The Hound or the Fox or the Skunk?

Smug and unctuous. Those are Eric Cantor's two expressions.


I first thought he simply was Boehner's dogsbody since I never saw a photograph of the orangeman without this smarmy little terrier glued to his hip. But it is apparent that he is not supporting  his leader, he is snapping up scraps from the table.....smiling all the while.


This whole debt ceiling thing is starting to appear more like a peeling  plaster ceiling piling on the panicky GOP. However, Cantor's plastic expression reveals that one way or another he will be top dog.


Capitalizing on Boehner's unrepublican reasonableness, Cantor looks like he is going to succeed in wresting the low ground from the party and come out of this briar patch looking like Br'er Rabbit and leaving the Speaker looking like Bugs Bunny.

In the larger scheme of things, maybe his ambition is irrelevant. And maybe Boehner will be able to survive just by refusing to engage in a peeing contest with a skunk.  

-30-

The Epitome of Smarmy

Is there anyone who epitomizes "smarmy" more thoroughly than does Congressman Eric Cantor (R-Va.)?

Cantor is what the GOPers identify as an "up-and-comer." His vaunted talent for raising money is much treasured by the wingnuts.

But what impresses me is his ability to be unctious and arrogant in nearly the same second. He can sneer without moving his lips, and he can rub his hands together while they appear to be hanging at his sides.

Wouldn't it be grand if some of the old-timey types of politicians - those who knew how to be graciously principled in their interactions with the opposite party without feeling they were compromising their own principles - could appear for an encore?

Instead we have the Cantor types who are masters at being maliciously demeaning and, among other efforts at disparagement, persist in saying "Democrat Party" and "Democrat President" because they believe it removes dignity from a liberal point of view.

I believe an objective apolitical person with any insights into human nature would come to the conclusion that these conservatives need to belittle and sneer and lie in order to feel like men, and that includes the women.

We can lay a great deal of this new kind of calumny on Newtie's doorstep. I remember reading a piece he wrote for Republican Party consumption where he recommended that all things liberal and democratic (big and little "d") be referred to in only denigrating terms. It has worked like a charm. The whole of the party, and now the witless teapartiers,  have adopted his tack.

But it only works among themselves. Imagine anyone believing that Barack Obama, the coolest  president since JFK, could  be seen being "dragged, kicking and screaming" anywhere. While Cantor would like that  picture to resonate, it ain't hardly likely.