Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Virginia Shocker: Cantor Canned


◼ Eric Cantor Is Losing His Primary Race. Big. AP Follows AOSDD And Calls It For Dave Brat... The rare Double Flaming Skull because it's that big. - Ace Of Spades

◼ Brat severely trailed in fundraising, pulling in $200,000 this cycle compared to Cantor’s $2 million. _ The Other McCain

The AP gets to the heart of it:
Much of the campaign centered on immigration, where critics on both sides of the debate have recently taken aim at Cantor. Brat has accused him of being a top cheerleader for “amnesty” for immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally. Cantor has responded forcefully by boasting in mailers of blocking Senate plans “to give illegal aliens amnesty.”
And so the toppling of Cantor will lead to a gut check for the GOP: go all “scorched earth” and run amnesty through despite the base, or deal with the reality that those spiffy Progressive ideas have all the appeal of a dirty diaper outside the Beltway.

It would be great to say I’m confident that the latter will occur. The GOP will recognize the need for reform. The GOP will at least borrow some fortitude and ignore the Graham/McCain/Boehner Axis of Deadwood.

I don’t think that’s how this works. The Tea Party has to root out incumbents one at a time. The resources just don’t exist to start an entirely new party, much less blow away all the incumbent deadwood at once.

This will be a slow and steady effort. Congratulations to Brat, and a toast to avoiding becoming that which he despises.

◼ Meet David Brat, the man who brought down House Majority Leader Eric Cantor - Washington Post


David Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, has just taught Washington — and one of its most powerful leaders — a lesson in humility.

Brat was dismissed by many Republicans inside the Beltway and beyond, who saw an upstart without the brawn, dollars or organization to depose the second most powerful man in the House.

He did it by casting himself to the right of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on immigration and the Affordable Care Act — and more importantly by giving pumped up primary voters and conservative talkers including Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham an opportunity to make an anti-establishment statement.



◼ Cantor's defeat comes at the end of tough-fought primary campaign, where the challenger Brat made immigration reform a central issue. - Weekly Standard
◼ Brat Takes Center Stage After Surprising Win Over Cantor - Roll Call
The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal both posted articles under headlines asking “Who is David Brat?” and Brat himself did a star turn with a lengthy, post-victory interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Speaking on the phone on Tuesday night with Hannity, Brat called his win a “miracle,” saying he was “utterly humbled and thankful” that “God gave us this win [and] acted through the people.”

Brat also acknowledged that he had “tremendous tea party support,” which he said was “clearly responsible for the win,” but denied that he was any sort of fringe, far-right candidate.

“We have this Republican creed in Virginia that the only problem with the Republican principles is no one’s following them,” Brat insisted. “I ran on the Republican principles.”

He also credited his immigration stance as a factor in his primary win.

“It’s the most symbolic issue that captures the differences between myself in Eric Cantor in this race,” Brat said, “but it also captures the fissure between Main Street and Wall Street. … Why are Republicans doing this? Why are they so intent on this immigration reform? There’s no answer that makes any logical sense.”

Brat denied that he was “far right or hard right,” and blamed the media for trying to paint him as an extremist.

“I’ve been a conservative all my life,” he said.
◼ ANN COULTER ENDORSES CANTOR PRIMARY CHALLENGER DAVID BRAT - Breitbart

"Cantor says 'immigration reform could be an economic boon to this country,'" wrote Coulter. "You don't have to be an economics professor [like Dave Brat] to know that bringing in millions of workers is not 'an economic boon' to the workers already here. (If only we could bring in millions of workers to compete for Cantor's job.)"

Coulter applauded Brat, who she wrote "responded to Cantor's baby-talk, saying immigration 'lowers wages, adds to unemployment, and the taxpayer pays the tab for any benefits to folks coming in.'"

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