House Republicans Take Stock. [View all]
Mr. Brat, a college professor, cast Mr. Cantor as part of the problem in politics today. “Right now we have too many mini princes in D.C.,” he said in an interview on MSNBC.
He also showed why his newfound acclaim will also lead to difficult questions on issues. When asked on MSNBC whether he opposed a minimum wage, he responded “Um, I don’t have a well-crafted response on that one.”
Pressure was already building overnight on Mr. Cantor to step down from his No. 2 post in the leadership now rather than wait until after the November election, though some House Republicans were pushing back on their colleagues’ ambitions.
“It may be to their own detriment to be impolitely ambitious right now,” said Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina. “And whoever runs will need to explain precisely what Eric did wrong. He was very popular within the conference. That doesn’t help win a district in Virginia, but he was very popular in our conference.”
The push and pull could create what David Wasserman, the House political analyst at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, called “a free for all” of a leadership race that could threaten members all the way to Mr. Boehner. It also would freeze any prospects of legislative progress for the rest of the year for a Congress that already is on track to be the least productive in history, while emboldening the Tea Party faction.
Tea Party groups had actually rebuffed the appeals of Mr. Brat for money, but on Wednesday were all claiming victory on his behalf. Groups like Club For Growth and the Tea Party Patriots had largely stayed out of the race, which almost no one gave him a chance of winning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/us/politics/after-eric-cantor-primary-defeat-house-republicans-take-stock.html?hp&_r=0
= new reply since forum marked as read