The 22-count indictment, returned in October 2008, accused Presgraves of accepting a $500 bribe to protect cockfighting at a pit known as Little Boxwood, sexually harassing a dozen female employees and using inmates from the jail to work on his and relatives’ properties. The indictment also said he conspired to deal marijuana, tipped off a local company about the federal investigation, embezzled $86,410 — including money extorted from the jail’s pay phone vendor — and attempted to launder about $200,000 through complex bank transactions.
Presgraves had become something of a player in the Virginia Republican community. Eric Cantor is mentioned in the story as one of Presgraves’ “biggest political allies,” having given the corrupt sheriff’s campaign $4,000.
Cantor has a history of shady connections with corrupt Republicans including doing the bidding for Jack Abramoff as he played Indian gambling interests against each other. It would be nice of some local Richmond newspaper could devote some resources to digging into the connections between Eric Cantor and his corrupt pal.
There’s inevitably more to come on this story. Stay tuned.
Now this is funny. Eric Cantor is in high dudgeon today over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton participating in an international commitment to $100 billion for developing nations in the fight against climate change. As Greg Sargent flags, Cantor’s staffers sent a letter to budget director Peter Orszag questioning the constitutionality of the move.
Did the administration consult with Congress, which under the Constitution must approve all spending, before the commitment was made to fund this new foreign aid program? If so, with whom did the administration consult?
It’s difficult to know exactly what to make of this. But I have a theory.
Perhaps Cantor was seeking clarification because he hasn’t actually read the Constitution. This is after all the same dim bulb who thinks that military generals decide when the nation goes to war.
Hopefully Mr. Orszag can help explain to the Minority Whip how governance works.
We all got a downright frightening preview of what Eric Cantor and the Bush Republicans will offer America if they are restored to power. Thinking people (i.e., non-teabaggers) will be terrified.
Eric Cantor attacked legislation to provide jobs and relief for millions of unemployed Americans by attacking programs such as unemployment insurance, COBRA health insurance coverage, and the child tax credit. Seriously, I wish I was kidding. His office sent a letter around to press.
The bill includes $79 Billion for safety net programs (more than is actually supposedly dedicated to job creation), including:
* Extension of unemployment benefits through June of 2010;
* Extension of COBRA subsidies through June of 2010;
* Extension of Increased Medicaid Matching Rates (FMAP) from December 31, 2010 to June 30, 2011; and
* Extension of the refundable child tax credit to those with income less than $3,000 (under the original stimulus, families must have at least $3,000 in income to qualify).
This is pretty shocking. As Steve Benen points out, these programs are inherently stimulative, by putting money directly into the economy and providing the absolute basics to people who desperately need them. You know, like the estimated 1.6 million jobs the stimulus act created. These unemployed are the people Eric Cantor apparently most wants to deprive. These are the people who lost their jobs because of Republican policies and Wall Street greed (another Cantor specialty), and now Cantor wants America to essentially abandon them. Well played, Eric.
These are in many ways programs that came out of the social safety net that America built to rebound from the Great Depression. And now Eric Cantor and the rest of the Bush Republicans want to tear that apart. Does anyone think it will end there? Were Republicans to take power again, these are the “spending cuts” they will implement, and they will branch out into other necessary programs like Social Security and Medicare, both programs Republicans have long targeted (see also: George W. Bush). It’s pretty shocking that Cantor would come out and telegraph what they really mean by “spending cuts” so clearly.
The enemy of my enemy is probably my friend, so it appears I have a new friend in the political world.
There’s a new-ish PAC out there aiming to take on what they call “right-wing extremists in the United States Congress.” And one of those, obviously, is Eric Cantor. Other targets under their fire are Jean “Birther” Schmidt, Joe “You Lie” Wilson, Michele “HUAC” Bachmann, Steve “Cockfighter” King, and John “Ayn Rand” Campbell. Good company, Eric.
I haven’t been able to find out a whole lot of information on who’s behind the PAC yet, and I have some feelers out. I’ll let you know when I know more. According to the website, it’s the same group of people responsible for taking down Richard Pombo in 2006 and Marilyn Musgrave in 2008.
Stand Up America PAC is a grassroots organization devoted to defeating right-wing extremists in the United States Congress.
In recent years our national discourse has become polluted with right-wing Republican demagogues whose goal is not to move our country forward, but to demean and intimidate their political opponents.
The consequences? The national dialogue shifts dangerously to the right, potent icons like Joe Wilson emerge to raise money for their fellow Republicans, and the conventional wisdom decides that no candidate is too far right to be electable in moderate districts. What’s more, so-called moderate Republicans can advocate the most extreme positions, preserving their status as moderates simply by avoiding inflammatory language and baseless smears.
We intend to stand up to these demagogues – and defeat them. The goal is not just to shut them up, but to shut them down.
Stand Up America PAC will raise and contribute funds to progressive Democratic candidates, as well as conduct independent political campaigns aimed at defeating targeted Republicans.
The Stand Up America campaign team is an experienced group that has had great success in defeating Republican zealots like Richard Pombo in California in 2006 and Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado in 2008.
Join us and help improve the debate in our country.
Col. Van Barfoot, a Henrico resident and Medal of Honor winner who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, got into a clash with his homeowners’ association, which forbade him from flying a flag outside of his property. Senators Warner and Webb both intervened on his behalf, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs used his megaphone to back Barfoot, and the association allowed him to fly the flag.
End of story.
Except Sideshow Eric Cantor decided to pop up, as usual, where he was not needed. This dingbat, who has a spotty record of working to protect veterans, decided legislation was necessary, so he and equally useless Rep. Buck McKeon proposed House Resolution 952, allowing Medal of Honor winners to fly a flag whenever they wish, which applies to by my estimation 300 people, tops, one of whom ever had problems flying a flag.
I’m not kidding. After the situation was resolved, Cantor decided to piggyback on it to enhance his political standing.
First of all, remember all those times Cantor whined about Obama thinking about something other than jobs? Yeah, can’t do that anymore after this silly, useless stunt.
And lastly, this is a pretty obvious example of laying down political cover. As I mentioned before, Cantor has a bad record of supporting veterans when it matters. Sure, he’ll vote on some meaningless legislation to pretend like he cares, but when it comes to really putting it on the line, he’s nowhere to be found. In fact from 2003-2005, the first years of the disastrous war he supported Bush on, he received a 0 rating every year from the Disabled Veterans of Veterans for NOT supporting veterans.
That’s what this is all about. All so he could do the easy thing and get a few good media hits without having to do the hard work of providing for veterans.
Yeesh. You really don’t even have to read the article, the title says it all.
See, Democrats have this weird trait of responding to reality. They saw an economic collapse happen in 2008. Because they were paying attention, they ascertained Wall Street firms, their eyes wide with greed, using tricks and gimmicks to make themselves billions with no regard for what it might mean for the nation’s economy. When it started breaking down, Democrats (mostly) knew where to look.
Republicans blamed Acorn. Seriously.
So Democrats made the logical conclusion that working to reform a broken, corrupt financial sector was key. Now Eric Cantor and Republicans are in bed with those same firms (well, technically he’s always been in bed with them; more on that later), and they’re working hard to keep the status quo and more deeply entrench the same system that caused the economic collapse.
Read the post here. The Republican leadership, including Eric Cantor, met with over 100 lobbyists at the Capitol. The gall is unreal but predictable. After all, Cantor has long been one of the financial sector’s favorite rep. He gives them everything they want, and they rewarded him last cycle to the tune of $220,000.
Cantor does not care about regular Americans. He cares only about himself (and providing bailout money for his wife’s bank) and his rich benefactors.
See, Cantor’s not big on ideas, not being able to come up with any himself. He would apparently rather do nothing to stem the tide of unemployment.
And as a counterpoint, this is how a real leader does it.
Cantor apparently thinks Obama’s plan is a “Stimulus 2.” He clearly can’t effectively process it in the way an adult would, but leave that aside for a second. Considering the first stimulus has created an estimated 1.6 million jobs and is creating more every day, what exactly is the problem? Why does Cantor not want to create jobs?
Steve Benen offers the day’s most entertaining take with an analogy I wish I had come up with.
Eric Cantor as a congressional leader is a classic example of a post turtle — you know he didn’t get up there by himself; he obviously doesn’t belong up there; he can’t get anything done while he’s there; and you just want to help the poor, dumb thing down.
His “big idea” is an economic environment in which the employment marketplace improves from the recession’s lows? That sounds an awful lot like the stimulus package — which Cantor rejected and continues to trash — which has created as many as 1.6 million jobs in less than a year.
Benen is arguing for a “better opposition,” a point I made a few days ago. Right now the Democrats are basically alone in the race. They don’t have that push to compete (except with their own ranks) because the so-called opposition has presented nothing to counterbalance.
Now as to how Cantor got where he is, I haven’t the foggiest. Sure, the party of old white guys is certainly interested in elevating a young-ish minority to enhance its public image. He’s fairly unsullied (so far) in his own heavily-Republican district as few know much about him, so he’s not likely to suffer from the additional exposure a leadership position inevitably brings. He raises lots of money for his party. But in all substantial ways, he’s a complete disaster. Utterly inept on television, mealy-mouthed, and woefully unprepared for any policy discussion, he’s proven nothing but an embarrassment to his Republican colleagues. So why do they keep him up on his post?
But our favorite has to be U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, who has used his position as House Minority Whip to launch all kinds of unimpressive initiatives and failed leadership groups (National Council for a New America, anyone?), while providing little in the way of, you know, actual accomplishments. And yet, just as Tareq Salahi managed to spin a bankrupt winery into a handshake with the president, so too does Eric Cantor manage to keep his name at the top of many lists of possible 2012 presidential nominees. How he does it, we’ll never know. Maybe it’s the chin.
It says more about the pathetic state of the Republican Party than it does about Cantor that he’s even considered relevant as a future leader.
Think Progress has proven invaluable when it comes to keeping tabs on the right wing. Today, they uncorked another gem, this one about Eric Cantor.
At a conference sponsored by The Economist, Cantor was asked specifically what ideas he and the Republicans were offering to create jobs. He’s been making the case that the 600k-1.6 million created by the stimulus didn’t happen and that Republicans had better solutions. The Congressional Budget Office already put the lie to the first claim, and he did the same for the second himself.
Cantor had literally no answer to what ideas the Republicans would offer. His “idea,” after some stammering and stalling, was to “create an environment” for job creation. That’s it.
Pretty embarrassing. Especially so, considering what Cantor has previously done when asked about the economy is to say that the majority Democrats aren’t helping small businesses. It’s always been a vapid cop-out, intended to distract from Cantor’s lack of ideas. It’s just so shocking that he made is so explicit.
And rewatch the video. Notice that when covering for his lack of ideas, he immediately falls back on simple partisan politics. He claims, despite the GOP having no ideas for jobs, that Republicans are at some sort of electoral advantage because Democrats have to clean up the mess Bush and Cantor helped create.
This is a huge gaffe. While the effect of the Democrats’ stimulus plan is starting to clearly turn the economy around, Cantor is too busy counting his own votes for an election almost a year away to contribute anything substantial to the conversation.
I ask that seriously. The past few days, with the president focused on his White House jobs summit, GOPers have targeted their anti-Obama crusade on the president’s economic record. And their number-one talking point has been this: Obama’s stimulus stinks. [...]
– In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor decried the “failure” of Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package.
Of course Eric Cantor can read. That’s not in doubt. But he has the intellectual curiosity of George W. Bush. Bush was famous for the protective bubble his aides kept him in, making sure he was not swayed by things like “facts” or “reality.” No, it was Fox News and the Washington Times all day long which helped contribute to disaster after disaster.
Eric Cantor shares that mentality. He seems to live in a fantasy world where Bush policies are still the best and didn’t cause three separate economic downturns and that we should try them yet again. He ignores overwhelming evidence to make claims based on absolutely nothing.
It’s true that politicians often use lies to great advantage. But this batch of Republicans is mugging the truth in the most inelegant manner, as it offers up nothing more than Bush-Cheney retreads: cut taxes, reduce regulations. Voters may be in the mood for a change next fall. But will they want to hand over control to pols who can’t read a CBO report or be bothered to come up with more thoughtful spin?
Couple Cantor’s fantasy with America’s reality. We saw great news this morning that the unemployment rate went down against all expectations, an obvious signal that the stimulus continues to help alleviate the pain the Bush/Cantor policies caused. But there’s no way you’d ever see Cantor or anyone in today’s extremist GOP acknowledge reality.
It’s becoming a worrisome trend. I personally side with the Democratic Party, but for any party to be successful it needs an opposition that can keep it in check by innovating and staying competitive. This current crop of Republicans, with Rush Limbaugh and Eric Cantor in the lead, are not living in the same reality as the rest of America. Truth is anathema to them, and ideas are not the point.
I wrote yesterday about Cantor’s failed jobs “plan” and how it comes pre-failed. I briefly touched on how it failed when George W. Bush did the exact same thing from 2000-2008.
The challenge for Cantor and Republicans is that these solutions — low taxes, free trade, and fewer regulations — existed during the Bush years, which saw three different economic downturns (in 2001, 2003, and 2008), and which produced the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades.
That’s exactly right. There was a time, roughly 18 months ago, when even in Republican circles the Bush brand was completely toxic. The strategy for the Obama campaign was very explicitly to tie McCain to Bush, portray him as a “third term,” etc. You saw it all down the line, in Senate and House races, even in local elections.
For a while the strategy of Cantor and the Republicans was to just not propose anything. They came up with no real plan for health care reform, they proposed nothing to fix the economy; their plan was simple obstruction. But now Cantor appears to want a higher office. He’s angling for a presidential run, so he has to come out and make big speeches pretending like he knows what he’s talking about. But in order to do this, you have to actually propose something, and what he’s proposing is the exact same Bush policy agenda that literally caused the problems we’re currently in the middle of.
It looked like maybe it wasn’t McCain who ran for Bush’s third term. It just might be Cantor in 2012.
[A]recent study from UC Berkeley found that pollution reduction and energy efficiency measures would create up to 1.9 million jobs, boost GDP by up to $111 billion and increase families’ incomes by nearly $1,200 per year!
If Eric Cantor spent a little bit more time away from his corporate lobbyist fundraisers and a little more time out in America, he might learn a bit about how the economy actually works. But perhaps he does know the truth and chooses to lie instead. Could go either way.
So bad news. I was all ready to get off work and head on home and uncork a doozy of a piece on Eric Cantor’s silly jobs speech he gave at the far right-wing Heritage Foundation this afternoon. It was exactly the same as his Republican “plan” for fixing the economy and his Republican “plan” for healthcare reform: nothing more than warmed-over GOP talking points which will devastate the country. In fact these ideas already did devastate the country when George W. Bush tried them.
The bad news is Salon beat me to this critique it in a big way. In a post titled “Eric Cantor’s magic pony jobs plan,” Andrew Leonard absolutely savages Cantor’s continued lack of ideas. I could go through the seven “planks” or whatever Cantor put forth in his “no-cost plan” to fix the economy but really, what’s the point? It’s not a serious plan; it’s just another attempt by the Minority Wimp to get his face on TV and “win the day,” Politico-style.
I’ll let Mr. Leonard take it from here:
To recap: Cut regulations. Freeze spending. Cut taxes. No new taxes. That’s the plan.
[...]
Cantor says the Obama stimulus has failed. Just two days ago, the Congressional Budget Office (which Cantor approvingly referred to a “neutral” in his speech) declared that the stimulus had worked — that it had added 1.2-3.2 points of GDP growth that would otherwise have not occurred and added 600,000 to 1.6 million jobs.
So without the stimulus, judging from the CBO report, one can assume that the economy would still be contracting, and unemployment would be higher than it is now. But in Eric Cantor’s world, with Republicans in control, slashing regulations and freezing spending, we’d be better off. Why not? In a world where “no cost” solutions are possible, anything can happen.
Read the whole thing. It’s great. If Cantor thought he was making a serious effort to present himself as a candidate to be reckoned with for anything beyond his current spot, he’s sadly mistaken.
Yeah, that’s the headline. Enjoy it. But the problem here is not with Eric Cantor.
The right wing is all up in arms, soiling their diapers over a Politico article from yesterday asserting that Nancy Pelosi spent almost $3,000 on flowers. See, what happened was that Politico got their stupid little hands on a filing of how members of Congress spent the money they’re allotted for office expenses, staff salary, etc. and then farmed out the analysis to two of the worst writers they could find.
These two picked out, in true GOP fashion, the biggest, most shocking numbers they could find in an obvious attempt to drum up a Drudge Report headline. This is what the “journalists” at Politico do on a regular basis because with them, it’s never about breaking the story of what’s really going on in DC or explaining the meaning of policy or making government more accessible. No, it’s journalistic prostitution. They point out the silliest thing they can find ($2,993 for flowers! Health care bill is 1,900 pages long! Isn’t that crazy!) and equally stupid Republicans eat it up as if it matters.
And, yes, part of this jaw-droppingly awful story is that Cantor spent over $24,000 on food between June and October. Pelosi spent over $30,000 but as they point out, she entertains numerous dignitaries as Speaker. And apparently Cantor spent a whole bunch of money on products from Congressional Quarterly. What these two nimrods fail to point out is that as Minority Whip, Cantor has a great official need for such products which analyze the inner workings of Congress.
And on top of all of this, they had to issue a correction to the numbers comprising the primary focus of the piece. I shit you not.
God, this piece is so stupefying I have to stop somewhere, so this is a good spot. Read it to see how bad DC journalism can be.
