Showing posts with label David Brat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Brat. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

What Cantor’s Defeat Means

◼ link - Roger L. Simon/PJM

...Did we have an actual citizen politician here — and, incredibly, an intelligent one? Skeptical old me began to think of Frank Capra movies. Brat even had the diffident, bespectacled look of Jimmy Stewart.

Nah, it couldn’t be, I thought. There are no more Mr. Smiths. As if on cue a report from the Washington Post rocketed across the lower-third of the screen: “Brat will never have power of Cantor” or words to that effect.

Again, I am not so sure. America — some of it anyway — is desperate for new leadership. The people are restless — and fed up. They don’t always know what they are looking for but they are looking for something. With men like Brat, that something is the U.S. Constitution. They could do worse.
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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

COMPLETELY SHOCKED: After Eric Cantor ´earthquake,´ stunned House GOP seeks direction

◼ After Eric Cantor 'earthquake,' stunned House GOP seeks direction - Byron York/Washington Examiner @ByronYork

"Earthquake. The members are completely shocked," was the reaction of one House Republican lawmaker after Majority Leader Eric Cantor's out-of-the-blue loss to challenger Dave Brat Tuesday night. Trying to grasp the import of what happened, Republicans settled into two schools of thought.

The first was amazement at the sheer power of immigration as an issue in GOP contests. Many Republicans believe Cantor tried to play both sides of the street on the issue, on one side working on measures to ease the way for more young illegal immigrants to move into mainstream American society, and on the other assuring fellow Republicans that serious immigration reform would not happen this year....

Whatever the perspective, Cantor's defeat seems to be the final nail in the coffin -- there have been many -- of comprehensive immigration reform in 2014. "Although it is hard to ever pronounce it dead, given the interests involved, I do finally think amnesty is dead -- at least for this year," writes a GOP House lawmaker.

The other strain of thought among Republicans is speculation about what Cantor's defeat will mean for the House GOP leadership overall. Now that Cantor has gone down, can Speaker John Boehner survive?

The answer is unclear. But what is clear is that many Republican members will interpret Cantor's loss as a sign that the GOP leadership is even weaker than originally thought. "I think you will immediately see a lot of people start to put themselves up for leadership," the Republican lawmaker wrote. "Boehner is weak, and I think you could very well see a completely new slate of leaders next January."

◼ Virginia-7: Here the People Rule - Bill Kristol/Weekly Standard
◼ ‘Amnesty’ Has Claimed a Victim - Fred Barnes/Weekly Standard
◼ Cantor out in Tea Party shocker - The Hill
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Cantor’s defeat is all about immigration.


◼ Ari Fleischer: ‘Cantor loss likely means no way immigration reform proceeds’ - Twitchy

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer says Brat’s victory tonight ensures “immigration reform” (by which he means amnesty, though he doesn’t call it that) is dead in the water.

◼ PowerLine (Paul Mirengoff) agrees:
Cantor’s defeat is all about immigration. A vast gulf has opened up between certain Republican leaders, like Cantor and Paul Ryan, who seemingly are doing the bidding of corporate interests that would like to drive down wages, and the Republican rank and file....House Republicans, please take note.
◼ So does The New Republic:
The immediate policy implications of this are clear: Immigration reform is completely dead. It was a very longshot before Tuesday night. Now, it’s 100 percent over. Cantor’s loss shows how toxic the subject is for any incumbent Republican.

◼ And Miami Herald political writer Marc Caputo:
The No. 2 Republican in the U.S. House is a goner.

And amid the ashes of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s shocking defeat Tuesday, comprehensive immigration reform smolders.
And countless others on both Left and Right



Drudge:
◼ SALON: Drudge and the right's frenzied paranoia - Salon
◼ MAG: Immigration Reform Will Go Down With Cantor - Jack Fitzpatrick and Alex Roarty/National Journal
◼ Todd: Children Flooding Border Sealed fate - Breitbart
◼ White House Spins: It Wasn't Immigration - National Review
◼ GOP Leadership in 'chaos' - National Journal
◼ Meet The Candidate Who Beat Top Republican - ABC
◼ Press Conference - YouTube (Autoplay, turn down your speakers)


◼ THIRD military base tapped to house illegal immigrant children - Daily Mail
◼ RYAN RENEWS AMNESTY PUSH
Zuckerberg group pumps ads...
◼ Border Agent Issues Plea for Help, Says USA Overrun By Criminal Aliens - Infowars
Deportation costs soar...
Questions surround surge at border...
Illegal who sought refuge in church gets deportation stay...
Illegals flagging down border patrol to gain entry to USA...
Central American newspapers tout Obama amnesty program...
CONDITIONS DETERIORATE AT AZ SHELTER...
Chicken pox, staph infection fears...
Widespread sexual activity...
Feds violating child abuse laws?
Valerie Jarrett in secret meetings with activists...
PAPER: Influx 'threatens to transform nation'...


◼ DC Rocked. Cantor Loses Primary - AP

◼ What Cantor’s Defeat Means - John Podhoretz/Commentary

...So is this a case of the Republican Right eating one of its own to prove a point? Perhaps. Or it could just be he was hit by a perfect storm of anti-Washington sentiment and his own advocacy for an immigration bill that made him a whipping boy for ratings-hungry radio chatters. He lost touch with the voters in his own district and was done in....
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Virginia Shocker: Cantor Canned


◼ Eric Cantor Is Losing His Primary Race. Big. AP Follows AOSDD And Calls It For Dave Brat... The rare Double Flaming Skull because it's that big. - Ace Of Spades

◼ Brat severely trailed in fundraising, pulling in $200,000 this cycle compared to Cantor’s $2 million. _ The Other McCain

The AP gets to the heart of it:
Much of the campaign centered on immigration, where critics on both sides of the debate have recently taken aim at Cantor. Brat has accused him of being a top cheerleader for “amnesty” for immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally. Cantor has responded forcefully by boasting in mailers of blocking Senate plans “to give illegal aliens amnesty.”
And so the toppling of Cantor will lead to a gut check for the GOP: go all “scorched earth” and run amnesty through despite the base, or deal with the reality that those spiffy Progressive ideas have all the appeal of a dirty diaper outside the Beltway.

It would be great to say I’m confident that the latter will occur. The GOP will recognize the need for reform. The GOP will at least borrow some fortitude and ignore the Graham/McCain/Boehner Axis of Deadwood.

I don’t think that’s how this works. The Tea Party has to root out incumbents one at a time. The resources just don’t exist to start an entirely new party, much less blow away all the incumbent deadwood at once.

This will be a slow and steady effort. Congratulations to Brat, and a toast to avoiding becoming that which he despises.

◼ Meet David Brat, the man who brought down House Majority Leader Eric Cantor - Washington Post


David Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, has just taught Washington — and one of its most powerful leaders — a lesson in humility.

Brat was dismissed by many Republicans inside the Beltway and beyond, who saw an upstart without the brawn, dollars or organization to depose the second most powerful man in the House.

He did it by casting himself to the right of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on immigration and the Affordable Care Act — and more importantly by giving pumped up primary voters and conservative talkers including Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham an opportunity to make an anti-establishment statement.



◼ Cantor's defeat comes at the end of tough-fought primary campaign, where the challenger Brat made immigration reform a central issue. - Weekly Standard
◼ Brat Takes Center Stage After Surprising Win Over Cantor - Roll Call
The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal both posted articles under headlines asking “Who is David Brat?” and Brat himself did a star turn with a lengthy, post-victory interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Speaking on the phone on Tuesday night with Hannity, Brat called his win a “miracle,” saying he was “utterly humbled and thankful” that “God gave us this win [and] acted through the people.”

Brat also acknowledged that he had “tremendous tea party support,” which he said was “clearly responsible for the win,” but denied that he was any sort of fringe, far-right candidate.

“We have this Republican creed in Virginia that the only problem with the Republican principles is no one’s following them,” Brat insisted. “I ran on the Republican principles.”

He also credited his immigration stance as a factor in his primary win.

“It’s the most symbolic issue that captures the differences between myself in Eric Cantor in this race,” Brat said, “but it also captures the fissure between Main Street and Wall Street. … Why are Republicans doing this? Why are they so intent on this immigration reform? There’s no answer that makes any logical sense.”

Brat denied that he was “far right or hard right,” and blamed the media for trying to paint him as an extremist.

“I’ve been a conservative all my life,” he said.
◼ ANN COULTER ENDORSES CANTOR PRIMARY CHALLENGER DAVID BRAT - Breitbart

"Cantor says 'immigration reform could be an economic boon to this country,'" wrote Coulter. "You don't have to be an economics professor [like Dave Brat] to know that bringing in millions of workers is not 'an economic boon' to the workers already here. (If only we could bring in millions of workers to compete for Cantor's job.)"

Coulter applauded Brat, who she wrote "responded to Cantor's baby-talk, saying immigration 'lowers wages, adds to unemployment, and the taxpayer pays the tab for any benefits to folks coming in.'"

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