“Young Gun” Congressman Eric Cantor could see his blossoming political career grow even bigger next Tuesday if Republicans win control of the House of Representatives where Cantor serves House Minority Whip.
Some 116 seats are in play and pundits are betting on a GOP victory with Democrats keeping the Senate. If that happens, Cantor, 7th District Congressman and darling of the Richmond business elite, could become the next House majority leader. In that position, reports The Wall Street Journal, he would be in “the second most powerful post in that chamber behind the speaker. And he could be Barack Obama’s worst nightmare.”
Should that happen, Cantor has vowed to become a truth squad and ethics disciplinarian against President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. Cantor has the endorsement of the Richmond Times-Dispatch owned by Media General where Cantor’s wife, Diana, serves as a director (just coincidental, the TD reminds us).
Yet Cantor has been taking a few lumps. The increasingly powerful Tea Party is clearly anti-Cantor, claiming that he’s just another big-spending Main Street Republican. His refusal to debate his opponents raises questions about his newly-found populism.
Plus, Cantor, 47, may be one of the few Congressmen ever to get drubbing in a New York Times Book Review article. In an assessment of his book “Young Guns” that he co-wrote with two fellow Republican Congressmen, Cantor notes that both Democrats and Republicans agree that health care is in need of fixing.
“Well great,” reviewer Christopher Caldwell wrote Sunday, “But for years now Republicans discussing the availability and cost of health care have been like a kid who, when asked why he hasn’t cleaned up his room, replies, “I was just about to!”
Not wanting to risk debates, Cantor risks come ugly campaign scenes. One happened Monday in Louisa where he appeared in a small coffee shop, supposedly to meet voters.
One man attending was John Taylor, a member of the Louisa County Democratic Committee and backer of Rick Waugh, Cantor’s Democratic opponent. Taylor and two others were asked to leave the coffee shop, told that it was sudenly “private property.” County police then subdued Taylor, as can be scene in this video shot by his son with his cell phone.
Events like these raise questions about the decorum of the man who would be in such a powerful position on Capitol Hill. If Cantor says he wants to debate voters, as he did emphatically during his “Young Guns” book tour, he should do so and not hide behind GOP gatekeepers, a newspaper where his wife has influence and a rural police department.
Peter Galuszka
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