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Chris Matthews asks Eric Cantor about Bob McDonnell trying to move away from the right and presenting himself as some sort of moderate in the Virginia governor's race and when Cantor tries to say he wasn't running away from his "conservative values" Matthews asks Cantor why McDonnell didn't want Palin to campaign for him.
Matthews: Let me ask you about the big question here for you tonight. McDonnell…let’s put a real prize around him. I think McDonnell’s great claim to fame is he ran a positive campaign. The other guy was going after his term papers from 30 years ago and McDonnell talked about his daughter’s fighting for the U.S. as a servicewoman over seas on Iraq and a Norte Dame graduate, as a R.O.T.C. person—I thought he really sold the positive and that’s why he won.
Cantor: Well, I agree with you that his campaign was incredibly well run and the message was positive and I think it does say something about the voters of Virginia. They want to have a better prospect for the future and Bob campaigned and focused on jobs. It was clearly an economic message that won the day here in Virginia. And when you look at where people’s minds are here 85% of the people are concerned about the economy. They’re looking for another way. They’re rejecting the policies coming out of the Congress and the White House towards the economy. So it was, you’re right, a very positive agenda for the future that Bob McDonnell won the day on.
Matthews: Why did Bob McDonnell keep Sarah Palin out of the state? He let her use the robo-calls but no reference to him personally. Why would you…I have a theory that Virginia may not be a liberal state and certainly never will be probably, but it’s certainly not a whacko right wing state either. And I don’t think it would ever go for a Sarah Palin over a Barack Obama, but I may be wrong. In lousy economic conditions anything’s possible.
You wouldn’t call Virginia a Palin state, would you?
Cantor: Virginia has always bean a common sense, conservative state. There are millions of voters here who embrace Sarah Palin, obviously millions who are embracing Bob McDonnell. You know our state is one that is a center-right state. I think it is reflective of where the nation is and that’s why we are very excited about what this win tonight will mean for our prospects in November of ‘010.
Matthews: I’ve got it. You go home and check with your voters Congressman. A lot of your most trusted voters who like you personally are scared to bejesus out of Sarah Palin. She’s a theocrat. She’s a…she’s so far out in terms of basic American notions of pluralism that your voters would think she was frightening.
Cantor: Chris you’ve just said that Bob McDonnell won the day on a positive message.
Matthews: Right.
Cantor: Well here you go again. (crosstalk)
Matthews: No I’m just saying you wouldn’t let her in the state. (crosstalk) Did Bob McDonnell over rule you when you tried to bring Sarah Palin in the campaign for him?
Cantor: Absolutely not. She’s welcome in this state. I’m sure Bob McDonnell would say she is and again it’s that kind of negativity that’s been rejected here in Virginia and I…you said so yourself Chris.
After rightfully calling Palin out for being as extreme as she is, Matthews goes on to kiss Cantor's butt to make sure he gets another interview with him somewhere down the pike. Earlier in the broadcast Matthews did his best to give McDonnell cover for those "term papers" which he wrote when he was 34 years old, hardly a child and tried to pretend he was some kid that can't be held accountable for them now. Matthews threw Palin under the bus tonight but did his best to give McDonnell a bit of a white washing for his extremist views.
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Chris Wallace claiming to "fact check" Anita Dunn for daring to say that Fox News hasn't covered the John Ensign scandal. This didn't look like much of a "fact checking" to me. While I have seen some scant coverage of the Ensign scandal on Fox by the likes of Shep Smith, this has hardly been a leading story on Fox News.
So what example does Wallace decide to use to prove they're covered the Ensign scandal? Wallace asking Eric Cantor one question about John Ensign. That's it. No other clips to support that anyone else on his network has covered the story. Just one clip of him asking Eric Cantor--one question.
I hate to break it to you Chris, but that's not covering the John Ensign story. This is covering the John Ensign story.
How about C-Street? Has Fox News covered the C-Street story? If you're ignoring the C-Street house scandal Chris Wallace, you're not covering the John Ensign scandal as well.
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Here's Rachel's coverage of the C-Street house from back in June. Fox News was all over this story...right Chris?? Note to Chris Wallace, this is what something called journalism looks like. Not asking Eric Cantor one question about a scandal you haven't covered.
This is good news if it works, and if they can target it where it will get the biggest bang for the buck - sort of like a national "enterprise zone." (If, of course, they can avoid the political pork-pull that inevitably directs the money to the places where it's needed least.) No wonder Eric Cantor's excited about the idea - it's a way of bringing home the bacon without taking a hit for raising taxes:
The idea of a tax credit for companies that create new jobs, something the federal government has not tried since the 1970s, is gaining support among economists and Washington officials grappling with the highest unemployment in a generation.
The proposal has some bipartisan appeal among politicians eager both to help their unemployed constituents and to encourage small-business development. Legislators on Capitol Hill and President Obama’s economic team have been quietly researching the policy for several weeks.
“There is a lot of traction for this kind of idea,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip. “If the White House will take the lead on this, I’m fairly positive it would be welcomed in a bipartisan fashion.”
In addition to the economists working on the proposal, some heavyweights support the concept, including the Nobel laureate Edmund S. Phelps, Dani Rodrik of Harvard and former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich.
One version of the approach, to be unveiled next week by the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research organization, would give employers a two-year tax credit if they increased the size of their work force or added significant hours of work (for example, making a part-time worker full time). Employers would receive a credit worth twice the first-year payroll tax for each new hire, amounting to several thousand dollars, depending on the new worker’s salary.
“It’s beautiful if it can be timed at a dire moment like this, when unemployment is way too high and appears to be going somewhat higher,” said Mr. Phelps, an economics professor at Columbia, lamenting that the president dropped it from the $787 billion stimulus plan approved in February. “But it’s a pity that this wasn’t done a year ago.”
An interesting pattern has been emerging in the Republican Party's handling of foreign policy: Individual GOP officials are now making a regular point of not only formulating an alternative foreign policy, to be presented to the American people and debated in Congress -- they're acting on it too, and undermining the official White House policies at multiple turns.
• Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is visiting Honduras in order to support the recent military coup against a leftist president, which has been opposed by the Obama administration and all the surrounding countries in the region. (Late Update: DeMint's office says he is not taking sides during his visit to the current Honduran leadership, denying the New York Times reports that this was his intention.)
• Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) will be going to the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen, bringing a "Truth Squad" to tell foreign officials there that the American government will not take any action: "Now, I want to make sure that those attending the Copenhagen conference know what is really happening in the United States Senate."
• House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) traveled to Israel, where he spoke out against President Obama's opposition to expanded settlements. He also defended Israel on the eviction of two Arab families from a house in east Jerusalem, which had been criticized by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
• Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) boasted in June that he told Chinese officials not to trust America's budget numbers. "One of the messages I had -- because we need to build trust and confidence in our number one creditor," said Kirk, "is that the budget numbers that the US government had put forward should not be believed." Since then, he has declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate.
Anyone remember this statement by Trent Lott when some Democratic Congressmen dared to visit Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion?
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, who is one of three House members visiting Iraq to urge Iraqi officials to avert war by allowing U.N. weapons inspectors back in, has acted irresponsibly, Lott said.
"For him to be in Baghdad, the center of one of the most dangerous dictators in the world, with all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, to be questioning the veracity of our own American president, is the height of irresponsible," said Lott, R-Mississippi. "He needs to come home and keep his mouth shut."
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Rep. Anthony Weiner joined Ed Schultz to talk about both Alan Grayson and Eric Cantor's recent remarks on health care reform.
SCHULTZ: Joining me now is Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York.
Congressman, good to have you with us tonight.
REP. ANTHONY WEINER: My pleasure.
SCHULTZ: I want to talk at Eric Cantor with you. He is saying that the Democrats aren‘t with the people. Can you respond to that?
WEINER: Well, I like Eric Cantor. If he had a plan for dealing with health care, maybe he would come on the show and debate it with me. But he doesn‘t have one, nor do his Republican colleagues.
Look, the fact of the matter is people say they want this problem solved, not only people who are not insured, but people who are having their rates go through the roof. Right now, every single year, our insurance rates go up 1,000 dollars a year. Most Americans see that as a Republican tax that they‘re paying because of their inaction on health care.
SCHULTZ: Congressman, did I hear you say you‘d like to debate him on this program? Can we organize that? Can you and I make an invitation to Mr. Cantor‘s office? I will give both you guys, face to face—we‘ll go an hour. I‘ll dedicate an hour with you, Mr. Weiner, and also Mr. Cantor to go at it about health care. You OK with that?
WEINER: Listen, I would certainly love to do it. I like Eric Cantor. And frankly, feel a little bad for him that he has to go out and shop around some of these ideas. When he says at a town hall meeting that if you‘re uninsured, you just go to the hospital, and they‘ll take care of you he must think that the bill fairy pays those bills. I‘m not quite sure what he thinks.
But, look, I admire the idea that someone like Eric Cantor, after six years having Republican control of the House and the Senate and the White House, and still this problem gets worse—I admire him saying anything at all. If he wants a debate, as we say in Brooklyn, bring it on, Chickie.
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Rick Sanchez who's show is generally a mixed bag between trying to act like an actual journalist and just the usual CNN hackery, did something I don't see enough of on CNN, or any of the cable "news" networks for that matter, when interviewing Rep. Anthony Weiner. He asked him about the money flowing from the health care industry into the campaign coffers of politicians.
I'm sorry the conversation didn't lead to a discussion about public financing of political campaigns, which would put a stop to politicians feeling the need to chase after money from wherever they can get it to continue being re-elected. If our system of legalized bribery doesn’t change, I don’t see things getting any better for the average citizen out there any time soon.
SANCHEZ: I don't know what to say.
It appears that you, as a Democrat, as a guy who likes this public option, who likes getting the government involved in this thing, you're losing. And it may be because you began five yards behind the finish line. I mean, didn't you give the health insurance companies a huge big start by beginning the debate with universal health care off the table and the public as something we might do, but we really don't want to do it?
WEINER: Well, one thing for sure is, everything the health insurance industry has asked for in the Finance Committee up to now, they have gotten. It's a good playing field for them. We in the House are going to keep pushing for a public option. And frankly the president, who's our cleanup hitter, ultimately I believe is going to wind up mediating this dispute, and he says he wants a public option.
But you're exactly right. The real easy answer here is Medicare for all Americans. We give it to people who are 65. Why not 55? Why not 45? Why not do it? It's a low-overhead program. Sure, it has a financing problem, but so does all insurance at this point.
But at least we know it has very low overhead. We're not putting any into profits or advertising. So, that really was the smart place to start. We didn't. But we are going to try to get closer to that in the final product.
SANCHEZ: Let me just be real blunt with you real quick.
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(h/t Heather)
Do you want to know how lost in space conservatives are during this health care debate? Watch Eric Cantor, the golden boy of the conservatives, make a complete fool of himself. When their goal is to just block everything, lies, dodges and sick thoughts cascade out of their mouths and into the atmosphere. First he says health-care reform is so time-consuming and is stopping them from doing anything else, but the real sickness comes out when he's asked at a town hall if he could help a woman who has tumors in her belly, who had lost their health insurance and has cancer.
The anti-government freak Cantor actually looks this woman in the eye and asks her to try and find some mythical government program for help. If these programs existed, shouldn't the golden boy at least know what they are? And I thought the government was the devil to Cantor? When confronted with real-life problems, they have no solutions and just make twisted crap up.
Then he brings up the BIG CANARD: Charity care. Hahahahahahaha.
We saw the same thing with Tom Coburn at his town hall and now we see it with Cantor. Remember Coburn?
Coburn: Well, I think—first of all, yeah. We'll help. The first thing we will do is to see what we can do, individually, to help you, through our office. But the other thing that is missing in this debate is us as neighbors, helping people that need our help. [Applause.] You know we tend to ... [Applause.] The idea that the government is a solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement.
There answer is to go broke, become indigent, then beg the government for some crumbs while you die waiting for a non existent program to swoop in and save you. Or maybe you can go begging...
I wonder if one of his health-care reform proposals will be that Americans should organize charity squads that go door-to-door and beg for charity money from their towns and hope they can raise 400K in a couple of days for one person. I'm sorry, I just got queasy just watching this video of this asshole.
I cannot make this up. You have to watch the entire video unedited (though I also have the short video version) and see if Representative and Minority Whip Eric Cantor's version of a "public option" squares with your personal values as a human being and as an American.
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The question an audience participant asked is paraphrased as "Relative got cancer and lost his insurance... what happens?"
Representative Eric Cantors response paraphrased: "Sell or auction all your belongings. After you reach a certain poverty threshold, apply for Medicaid, the federal medical insurance for the very poor. If that's not enough apply for indigent services."
As I said, I cannot make this up. Just watch the distinguished gentleman from Virginia, Rep. Eric Cantor.
Cantor was on MSNBC and said that he was only trying to answer the question and figure out a way for that women to get help immediately. Tamryn Hall didn't ask a follow-up, but Cantor looked like a buffoon. Is the only thing he can think of to help quickly is that a person become indigent. Why is he blocking any meaningful reform?
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Real Time's New Rules for Sept. 11, 2009. Bill wants everyone to get off the couch and get out there and protest. I hate to break this to him, but there is a movement out there by the left doing the same thing as the tea baggers. The media has just decided not to cover it and they don't have Fox's Griff Jenkins going along for the ride and Fox Noise promoting it night after night.
I do agree that more people taking to the streets would help. Maybe we can get Bill to agree to cover it so there's not a complete media blackout since he thinks it's so important. Perhaps he can have one of his "Real Time Real Reporters" ride along with the Reform Now bus.
(Warning... video not safe for work.)
Maher: The Democrats just never learn. Americans don’t really care which side of an issue you’re on as long as you don’t act like p#&$ies. When Van Jones called the Republicans assholes, he was actually paying them a compliment. He was. He was talking about how they can get things done even when they’re the minority as opposed to the Democrats who can’t seem to get anything done even when they control both houses of Congress, the Presidency and Bruce Springsteen.
You know I love Obama’s civility, his desire to work with his enemies… he’s positively Christ-like. In college he was probably the guy at the dorm parties who made sure the stoners shared their pot with the jocks.
But we don’t need that guy now. We need an asshole. Mr. President, there are some people who are never going to like you. That’s why they voted for the old guy and Carrie’s mom.
You’re not going to win them over. Stand up for the 70% of Americans who aren’t crazy.
And speaking of that 70%, when are we going to actually show up in all this? You know tomorrow Glenn Beck’s army of zombie retirees are descending on Washington. It’s the million moron march. Although they won’t get a million of them of course because many will be confused and drive to Washington State.
But they will make news because people who take to the streets always do. They’re at town hall meetings screaming at the Congressmen. We’re on the couch screaming at the T.V. You know especially in this age of Twitters and blogs and Snuggies, it’s a statement just to leave the house.
But leave the house we must because this is our last best shot for a long time to get the sort of serious health care reform that would make the United States the envy of several African nations.
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Eric Cantor clutches his pearls and repeats the Republican's latest talking point du jour; the President's speech was too partisan. That's rich coming from Mr. Party of "No" Eric Cantor. These statements didn't sound too partisan to me.
OBAMA: Well the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care.
[.....]
OBAMA: Finally, many in this chamber – particularly on the Republican side of the aisle – have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health care. I don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs. So I am proposing that we move forward on a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine. I know that the Bush Administration considered authorizing demonstration projects in individual states to test these issues. It’s a good idea, and I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today.
[.....]
OBAMA: But those of us who knew Teddy and worked with him here – people of both parties – know that what drove him was something more. His friend, Orrin Hatch, knows that. They worked together to provide children with health insurance. His friend John McCain knows that. They worked together on a Patient’s Bill of Rights. His friend Chuck Grassley knows that. They worked together to provide health care to children with disabilities.
Sean Hannity and Republican Congressman Eric Cantor last night (9/9/09) blithely accused President Obama of being too partisan in his health care speech to the Joint Session of Congress while they just as blithely ignored the heckling and disrespect from Republicans that included booing, holding up antagonistic signs, using Blackberries during the speech and, in one case, shouting out that the president is a liar. With video.
Hannity opened his post-speech show last night with a commentary that accused Obama of delivering “an attack speech that could have been written by James Carville.” He forgot to mention that the Republicans’ reaction would have been scripted by middle schoolers.
Hannity went on to complain about Obama’s “cynicism and intimidation… Everyone disagrees with him is either a liar or a thug.”
Yet Hannity made no mention of Republican Congressman Joe Wilson yelling, “You lie!” during the speech.
A Democrat, amused at the shots of Eric Cantor working his Blackberry as the president talked about the cost of health care a few minutes ago, passes on this item from last week headed, "Cantor: GOP will be 'attentive' during Obama speech":
Cantor and I talked about how Republicans would behave, and I asked if it would be like a State of the Union when they sit on their hands or hiss for parts they don't agree with.
I also asked Cantor if there were going to be any "no Tweeting" rules for Republicans, since some of them had busy thumbs during Obama's winter quasi-State of the Union address.
"I don’t think we’re going to be guiding the caucus to boo or applaud or whatever. We’re all going to be very attentive," he said.
He was not, for what it's worth, Twittering. But his office did get a statement out immediately after the speech, which he says he found "overhyped" and of "strangely unclear" purpose.
Hate to break this to you, Cantor, but the only thing truly "overhyped" and "strangely unclear" is Obama's need to reach across the aisle to you pathetic bunch of un-American obstructionists. As the DNC's new ad states: "Republicans Just Say No"
While the Wall Street Journal editorial page can always be counted on to cheerlead the flat-earth economics of the Republican Party, on occasion the paper's reporters contradict GOP orthodoxy. And so it is today on the subject of the Obama stimulus package. Just one day after Eric Cantor (R-VA) followed the lead of John Boehner and Newt Gingrich in calling the recovery program a "failure," the Journal's Deborah Solomon reported otherwise in a piece simply titled, "U.S. Economy Gets Lift From Stimulus."
After steep declines of 5.4% and 6.4% in the previous two quarters, gross domestic product fell only 1% in the last three months. And while the ARRA overall added "up to 3 full percentage points of annualized growth in the quarter," President Obama's stimulus helped precisely where it was needed most - rescuing devastated state budgets.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal agreed, concluding "government efforts to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy appear to be helping the U.S. climb out of the worst recession in decades." While Cantor is urging the program's cancellation, the investments thus far ($84 billion of $499 billion in spending and $60 billion of the $288 billion in tax cuts) are already helping stop the bleeding from the Bush Recession:
Many forecasters say stimulus spending is adding two to three percentage points to economic growth in the second and third quarters, when measured at an annual rate. The impact in the second quarter, calculated by analyzing how the extra funds flowing into the economy boost consumption, investment and spending, helped slow the rate of decline and will lay the groundwork for positive growth in the third quarter -- something that seemed almost implausible just a few months ago. Some economists say the 1% contraction in the second quarter would have been far worse, possibly as much as 3.2%, if not for the stimulus.
For the third quarter, economists at Goldman Sachs & Co. predict the U.S. economy will grow by 3.3%. "Without that extra stimulus, we would be somewhere around zero," said Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist for Goldman.
