the Cantor brand

[franksolich]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167760?GT1=43002

A rising star in the GOP wants a new leadership role in the diminished party.

In the aftermath of the Republican defeat Tuesday, Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia plans to seek the all-important Minority Whip post, a position he has been rumored to covet for weeks, according to sources close to the Congressman. The post is currently held by Roy Blunt of Missouri.

Even on Tuesday night, it was clear Cantor wouldn't be wasting time mourning his party's losses. Senate candidate Jim Gilmore was still giving his gloomy concession speech to a depressed crowd of Republicans inside a suburban Richmond hotel ballroom while Cantor was posing in a hallway outside for a star-struck waitress using her cell phone camera to snap a picture with him. Cantor had declared his own victory just after 9 p.m. In a decidedly unfriendly environment for Republicans across the country, and even in once solidly Red Virginia, the 45-year-old GOP congressman had won 63 percent of the vote.

Ed Barden, a 50-year-old Richmond furniture storeowner who was at the party watching returns, put it best: "There were people who voted Democrat, Democrat, Cantor." But even though Cantor's margin was not a surprise given that he's from a conservative district and is very popular, there were big questions remaining: Where does he go from here and how does he reshape the party in the process? That answer became clear on Wednesday.....

You know, I dunno.

This of course is all good, and it's the sort of thing we should be doing now, since the election is done and over with--looking forward to the next election, and trying to find leaders to pull us out of the morass.

Cantor looks good, very good.

There appears to be some dissatisfaction with John Boehner (R-Ohio), Republican leader in the House, which confuses me.

Now, I don't know all things, and could be wrong.

I used to watch John Boehner on C-Span during the early 1990s, when the Republicans in the House were a small minority, and I was always impressed by him.  In fact, of all the then-Republicans in the House, I was impressed most by him.

I dearly hope for the day when Boehner as Speaker of the House blows some cigarette smoke in Bela Pelosi's face.

[Jim]

Cantor is my rep and he is good, I was a little unhappy that he caved on the bailout as he had the RIGHT way to do it (guarantees as opposed to free money) but I understand he was doing his whip job.

THere are a number of real conservatives out there and I hope to God they pull together and start doing what Newt told them they had to do.

I had really hoped Eric would run against Warner but that was a tall order given his inane support for a very undistinguished stint in the governor's mansion.