daily basis. In all those year the Republicans when they’d lose an election would not blame it on their views or platform, but say they didn’t have a candidate that really represented them. Myself and many, many, countless others noted be careful what you wish for. It would seem the crows are coming home to roost are they not?
JGabriel
Hole-ee shit! Cantor lost his primary?
That’s a rhetorical question mark, by the way, to indicate stunned disbelief, rather than actually questioning the fact.
Still, and this question’s not rhetorical, I wonder if the House will do like the Senate a few years ago and lose control due to too many unelectable crazy extremists winning primaries?
‘Cause, you know, that would be nice.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@someguy: Point at someone being sad. Please.
? Martin
@mdblanche: The last Republican non-Christian member of Congress. I think they’re all white now as well in the House. A few women left.
That outreach program is doing great.
JGabriel
via lamh36:
I’m sure Boehner is just overwhelmed and traumatized by no longer feeling that knife at his back.
? Martin
Why isn’t Louis Gohmert running for the leadership role?
Higgs Boson's Mate
I’d be a lot more jubilant if Cantor’s defeat had any effect on the balance of the House, As it stands, one asshole was replaced by another asshole and the Speaker will still be a Republican.
lamh36
@mdblanche: thanks I meant to add that one.
I see the Obama campaign crew is trolling Cantor’s loss.
SuperHrefna
I’m going to need a doggy bag so I can save some of this schadenfreude for later. So tender and delicious!
JGabriel
@lamh36:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you mean “lame duck”?
If I am wrong, then how is Cantor a sitting duck? He’s already removed from contention for leadership positions – no one will be aiming for him, they’ll just wait him out while aiming at the other competition.
Urza
When they say changes their legislative agenda for the next 5 months, assuming they’re not laughing hysterically saying it, do they mean more or less Obamacare repealing, more or less Benghazi? Cause if there was anything else it was purely accidental, those guys cant even agree to name a post office.
mdblanche
@? Martin: Has there ever been a Republican Congresscritter who wasn’t either Christian or Jewish?
There are a few Hispanics in their House caucus still, mostly Cubans. I’m sure they’re due to be purged next.
srv
Bret Hume was fuming earlier about all this nonsense about Cantor being weak on them immigrants.
He obviously needs to check his purity card.
JGabriel
@gf120581:
You mean, like, instead of a Red Wedding, we’ll get a Bed Wetting?
JGabriel
@someguy:
Oh, believe me, I am, I am!
lamh36
@JGabriel: you are correct, I meant “lame duck”…lol. But he’ll technically be doing a lot of “sitting” soon right?
lol.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Well, FYWP.
Cantor’s defeat will not in any way affect the House majority. One asshole was replaced by another, so… The next Speaker will still be a Republican.
lamh36
Wow, Peter King sounds all shook up don’t he!
Tommy
@? Martin: They are getting to the point of being a joke to those outside of a board like this. You know the general population. In my district an Army General (William L. Enyart) that last had run the Illinois National Guard ran against a trust fund tea party guy in my district. 30 years old I think. He did serve one tour in Iraq. He attacked the General as being unpatriotic and then said since Rod Blagojevich appointed him to this position he must be corrupt. He got three appointments starting before Rod was in power.
My local paper which isn’t close to liberal ran editorials call him a “kid playing with the big boys.”
With all that said I fear if the Republicans run a moderate we lose this seat. But they won’t. It will continue to stay Democratic, which it has been for like 100 years.
gf120581
@lamh36: Little late for that concern, Peter.
Punchy
So is Brat his nicky or his actual moniker? Or both? Is his wife named “Subaru”?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Assuming this primary doesn’t mean anything and the GOP holds on to the House majority. Of course, even if that happens, a someone was replaced by a no one. Fucking negativity really grinds on me at times. There is no way in which this result hurts our side and a variety of ways in which it probably helps; let’s call it a win and be happy. Or is that too much?
Forkbeard
The only sadness I feel over this is that Immigration Reform is dead – it won’t get any Republican votes at least until 2016, when the Republicans make a token effort to assure Latinos that they don’t really hate them that much.
I mean, we weren’t going to get reform anyway, but now it’s certain.
max
@? Martin: Why isn’t Louis Gohmert running for the leadership role?
YES! King of the Pinheads for King of the House!
max
[‘They’ll be holding roll call votes at 4 AM on ‘Resolved: Jefferson Davis was a really good President’.’]
lamh36
@Forkbeard: Was just gonna say, immigration reform wasn’t gonna happen even before Cantor’s defeat.
Anyhoo,
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Forkbeard: Immigration reform was already dead. Obama wanted it; it wasn’t going to happen.
lamh36
Retweet of club4growth communications twitter:
Morzer
@? Martin:
Because he hasn’t worked out how to tie the laces on his running shoes?
Morzer
@mdblanche:
Well, you could argue fairly convincingly that Mormons don’t fit into either category.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Morzer: I believe that his staff has already switch him to velcro closures.
? Martin
@Morzer: They have those fancy ones with velcro, now. I think he’s good for the leadership position.
JGabriel
Higgs Boson’s Mate:
True, but maybe we can win the seat. Let me check who’s running … A-a-a-nd …
That would be no one.
Have we learned nothing from Dean’s 2006 50 State Strategy? This is EXACTLY why you run a 50 state strategy: so you have a candidate to take advantage if someone from the other party screws up, dies, or gets in a scandal in an otherwise unwinnable district.
Sigh.
JGabriel
@lamh36: Heh, cool, that’s what I thought you meant.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Oh for hell’s sake. Ya’ll are usually so much more insightful than I am. Cantor’s place as Cassius to Boehner’s Caesar is now open to the wingnuts.
Negativity? Hell yes. I’ve seen my party descend from championing the least among us to a lukewarm version of Nixon Republicans. My negativity is well earned.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@JGabriel: There is someone running – Jack Trammel. Multiple links and discussions on this site.
Tommy
@Forkbeard: Nope noting. Noting.
I am in a reflective mood …
My family came here from the Isle of Skye Scotland in 1873. I have letters that talk of hard work. Terrible conditions. Eventually they got better. My favorite is a letter written as a direct mail piece for the election to be a judge. He outlines he is an immigrant in detail. Talks of his life. My favorite thing he said, “I dug coal.”
He won. From an immigrant to an elected judge in a single lifetime.
I want that for others. I almost want to say just open up our borders and say “come on in.” That was like it was for my family many, many years ago.
gf120581
@JGabriel: There is a Democrat running. And irony of ironies, he teaches at the very same college that Brat does. It’s a small college too, so they no doubt know each other.
Suffern ACE
@Forkbeard: positive reform is dead. However, negative reforms are always possible. Anti immigrant groups have their own reforms in mind.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: If you are right, how will Congress change? Let me offer a view.
The leadership seems batshit. They stop pretending to be sane. And then, sensible people notice.
Suffern ACE
@lamh36: wow. What surrender monkeys those establishment republicans are.
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Haven’t we been waiting for this movie for the last 30 some years?
JGabriel
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
You’re right. Thank the FSM. Someone should tell the VA 7th’s Democratic Congressional Committee to update their web site.
Last I’d read, we had no one on the ballot because no one had registered to run in the primary. My bad. Thanks for the correction.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Sensible people have somehow failed to notice the incredible toll of gun violence. Sensible people’s wishes will only have effect when they get up off of their asses and vote for sensible politicians.
lamh36
I think Goldie Taylor made this point, but it really needs to be said.
It’s ironic that Cantor slayed by the same forces he aided and abetted in the House. The beast he birth and created and nurtured turn back and bit him…HARD!
If Cantor ain’t pure enough, then who is?
Violet
@JGabriel: According to his Facebook page, he was only just chosen yesterday:
JGabriel
@Violet, @gf120581: Yep, got it from Omnes too. Thanks.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: I have noticed a number of positive results that have come out of the present administration. It really depends how one looks at it. Has society achieved what people hoped for in the 1960s? No. Have we started fixing the shit that Reagan and the Bushes broke? Yes, we have. Half empty or half full.
Violet
And I don’t know who’s messing with his website, but the whole thing redirects to his Act Blue page now: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/jacktrammell
warren
@JGabriel: Do you mean other than Jack Trammell, who’s just, oh I dunno, THE DEMOCRAT WHO IS RUNNING FOR THIS SEAT?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@lamh36:
History repeats itself. Some of the authors of the French Revolution were themselves condemned by it.
I am saddened by the descent of the Republican party because we have settled on a two-party system without ever having considered that one of those parties might go insane.
lamh36
JGabriel
@lamh36:
Yeah, that’s pretty much what always happens in a purity spiral. Eventually the leaders get taken out by the same people they recruit, for no longer being pure enough. Cf. Robespierre.
Edited to Add: Higgs Boson’s Mate, I swear I wrote this before reading your post. Great minds, etc.
Dude in Princeton
@someguy: The NYT made the same accusation tonight. Of course it’s incumbent on you as well as the NYT to back it up with more than insinuation. You might find this episode helpful in constructing your case: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/12/eric-cantor-benjamin-netanyahu-israel_n_782738.html
mai naem
Wow. I am genuinely shocked. I thought with the teabaggers around, the GOP congresscritters were being super careful about their right flank.
JGabriel
costareports (twitter) via lamh36:
Sessions is racist and corrupt enough to be in the Republican leadership, but I’m guessing those times he advocated for the disabled in 2008 & 2011 will come back to haunt him.
Republicans don’t like it when you help the disabled, especially when that help involves spending a job creator’s tax money on gov’t programs to aid them.
Edited to Add: Sixty-nine!
ruemara
@JGabriel: I wish, before people run with CW, they’d check. There’s two people-Dem & Independent-running to the left of Brat.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@JGabriel:
Heh! History can at times be a decent predictor of the present simply because people haven’t changed that much over the centuries, There are a handful of patterns that do repeat.
Mnemosyne
@JGabriel:
I think some of the confusion came in because the Republicans held a primary election while the Democrats stuck with the traditional (for Virginia) direct nomination by a committee.
pseudonymous in nc
@Forkbeard:
Possibly 2015, if something big happens in the House.
Immigration reform doesn’t happen in even-numbered years. Proper immigration reform — as in, looking at the patchwork quilt of immigration law and creating a system that doesn’t have its roots in the 1950s — probably doesn’t happen for a while.
It’s a sad reality that immigration legislation and elections don’t mix, because the people who vote (on either side) largely don’t have any contact with the system and don’t really give a fuck other than OMG ILLEGAL MESCANS.
Citizen Alan
@JGabriel:
There is a Democrat running. Don’t know if he has a chance, but there is one. Ironically, he’s a college professor from the same school where Brat teaches. I wonder how well they know each other.
Chris
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
One of the parties is insane because at least a good quarter of the population has gone insane, and even outside that quarter, far too many of the insane memes have spread far and wide and become conventional wisdom.
I can’t really think of any political system that would be dealing well with this. The result of democracy is inevitably that when a large enough number of the people get a stupid idea into their head, that’s going to affect the political system. (And as we see in the Middle East, even dictatorship against the crazies 1) comes with all kinds of problems of its own, and 2) can only last so long in any event).
James E. Powell
I doubt that more than a handful of voters understood that Cantor being a more powerful congressperson meant anything good for their district. Perhaps there was no apparent evidence of his positive influence. Perhaps that is one reason they were more than willing to get rid of him.
I doubt that more than a handful of American voters have any idea how the congress works, where their congressperson and senators stand in the hierarchy, what that means, if anything, for their lives.
WaterGirl
@warren: geez, back off, people. :-)
trammel was just nominated a day or two ago, and websites haven’t been updated, so a quick google search can lead you to believe there was not a democrat running.
Berial
@James E. Powell: Certainly seems that way in MS. They are probably (do over in 2 more weeks) going to vote to replace their VERY senior senator known for bringing home the bacon, with an guy that has said he would have to ‘think hard about bringing MS relief after Katrina’. Mississippians that lost their shit during Katrina and vote for McDaniel DESERVE what they’re going to get, which will be NOTHING.
Berial
Say what you want about Haley Barbour, but he isn’t stupid.
Momus
Pious Pete Roskam for speaker. He’s now wearing Rick Perry Smart Spex in an attempt to look smarter, so you know he is ready!
Original Lee
Is it wrong of me, every time I see the name Jeb Hensarling, to think immediately of Van Helsing?