I thought that Eric Cantor was present for the talks that took the nation to the brink of default over raising the debt ceiling, except for the time he walked out in a snit from Vice President Biden’s group. Even so, I would assume that Cantor, as majority leader, would have been diligent enough to actually read the final deal before it was voted on by both houses of Congress. Evidently, he didn’t bother.
The White House is now asking Congress to approve $5 billion in additional FEMA disaster relief money, noting that the recent budget deal allows for as much as $11 billion in additional funding without finding offsets elsewhere in the budget. I guess nobody explained that portion of the law to Cantor in little bitty words that he could understand. So, now we have the spectacle of Cantor wanting to refuse additional immediate disaster aid, even though his congressional district was the epicenter of Virginia’s recent 5.8 earthquake and also suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Irene.
It seems some of the Tea-poisoned Republicans, including Cantor, weren’t aware of what they were voting on. Little did Cantor also realize he was giving Tim Kaine a potent issue against George Allen, who fecklessly jumped onto Cantor’s “no aid” sinking ship. Kaine and the DPVA wasted no time in exploiting Cantor’s stupidity.
More than a few voters in Virginia still waiting for their power to be restored and needing disaster relief to rebuild their lives will remember how Eric Cantor – and his lap dog George Allen – tried to use assistance to our neighbors for their own selfish, political purposes. At some point, trying to please a party base that doesn’t know the first thing about governing a modern society is going to backfire and backfire big. That day can’t come soon enough for me. Cantor has certainly earned his certificate for stupidity this time.
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