{"id":12993,"date":"2014-06-12T00:03:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T07:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12993"},"modified":"2014-06-12T00:03:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T07:03:10","slug":"cantor-teabuggered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/12\/cantor-teabuggered\/","title":{"rendered":"Cantor TEAbuggered!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have said many times that the Republican Party  has sown the wind by embracing the racism, hatred and extremism so beloved by the Tea Party pseudo-patriots.  I have said many times that they shall reap the whirlwind.  But beyond those general predictions I was a surprised as everyone else that one small manifestation of that whirlwind would be the TEAbuggery that will kick Eric cantor from the House Majority leader\u2019s chair and send him scurrying off to K street.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"CantorHat\"The House Republican leadership, so solid in its opposition to President Obama, was torn apart Tuesday by the defeat of its most influential conservative voice, Representative Eric Cantor, the House majority leader. His demise will reverberate all the way to the speaker\u2019s chair, pull the top echelons of the House even further to the right and most likely doom any ambitious legislation, possibly through the next presidential election<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Conservatives who have helped fuel some of the most contentious showdowns over the last three years on issues such as immigration and raising the federal debt ceiling are likely to be emboldened by Mr. Cantor\u2019s shocking loss as they seek to replace him with someone even more closely aligned with their views.<\/p>\n

Further, House Republicans began to immediately plot a new leadership structure that before Tuesday night had hinged merely on whether Speaker John A. Boehner would seek to keep his post next year.<\/p>\n

One measure of the extraordinary defeat could be seen in the candidate\u2019s finances. Since the beginning of last year, Mr. Cantor\u2019s campaign had spent about $168,637 at steakhouses compared with the $200,000 his challenger, David Brat, had spent on his entire campaign. With Mr. Cantor out, members from solidly Republican states will almost certainly be vying for one of the top jobs, if not Mr. Boehner\u2019s gavel<\/strong>. The current Republican leadership slate is filled with members from swing states where the pressure to moderate views on topics such as immigration looms\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

You can be sure that virtually any House Republican who was considering the slightest compromises will be running scared because of this.  That bodes ill for America, because it guarantees a continuation of Republican sabotage, obstruction, and sedition.  Our only hope is that continuation causes a backlash that sends centrists to the polls in November to kick them out.<\/font><\/p>\n

The best coverage of this story came from Rachel Maddow, and I have five clips from her coverage.<\/font><\/p>\n