re: #163 palomino

Hilarious. Obama certainly won’t miss Cantor. He’s been a total pain in his ass. Then again, the new Majority Leader will probably be even worse.

This is a pretty big deal. IIRC, the last time someone in such a high leadership position in the House lost his seat was Speaker Tom Foley, 20 years ago. But that was arguably less surprising, since he lost to a member of the opposing party…not an even more extreme ideologue in his own party.

The irony is that Cantor positioned himself to the right of Boehner, partly in the hopes of becoming Speaker someday. But apparently he didn’t position himself FAR right enough to get the nod in his own district, which he’s served over a decade. Cantor was already one of the gop’s most aggressive anti-Obama/anti-Dem attack dogs. How much more right wing would he have to be to satisfy the voters in his district?

I think what Cantor’s defeat does show you is how extremely nuts the GOP base has become. I am with Frank. Cantor never actually supported or did anything meaningful on immigration reform but it seems that he was defeated for not being openly hateful enough. It’s scary to me honestly the direction that party’s going and knowing they could get the Senate next year or worse the presidency in three years.