Eric Cantor - One of Virginia's Biggest Pricks

Pardon my French, if you will, but Eric Cantor - one of Virginia's members of Congress - is a total prick. And that's stating it nicely, especially given the competition the Virginia GOP provides for that title. The irony to me is that as Cantor kisses up to the most nasty elements of the ultra-far right, he forgets one thing: he's Jewish and the Christofascist elements of the GOP will ALWAYS despise him for it. Nonetheless, Cantor seems bent on making himself into a clone of Ken Cuccinelli when it comes to extremism. Cantor's latest stunt and an example of his egomania is walking out of budget/deficit reduction negotiations in a tantrum because Democrats will not take tax increases off the table. Never mind that tax rates are at a 50 year low and we've had a decade now to prove that tax cuts do not yield increases in revenue or jobs. The Daily Beast looks at Cantor's latest act of petulance. Here are highlights:
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By single-handedly bailing out, Cantor puts the onus of finding an elusive deal back on John Boehner, the man who assigned the majority leader to the thankless task in the first place. The fact that Cantor reportedly gave the House speaker just a moment's notice of his decision before the news leaked to the press only reinforced the widespread belief on Capitol Hill that the two men are more rivals than teammates, especially when it comes to the loyalties of the large and powerful freshman class.
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One indication of why Cantor may have abruptly pulled out of the talks came when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed that Boehner and President Obama met privately Wednesday night. Carney said the meeting was "following up on conversations they had on the golf course on Saturday” during their 18-hole summit.
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With the two principals already at the table, aides say the inevitable endgame of Obama and Boehner hammering out the final deal appeared to already be under way—rendering moot anything that Cantor could have done in the six-way talks with Biden. After news broke of the majority leader's surprise maneuver, Boehner and Cantor hardly presented a united front.
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By bailing on the talks, Cantor has effectively shifted the negotiations from the congressional working group to Obama and Boehner, leaving anxious House Democrats without a representative in the negotiations and openly concerned that the president will strike a deal they won’t like. “We’re worried,” said Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, who compared Cantor’s withdrawal from the talks to playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun.
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House Democrats are still angry with Obama for cutting a deal with Boehner last December to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years, over the loud objections of much of his party. With that history casting a shadow on the current negotiations, Welch said Democrats are not prepared to support the president on any agreement he achieves.
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Beyond heightening worries among House Democrats, Cantor’s move saddles Boehner with the nearly impossible task of finding a deal that will significantly cut the deficit without raising taxes. Cantor has repeatedly made the point that House Republicans do not have the votes to increase taxes to any degree, especially with almost 90 GOP freshmen who have pledged to oppose any hike. “Cantor is basically saying to Boehner, ‘Now it’s your problem,’” a Republican aide said.