Pop Goes the Weasel (Eric Cantor)

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

11 June 14

few more things to mark the electorate's decision that Eric Cantor immediately should begin his lucrative career as a lobbyis...er...spend more time with his family.

Point The First: I think Chris Cillizza may stroke out today.

We've written before about how difficult it will be for Boehner to hold on to his speakership -- assuming Republicans keep the majority this fall. But now the heir apparent has been dragged under by a conservative uprising. The third man in command -- House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) -- is not exactly a tea party darling or, stylistically speaking, the sort of hard-liner that the most conservative wing in the House likes. Add it all up and you are looking at what could be an absolutely bananas race to lead the House Republican majority come 2015.

A seismic banana race!

Contra Steve M, the primary bona fides for Republican members of the House of Representatives is how thoroughly you can refuse to do the job of governing, especially in the area of immigration, but also as regards the critical elements of the national economy. That is going to be the ground on which the seismic banana race is going to be run. The winners will be the ones who can most convincingly demonstrate that they have no intention of doing their jobs as long as the Kenyan Usurper resides in the White House.

Point The Second: I still miss Howard Dean.

Remember how Howard Dean put together a 50-state strategy and everybody laughed at him, and then when the wave election hit in 2006, all the credit went to Rahm Emanuel because so many of our elite pundits admire unapologetic dickheads most of all? Anyway, I was thinking of that last night when I realized that Eric Cantor had lost his primary to a religio-Randian economics prof and the Democratic alternative was a place-holder named Jack Trammell, who also works at Randolph-Macon College -- Yellow Jackets represent! Whut-whut! -- who this morning finds himself in a more winnable race than existed at six o'clock last night. Why, I thought, hasn't Trammell, or someone like him -- or a couple of someones like him -- been out there for six months beating more hell out of Cantor than Dave Brat was? Why did his website look like it was designed by Jukt Micronics? The Republicans never shied away from going after Tom Daschle, or Tom Foley before him. Why were national Democrats caught flat-footed by last night's results? It's their job not to be surprised by this kind of thing. The primary benefit of Dean's approach was that it presumed that progressive ideas could sell anywhere, and that it was part of the mandate of a national party not to concede any race anywhere.

Point The Third: Alas, I do so still despair of the rebranding.