Free Republic

Conservatives wary of John McCain and worried about who he'll choose for a running mate are offering up ideas left and -- more to the point -- right. One of the ideas gaining momentum in conservative circles is Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.). McCain-Cantor Campaign Button Cantor, the 45-year-old Republican chief deputy whip of the House, has three great attributes: youth, conservative bona fides and geographic desirability, as Virginia will likely be a crucial swing state in this year's presidential election. All of which may explain why McCain had a private lunch last weekend with Cantor and his wife, Diana, in...

ONE LOCAL pol whose name has not been mentioned could make the perfect running mate -- for Republican John McCain. Rep. Eric Cantor is 44. McCain is 71. As a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Cantor brings the clout and experience on economic and tax issues that many believe McCain lacks. He was a businessman before being elected to the House in 2000 and has been an eloquent spokesman for pro-growth policies ever since. Cantor would energize economic conservatives in a way that McCain has not, and he possesses the skill and expertise to attack the...

The Talk Shows Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; former Gov. Tom Ridge, R-Pa.; Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): (Hosted by Brian Williams) Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Biden, D-Del.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Carly Fiorina, adviser to John McCain's campaign; Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.; American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Red Cavaney; Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Govs....

Washington - In picking a running mate, John McCain needs someone young to offset his own petrification. He needs someone to help him geographically and someone with a strong domestic résumé to possibly ease those concerned that McCain once said in public he doesn't really understand the economy as well as he should. The choice should be historic if Republicans want to get in on the excitement over Barack Obama's breaking down racial barriers. Oh, and the guy has to be a ferocious fund-raiser to make up for McCain's pathetic performance in this area. (Obama has outraised McCain 3 to...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is attracting elite Jewish Democratic donors who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and are concerned about Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) stance toward Israel, say McCain backers who are organizing the effort to court Democrats. McCain has already had several fundraising events with Jewish Democrats in Washington and Florida, say his supporters. He also has the backing of Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who made history as the first Jewish vice presidential candidate and has recently raised questions about Obama’s foreign policy vision for the Middle East. Stephen Muss, the Florida developer, is the biggest Democratic...

When lawmakers return to Capitol Hill this week, a group of House Republicans known as the FIT Force will unveil an effort to expose Washington waste. Led by Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.), this newly formed Fiscal Integrity Task Force wants to hold congressional spendthrifts accountable for their excesses. McCotter’s goal is admirable—and one that all Americans, regardless of ideology, should support. Unfortunately, the group’s timing couldn’t be worse. That’s because McCotter and half of the FIT Force members themselves abandoned fiscal integrity less than two weeks ago. That’s when they voted to override President Bush’s veto of the farm bill,...

Soul searching Republicans are turning to an unlikely savior, one-time party heretic and now presumptive White House nominee John McCain, as they try to stave off an electoral disaster. Stung by the Democratic seizure of three staunch conservative seats in Congress, Republican lawmakers fear a shellacking in November's general election, after losing control of both chambers of Congress in 2006. The rise of McCain as their champion is not without irony, since the 71-year-old Arizona senator has quarreled with his own party for years on issues as diverse as immigration, campaign finance reform and global warming. But it is precisely...

If the justices accept that advice when they hear the case in the spring, it could mean additional years of litigation over the controversial Second Amendment and could undo a ruling that was a seminal victory for gun rights enthusiasts. Some were livid. One conservative Web site said the administration had "blundered in catastrophic fashion," and another turned Clement, usually a pinup for conservative legal scholars, into a digital dartboard. Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the Republicans' chief deputy whip, called the brief "just outrageous," and Republican presidential candidate and former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) accused the Justice Department of...

Sign up NOW!!!for the 3rd Annual 7th Congressional District Republican Round-Up Saturday, October 13th, 2007 3 - 7 pm   and it's FREE!!!              Click here to see the fun photos from last year!

Most of you know that there is a coordinated campaign with TV ads and a massive call-in and e-mail operation to Rush Limbaugh's employers designed to silence Rush. Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor has put up a petition to counter this outrage. It is located at: http://www.standwithrush.com/ Please go there an sign it to support Rush.

Rep. Eric Cantor, the deputy Republican whip, would be his party’s best shot at holding John Warner’s Senate seat. As Patrick Ruffini has pointed out, Cantor is ideally positioned as a congressman from the Richmond suburbs. He can connect with downstate voters without alienating northern Virginia suburbanites. He is a proven money-raiser. In a primary, the conservative Cantor would have to be favored to beat northern Virginia moderate Tom Davis. Everyone who follows politics knows that Virginia is changing, and that 2008 is shaping up to be another bad year for Republicans. But Virginia isn’t becoming a liberal state. James...

Imagine a patient who upon hearing a potentially life-threatening diagnosis embarks on a spate of binge drinking and chain smoking. That should give you a pretty good idea of what it was like to be a Virginia Republican this past week. Following his stunning 11th hour decision not to run for President last year, it was pretty clear that former Democratic governor Mark Warner would try to re-enter politics at some lower, more manageable level. His announcement this week that he would try for the Senate in 2008 came as no surprise following the retirement of the namesake he ran...

Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 22nd I will be guest hosting for a vacationing Jimmy Barrett on WRVA’s “Richmond’s Morning News” show. “Richmond’s Morning News” can be heard over the airwaves at 1140 AM or over the internet from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM. For those of you that can’t listen directly CLICK HERE for a direct link to WRVA’s live feed.Come join me as we discuss Virginia and national issues and of course football with some longtime friends and allies. My lineup includes: 6:08 am Bob Lewis, Associated Press Writer 6:53 am John Hagar, Chairman, Republican Party of Virginia 7:08 am...

A Washington source writes: An outrage was committed on the House floor tonight. I still can't quite believe what happened. While voting on a motion to recommit for the agricultural appropriations legislation, the presiding chair (who is a Democrat member) gaveled the vote closed. The tally was clear and the vote was over. The Republicans had won. Then, realizing what had happened - the Dems allowed just their people to keep voting to change the result. Let's be clear, this wasn't holding the vote open - they changed the results of a vote that was legally declared over. Rep. Eric...

House Democrats Just Blinked House Democrats wanted to change the rules to make it easier to raise taxes.  They wanted to hide their Members from a direct vote on the tough issues.  They wanted to change rules on minority floor rights that have been in place since 1822.  They failed. Today, House Republicans stood united and successfully fought against the House Democrats’ ill-advised rule changes, by reducing all business on the House Floor to a crawl.  We used a creative set of motions and other parliamentary techniques to bring the fight.In the end, House Democrats lost and the American...

His nude workshops and civil rights-era jail time aside, Dr. Brad Blanton appears to have the support of Culpeper Democrats as the sole Democratic candidate against U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Richmond, in the November election... ...His workshops include yoga, meditation and spending eight days “together being descriptive and honest with each other.” Day five of his “Course in Honesty” workshop is when participants get very personal. “We all take off our clothes, stand up in front of the camera and the other naked people and talk about what we like and what we dislike or are ashamed about our bodies,”...

House conservatives moved on Tuesday to prevent either Roy Blunt or John Boehner from wrapping up the race to become majority leader before Congress reconvenes later this month. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who chairs the Republican Study Committee, a group of about 110 conservative members of the House, said he hopes the race won't be decided before his committee holds a retreat Jan. 30-31 in Baltimore. "I'm not going to express any endorsement" until after then, said Pence, who on Monday took his name out of the running to succeed Tom DeLay as majority leader. DeLay stepped down last September...

WASHINGTON — Reps. Roy Blunt and John Boehner, rivals in the race to succeed Majority Leader Tom DeLay, both claimed progress Monday and released the names of supporters to prove it. The two men maneuvered for support as Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia claimed the votes needed to move up the leadership ladder when elections are held early next month. "He has 140 firm commitments for majority whip," said Cantor's spokesman, Rob Collins. He declined to provide a list. Cantor has been serving as deputy whip under Blunt. Not to be deterred, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., announced he would run...

NEITHER BOEHNER NOR BLUNT [Rich Lowry] Just talked to a top Republican strategist in Washington. This is what he says, “I hear next week there is going to be a call for an election [to select DeLay's replacement as majority leader]. I don't know all the details, but a number of members have called the speaker to say we've got to have it. You need 50 signatures on a letter to trigger an election. The feeling has been that there aren't 50 members with the courage to sign such a letter. That changed considerably since the Abramoff plea. Everybody believes...

Fox news just reported (via announcment with Dennis Hassert) that Roy Blunt will be taking over for Delay in the short term (while he is fighting the charges).