Where's Eric Cantor?

By: bherring
Published On: 8/21/2007 11:13:20 AM

Cross-posted from Brad's Brain
My congressman seems to be almost entirely absent from his own constituents.  Granted, this is not completely atypical, but he is from Virginia, which a simple map check will tell you isn't far from where he works.  In fact the only news I've heard from him at all recently was his vote against turning the interstate slaughter of dogs into a felony.  Seriously.

Almost every politician does work in their district, in their home office, communicating with the people they represent.  Some, like Russ Feingold, do it a lot more than others, and they give the impression of actually giving a damn about their constituents.  Eric Cantor does not.  In fact a quick overview of his websites indicates nothing about any time spent actually talking with the people of the 7th District.  He has only what he calls an "Advisory Council," for which you must sign up and enter your personal information, along with the requisite request for campaign support/funds, before you are allowed to even know about when he is willing to listen to what you have to say.  (I've signed up for it. Should be fun.)
I've contacted a lot of politicians in my time, from when I was in Philadelphia and wrote to Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, to my time here when so far I've contacted Senators John Warner and Jim Webb.  Always I've received a response from these representatives.  I didn't always agree with them (seriously, who actually writes a rep to tell them how much they agree?), but they've always returned my e-mails, letters, or phone calls, with a clarification of their positions and stances.  Not Cantor.  I've twice tried to reach him to explain certain repugnant positions he's taken or to express my displeasure with his behavior, always in the most polite terms my seething anger could muster, and I've never heard back.  Not once.  Not even a form letter.

And his blog, which was unveiled as some new innovative forum enabling him to listen to his constituents (his own words:  "I would like to use this blog to create a two-way dialogue..."), has only recently even allowed relatively unmoderated comments.  This after flak over his censoring of critical comments, a common occurrence among conservative bloggers, and actually changing critical comments to make them read as if they advocate support.  That's enough of a kick-in-the-teeth for the "two-way dialogue" concept, but it gets even better.  A quick perusal of the blog offers nothing in the way of policy ideas or even comments on why he supports certain legislation or opposes it.  In order of importance to him are posts on "interesting articles," "security," "taxes," and "caucus of confusion," i.e. his funny little term for Democrats.  It's almost entirely a vehicle for his attack machine and pimping of his own op-eds and television appearances.  Which brings us to...

... what Eric Cantor actually does.  Posturing.  That's it.  He's served as the mouth-piece and genial public face for the far right of the Republican party, with his appearances on news programs (such as this particularly embarrassing episode in which he tries to convince Chris Matthews that the military should not take orders from the government) and his statements simply decrying Democrats (such as his  revolting National Review piece complaining about Pelosi's visit to Syria with no mention of the Republicans joining her).  Since 2001 thirteen bills he has sponsored have actually made it out of committee, and only two were enacted, a particularly shoddy track record considering his own party was in power during the entire time of his congressional career, save the last eight months.

He serves almost no useful purpose in Congress, he doesn't reflect or listen to the people he is supposed to represent, and, as his ties with Jack Abramoff show, he's not to be trusted.  It's far past time for this guy to go the way of George Allen.  2008 sounds like the right time to me.


Comments



Nice Thought (norman swingvoter - 8/21/2007 4:02:04 PM)
He is my representative also.  I was deeply offended by the tone on his attack on Speaker Pelosi and both phoned his office and sent a written complaint. I have received a letter back thanking me for expressing my views. In my opinion he represents the worse of the republican party.  He is far right on social issues and in bed with big business on fiscal issues. From a map on his website, the 7th goes through some very conservative areas of Virginia so I don't know what the actual chances of defeating him are.  He usually wins by 2:1. From reading, it seems he is a money machine for the republicans and supposely spent 3 million to win the last election. 


My Friend Just Saw Cantor (blue dawg - 8/21/2007 5:13:37 PM)
In Chicago at the CBOE, as soon as he heard he was a Republican he, um, cough cough, um passed some gas in his direction.


Where is Eric Cantor (Mary I - 8/21/2007 6:30:20 PM)
While it is possible he is back, Eric Cantor has been in Israel....


Umm... (bherring - 8/21/2007 6:49:21 PM)
I was speaking in a little more metaphorical kinda thing, not "it's Tuesday, where's Cantor?"


Where is Eric Cantor (Mary I - 8/21/2007 7:49:35 PM)
Hey! I was only trying to be helpful! Given his track record, if he was my congressman, I would wonder if his trip was pleasure or business..


Hehe (bherring - 8/21/2007 9:59:57 PM)
Yeah, he's on a "fact-finding" mission or something, meaning they're plotting who should nuke Iran first: Israel or the US.


Don't waste your time joining his advisory council (JMUDem2008 - 8/22/2007 11:21:20 AM)
I am a college senior and as a high schooler interested in U.S. politics I decided to sign up for Congressman Cantor's advisory council.  Since that time I receive various invitations to events open to advisory council members.  Only problem is that all of the events require at least a $100 contribution. 

Eric Cantor does not care what his constituents think unless they are willing to pay.



Speaking of contributions (norman swingvoter - 8/22/2007 12:14:53 PM)
I had forgotten about the $2500 coffee.  Lobbyists even have to pay more.

"A $2,500 contribution from a lobbyist's political action committee entitles the company's lobbyist to join Mr. Cantor at a Starbucks near his Capitol Hill office four times this spring."



Holy crap (bherring - 8/22/2007 12:24:29 PM)
That's insane.  What a super guy Cantor is!


out of the woodwork (AmerIdiot - 8/22/2007 2:25:10 PM)
My rep too.
The DNC needs to pour some money in here and make this bastard come out of hiding.
He has a "law" office in the West-end of Richmond.  Here's the address:

Cantor and Cantor
2500 East Parham Road, Richmond, VA 23228
phone:  804-266-6301

Let's run this creep out of office.....



Cantor's district is 70% Republican (True Blue - 8/23/2007 7:58:14 AM)
The only ways he leaves are:

1) A Republican primary; or

2) Redistricting



Nope (bherring - 8/23/2007 9:13:57 AM)
He won 64-34-2 in 2006, going up against a candidate who raised $100,000 to his $3,000,000.  Jim Nachman had absolutely no name recognition.  A serious candidate who puts up a real fight and ties Cantor to all of his crazy nonsense, like corruption, being in the pocket of insurance companies, etc., could achieve a two-fold victory: pull off a big upset in what looks as if it might be a "change" election, and force Cantor to spend a lot of his money at home, instead of gifting it to other endangered Republicans.


Cantor Bantor (JScott - 8/23/2007 2:53:14 PM)
There has been some discussion concerning the landscape of Virginia politics changing and the real reason I have not bought into that view and have gotten beaten up for doing so is I live in the 7th. I see now evidence to prove that the Rep are close to having that seat in jeapordy prsently, however the right person at the right time could make a run and I say that having the experience of the Webb election where we saw alot of Rep go for Webb over Allen. The very issues we all raise are exactly why Cantor remains a Congressman. The guy simply raises boat loads of money and except for the occaisional embarrassing appearance on TV he has remained clean and under the radar even while a majority leader. How? All I know is for a guy to win after obvious ties to Abramoff and all that mess in a change election year like 2006 simply calls into question resources that were not brought to bear to unseat him. Cantor is entrenched and the district is certainly conservative running from parts of Chesterfield, Henrico, Richmond all the way north to parts around Culpepor. A product of gerrymandering to be sure but I do not believe any party shopuld right off a any district because the people in the minority deserve a voice of opposition. I cannot recall the last time Cantor even debated an opponent and thats simply just sad. I even think he missed the immigration vote if I recall while overseas.


2008 looks to me to be different (bherring - 8/24/2007 4:20:22 PM)
I think with Virginia trending blue, soon to be 2 Democratic Senators and a Democratic governor, and with polling indicating the presidential vote possibly going Democrat, I'd have to say that they'd be fools for not running and pushing aggressively in this district.  I'm sure Bobby Scott's got some extra money kicking around; it would be nice for him to have a Democratic neighbor.

As for the discrepancy between the 7th electorate, which really isn't THAT Republican, and Cantor's militant wingnutitude (yeah, I went there) stems from the fact that he's had no serious opposition, no one out there for a good year or so just hammering him on his offensive record.  But hopefully that will change.