Cantor deliberately lied about gunshot reports

Add this one to the "lying hypocrite" file:

Responding to increase violence, and threats of violence, from the right, Eric Cantor tried to engage on some "me too". He claimed that a bullet was shot at his window this week, apparently hoping to blunt some of the charges that the heated rhetoric his party helped create spilling over into actual violence.

Unlike the severed gas line at the home of the brother of Rep. Tom Periello (whose address had been posted online), this story doesn't hold water. Richmond police say the bullet that hit a window of Republican Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor's office had been randomly fired skyward.

Random gunplay. Not a purposeful attack.

DailyKos

It hit a window in the building in which Cantor has an office (the bullet didn't hit his office) -- it is clear that Cantor willfully misled the media this morning. Cantor and his office knew that they were not targets of the shooting, but they claimed otherwise to score political points.

Gawker

Let's just get the obvious arguments out of the way first: liberals are not the ones carrying firearms to angry public demonstrations. In fact, liberals are not attending angry public demonstrations, because right now liberals don't actually have anything to be angry about. Liberals just won! Why the hell would they be angrily threatening anyone?

It's the pissed-off raging teabaggers who are furious with the Republicans right now, for failing to stop the thing they promised they would stop.

Sorry Republicans, I know playing the victim is the one thing you guys love doing even more than attacking actual victims of things like hate crimes and economic disadvantages, but no one wants to shoot any of you.

This smacks of the Ashley Todd story. She's the girl who said an Obama supporter cut her face because of a McCain sticker.

Of course, it turned out to be a hoax and a lie to distract from the heated rhetoric that was building up on the McCain/Palin side during the campaign.

Cantor needs to retract his statement and strongly condemn the threats of violence spawned by the climate that his party has helped to create. But that won't happen. What are, to most people, wingnuts are called something else by the GOP: their base.

More GOP hypocrisy, this time while condemning violence. In other words, it's Thursday.

Huff Post (my comments in red:)

"I know many Americans are angry over this health care bill, and that Washington Democrats just aren't listening. So the anger that we've fueled for a year with talks about socialist takeovers and losing America is justified because we lost an up-or-down vote. But, as I've said, violence and threats are unacceptable. That's not the American way. Good.  About time. We need to take that anger and channel it into positive change. Call your Congressman, go out and register people to vote, go volunteer on a political campaign, make your voice heard - but let's do it the right way." Yes! Fight it out at the ballot box.

And then, after suggesting that these issues are best settled politically, Eric Cantor, Minority Whip, attacked Democrats for daring to be political.  They are, he said: "dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon."

I get it, Republican anger at losing a fair vote is OK, but Democratic anger at being threatened with violence (and with some threats followed up on) is not.

Right.  Gotcha.

Cantor then attempted to diminish the attacks: "To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible," said Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., who added that security concerns have been overhyped in media coverage of the debate.

What I notice is that NOWHERE do Cantor or Boehner mention that it's the members of their own party have been the ones creating this atmosphere for the last year.

The DNC has responded: "Let's be clear: calling on Republican leaders who have contributed in part to this anger by wildly mischaracterizing the substance and motives of health reform to condemn these acts is entirely appropriate."

Perrielo, whose brother's gas line was cut Tuesday after right-wing anarchists posted the wrong address, responded:


And yet, the wingnuttery continues as Rp. Louie Gohmert of (where else?) Texas called for the repeal of the 17th Amendment and suggesting taking the power to elect Senators away from the people and giving it back to the states. A direct attack on..... Democracy.



Keep going kids. This will all come back at you in November.

Cantor insists the only way an 18-vote majority can pass health care is to totally cave in

Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) office has responded to President Obama's calls for a bi-partisan health care summit by issuing a statement that makes it clear that the only way it's going to get done is to scrap everything that's been done and follow the Republican plan.

After going it alone on health care reform for nearly a year, President Obama has decided he wants to bring Republicans into the conversation. Here’s the problem: unless the President and Speaker Pelosi are willing to scrap their government take over and hit the reset button, there’s not much to talk about.

Republicans believe the status quo is unacceptable, but so is any health reform package that spends money we don’t have or raises taxes on small businesses and working families in a recession. To that point, House Republicans have offered the only plan , that will lower health care costs, which is what the President said was the goal at the start of this debate.

THIS is why the Democratic party is in the dumps. They have a 59-41 majority - the largest in decades - and yet they can't find a way to pass basic legislation.

This is screwed. Really screwed. This is why the nuclear option changing the filibuster MUST happen. The minority is holding the majority hostage and blocking every attempt to go the business of the nation.

Q: Since when is an 18 vote majority a liability?
A: When Harry Reid and the Democrats are in charge.

Lawrence O'Donnell Reduces Eric Cantor To Babbling

(Huff Post)
Media Monitor Brian Cohoon drew our attention to this clip from MSNBC's Morning Joe, where Lawrence O'Donnell subjects Eric Cantor to some sort of reporting-like substance, effortlessly reducing Cantor to nonsense.

Basically, O'Donnell asks Cantor a straight question: "Are you going to vote for the 'tax seizure bill'?" That's the bill introduced by Charles Rangel that would recover these AIG bonuses that threaten to bring civilization to its knees. Cantor's basic answer is no, but the roundabout evasions are a heaven-sent melange of tongue-tripping malarkey: "LISTEN," Cantor purrs, "I am for whatever we can do right now to get that money back into the Treasury." Except that "whatever we can do right now" isn't, as it turns out, a PLAN. What follows, roughly paraphrased from the original Cantorese, is this: "But uhm, WHY ARE WE HERE TO BEGIN WITH ... and the Rangel bill is terrible tax policy ... but I will get those bonus payments back, with NECROMANCY, or I'll pass a bill that requires Tim Geithner to figure all of this out, on pain of death or something."

O'Donnell summarizes: "What you're telling us today is that you have no idea how to get the money back, we'd like to ask the Treasury Secretary to do it. We will not vote for Charlie Rangel's tax proposal." Then they argue some more. Finally, out of nowhere, you hear Joe Scarborough say, "He's going to vote FOR it!" But Scarborough has nothing in all the world upon which to base this conclusion.

Anyway, Eric Cantor, the guy just oozes leadership. Probably from a weepy pustule.

Start at 2:45 right after Doucheborough finishes fellating Cantor.

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