Saturday, September 21, 2013

Another Banner Day for Cantor

JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP

Just last night I was marveling at how Eric Cantor was so eager to take a lead in going after food that ought to be in the hands of children (and the elderly and veterans and anyone in need). You might think such an endeavor would sate one for the week.

But not our Eric.

Today he lead a ridiculous event. (I know, I know. It's his specialty.) With great aplomb and revelry, the US House of Representatives voted to cut funding to Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act. But I think almost everyone has given up calling it this.). Yeah. Woo! They did it! They voted on this!

I'll give you a moment to recover from the stirring and historic news from this morning.


Better?

Yeah, it's quite ridiculous. How many times have they voted to repeal the Obamacare law now? Is it over 50? Because I thought I'd heard that when they get to the fiftieth vote, everyone in the House gets a free lobbyist. Really at this point they've done this enough to acquire a repetitive strain injury.
AP PHOTO  - j. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Having successfully voted on this one more time, they raced to a camera to cheer their great victory...Which at best will lead to a short filibuster in the Senate before vanishing. It may make the effort to fund the government, keep the lights on, keep millions of Americans getting their paychecks, etc, a bit harder. It may help amp up the fight over the debt ceiling. It may be just that little bit of bull crude needed to tip us into debt default later this year. But other than that, it isn't going to change the implementation of Obamacare. It is still coming later this year. That is unchanged

So in that regard, the Republican stunt today is meaningless, unless you spend your day listening to Right Wing Radio. In that case, we are marching to end the socialist blight of Islam...Or something. Is will also be made into campaign brochures, ads, and speeches, and bring in some more cash. But it is just theater.

Most of what's happen in the House these days centers around making an art out doing nothing, and getting paid handsomely for it. Time and again, they push out bills that will go nowhere, but will get them on TV, or make a good bit of red meat for the most rabid of the base. But this last week they've worked hard, to take away food and health care access from millions.

But none of this is important. What's important is the illusion...I think I may be comparing Eric Cantor to Gob Bluth...

But, actually, Gob may be a good example of Cantor and the joke of an event this morning.

That's because today was a joke. They want to try and pretend it was a success. They want to have everyone think things have changed. They want to act like they are strutting around with confidence, but really they want to sneak away and cry. I mean they had people there to cheer them on as they threw out their anemic talking points. It was just sad.

And Eric Cantor wants to make himself the center of attention in it all. The brave hero. The mastermind. But he's just a pathetic attention getter.

Sadly, when this is all done, I wonder if Eric Cantor has the temerity to even admit to himself, "I've made a huge mistake"?

I wonder if he knows what he really wants to do, and what price everyone will pay for him to achieve that?


A little tribute in honor Cantor's showmanship.


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