At his weekly press conference Thursday, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) repeatedly declined to offer an opinion about why House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) lost his GOP primary election Tuesday night or what message it sends to Republicans.
When asked if the majority leader’s defeat makes it harder to move forward on immigration reform, Boehner said, “We don’t know that that [immigration] is the issue — or was the issue — in the election.”
Cantor’s lukewarm support for some sort of immigration reform — even though the issue was going nowhere — was one of many issues that his conservative challenger, economics professor David Brat, used to paint Cantor as an establishment sellout who’s out of touch with the right.
Boehner also declined to endorse anyone in the GOP conference election on June 19 to succeed Cantor as majority leader. “Members are going to make this decision,” he said, and “I can work with whoever gets elected.” House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is the favorite to ascend to the position.
Apparently it was not. It was Cantor’s arrogance and disdain for his constituents that felled him. According to a poll taken the very day of the elections, the majority of voters in his district approve of immigration reform and a path to citizenship.
The ONLY thing Cantor can do to redeem his hideous record is if, while he is still Majority Leader, he brings the Senate immigration bill to the floor, and dare his fellow republicans to vote it down for all the world, including brown people, to see. Who knows, it might just pass, and he will have actually saved the GOP.
Holy crap! Boner said something that was correct and true! I think I’d better go buy a lottery ticket and some extra heavy duty boots to insulate my feet from the chill coming up from Hell.
John, there is much you don’t know, but what we in the reality-based community should know is that primary voters made all the difference in defeating Cantor. We’ve been told about the power small numbers of primary voters yield and it’s true. From Charles Blow:
“Only about 65,000 people voted in the Republican primary in Virginia’s Seventh District on Tuesday. This is in a district of nearly 760,000 people, and in which Mitt Romney bested President Obama in 2012 by 15 percentage points. “Cantor’s loss last night came at the hands of about 5% percent of his constituents.”
They may say you’re a dreamer, I hope you’re not the only one. . .
We don’t know if that was the issue…but does it really matter since we’re not going to do squat about it either way?