Free Republic

Ooouuuch. My sides are still aching after last week's comical announcement by GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush that he had snagged the coveted endorsement of notorious electoral reject Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader kicked to the curb by disgusted voters in Virginia's 2014 primary election. Newsflash to GOP elites: Getting Cantor's support is not like landing a prized marlin. It's like hooking one of those hideous bottom-feeding blobfish named the world's ugliest creature. Inside the Beltway, The Washington Post reported, "Cantor remains well-liked and respected in the Virginia business community and among the Republican donor class in the...

LIKE so many others, I was stunned by Speaker John A. Boehner’s announcement on Friday that he would step down at the end of October. For nearly six years — first as Republican whip and then as majority leader — I met with John on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis as we worked to lead the House Republican Conference. (SNIP) We are in the midst of a campaign to elect the next president. After two terms of President Obama, an economy that is growing too slowly and a retrenchment of American power abroad, the conservative to-do list for the next...

Trying to get the GOP base on your side? Master stroke from Jeb! here. Cantor was courted intensely by other candidates. Cantor retains a strong political network in Virginia, a key primary and swing state. And he has enviable connections among Jewish business leaders who can be key supporters and donors. “This is a big deal for Eric, and a big deal for Jeb,” said a top Republican involved in the negotiations. A Cantor source said: “They have known each other for a long time, speak regularly and have great mutual respect for one another. Eric believes he is the...

Rejected GOP leader Eric Cantor will endorse Jeb Bush and become the co-chair of Bush’s presidential campaign in Virginia, according to Politico.

POLITICO ‏@politico 12m12 minutes ago #Breaking: Eric Cantor, former House majority leader, will endorse Jeb Bush on Thursday http://politi.co/1KaycCU

A rising chorus of voices are calling on the Republican Party of Virginia’s state central committee to vote for a Presidential Primary on June 27. Among the many who have opined on the issue is former Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling who took to his Facebook page Thursday to voice his support for a primary: “If the Virginia GOP opts to nominate our candidate for President in a closed party convention, as opposed to an open statewide primary, it will be a HUGE mistake. We cannot survive if we are determine to be a party of exclusion, as opposed to a...

Southern California Edison (SCE) IT workers replaced by H-1B contractors have become the latest Exhibit A in Congress for reformers of the visa program. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has long advocated for changes to the H-1B program to protect U.S. workers, said the Edison layoffs illustrate how some employers "are potentially using legal avenues to import foreign workers, lay-off qualified Americans, and then export jobs overseas. "I was shocked by the heartless manner in which U.S. workers were injured," said Grassley in a Senate floor speech Wednesday. (SNIP) "The sponsors of the bill claim it will 'boost our competitiveness...

Eight months ago, Eric Cantor was forced out of office amid charges that he had lost touch with his Virginia constituents, derailing the political career of the man who was in line to be the first Jewish speaker of the House. Now he’s back.

Lynn Mitchell is at it again. This time standing up for disgraced 5th District GOP Chairman Jon Berkley. Let’s run through her arguments methodically, to be fair. Her arguments: Berkley was a good Chairman. Berkley did nothing to deserve his removal. Berkley had “overwhelming support” within his committee. All three arguments are intellectually dishonest on their face- and Ms. Mitchell should know better. Let’s review. The facts: “Berkley was a good Chairman.” Mitchell’s two arguments seem to be that Robert Hurt won his district in 2014, and that he raised $10,000 for the 5th CD Committee. Well, first off, 2014...

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, unceremoniously dumped in his 2014 GOP primary by Tea Party favorite Dave Brat, has won a gig at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. Cantor will join two others who fell short of election in 2014, former Democratic North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan and former Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who lost her bid for governor, as Institute fellows.

Republican Eric Cantor on Saturday addressed the inaugural gathering of a group formed after grass-roots activists helped Dave Brat topple the former majority leader in last summer’s GOP primary. The day-long meeting of the Virginia Conservative Network featured a who’s who of establishment Republicans in the mold of Cantor, many of whom are frustrated with the party’s loss of all five statewide offices in recent years. According to organizers, Cantor gave an invitation-only crowd of more than 100 people tips on how to frame their message to voters as Republicans prepare to defend their slim majority in the state Senate...

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Monday that a GOP focus on highly politicized issues like ObamaCare and immigration in 2015 would be a “disservice to the American people.” He urged Republicans to act quickly on bipartisan policy initiatives like expanding charter schools, signing new trade deals or creating a permanent research and development tax credit. If they don’t, he warned the next race for the White House could be at stake. He added that the deep divide between Obama and the GOP on issues like healthcare, immigration, climate change and tax reform is “well known” and unlikely...

The congressman speaks with Jim Rutenberg about the “I-word” and showing Gov. Chris Christie the ropes in Iowa. Your outspoken nature has drawn national attention, especially on Twitter. You and your wife have had some fun reading the nastier tweets in public. Any favorites? One said I smelled like “mothballs and dusty Bibles,” or something like that. (SNIP) We picked up 15 seats in the House and maybe nine in the Senate. That’s the kind of punishment I can handle. (SNIP) Whatever kind of crisis emerges, the agenda that they have long advocated for magically becomes the silver bullet for...

Incoming Virginia congressman Dave Brat, whose historic GOP primary victory over then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor shook up Washington’s power structure this summer, is blasting President Obama’s executive fiat on immigration reform as "morally vacuous" – while stopping short of calling for impeachment.

Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who shockingly toppled former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in a primary this summer, says he'll support John Boehner (R-Ohio) for Speaker. Brat told The Hill he plans to vote for Boehner on the floor in January when the Speaker is elected by the full House for the new Congress. "As of right now, yeah," Brat said. "I'm optimistic our leadership's going to move forward on the principles I ran on."

While it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of yesterday's victories, the only reason that we won so decisively yesterday was because a small group of DETERMINED REPUBLICANS in Virginia decided that the country couldn't take anymore of Eric Cantor, and somehow, beyond all expectations and all precedent, sent him packing to K-Street, on June 10, 2014. That set the stage for yesterday. Earlier, the US Senate had passed a horrendous Amnesty Bill (the prior summer, 2013), worse than anything than even Bush had pushed for. The House Leadership was ready to act on the advice of their...

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) said he was "disappointed" after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary and resigned because it was a loss for the state's congressional leadership. "As governor, I had the Majority Leader and, potentially, the Speaker of the United States of America as a member of my congressional delegation," McAuliffe told radio host John Catsimatidis in an interview to air Sunday on New York's 970 AM. "Personally, I was disappointed that Eric lost." SNIP When Catsimatidis told the governor that some people blamed him for Cantor's stunning defeat, McAuliffe said he's not at fault.

Pat Caddell, singing the praises of independent Kansas Senate candidate Greg Orman… I listened to Chris Wallace, ‘oh [Orman] will caucus with the Democrats’– what does he know!? He’s never talked to the man. … "[Orman] represents a new world view, which is politics as-is is failing the country, the people are being let down…there is a new force coming in politics, and I think he’s gonna win that seat, and I think, actually, it represents a real breakthrough. " That’s when producers– determined to interrupt the Orman love-fest– fed Childers’ bogus Karl Rove talking points… Childers: But he has...

Late Monday night it was reported that former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor would take a job at investment bank Moelis.The news has already prompted the predictable eye-rolling about the "revolving door." And to the Tea Partiers who ousted Cantor in a primary earlier this year, the news that he is going to Wall Street is vindication that he was never a populist like them.But anyway, Moelis has put in a filing with the SEC, detailing his pay package (Via Erik Schatzker).From the filing:Group LP has agreed to pay Mr. Cantor an annual base salary of $400,000. Group LP has...

Passing a new Voting Rights Act in the GOP-dominated House was never going to be easy, supporters acknowledge. But with a powerful Republican such as Eric Cantor as an ally, hope flickered for nearly a year. Then came June 10 and the shocking primary defeat that tanked Cantor’s congressional career — taking with it, in all likelihood, any prospect for an update of the landmark 1965 civil rights legislation that had been weakened by a 2012 Supreme Court ruling. Even with Cantor as majority leader, said a House aide close to the VRA negotiations, “I would have speculated that it...