Young Poor & Angry Press

Hey, kids! Remember how a couple weeks ago, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor was totally out of ideas, so he formed a new club with Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush called the National Council for a New America, and then went on a “listening tour” where the first and only stop was a restaurant called “Pie-Tanza” that wasn’t even outside the Beltway? And there, they snacked on pizza and listened to each other say stuff that was basically indistinguishable from the stuff they had been saying all along, except this time, it was at a pizza place? Yeah. Those were good times. Like the movie Adventureland, only instead of sexy, disaffected college kids with sexy and disaffected hijinks at an amusement park, you have sad middle-aged men with sad middle-aged talking points at a pizza place.

Anyway, according to the American Spectator, not even the launch of this ambitious new experiment in soggy, third-rate rebranding succeeded in making Eric Cantor happy.

Cantor was most stung after last week’s launch of what he termed a national “listening tour,” when Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress, announced at the same time her own “listening tour” as she mulls a run for the Senate in Louisiana.
“Apparently it’s true: great minds do think alike,” quipped a former colleague of Cantor who lost his seat last election cycle, he believes, for supporting the Bush bank bailout plan at Cantor’s request.

So there you have it, Eric Cantor apparently has a sad because people would much rather listen to pornstars! Of course, there’s still the mystery of the identity of Cantor’s snarky former colleague! Of the fourteen Republicans who lost election last year, there were only four who voted for the bailout bill: Chris Shays of Connecticut, Joe Knollenberg of Michigan, Jon Porter of Nevada, and Randy Kuhl of New York. Care to guess?

WASHINGTON D.C.- “Folks — just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss this story in this morning’s Wall Street Journal,” wrote a GOP leadership aide in a morning email blast to reporters. The aide highlighted what is by far the most damning quote: Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) calling Obama’s war plan “embarrassingly naïve.”

This would make for a convincing arguement and a great political attack. Except for one little problem. The GOP in the House actually supports Obama’s plan.

Minority Leader John Boehner just two weeks ago:

“The challenge of bringing stability to Afghanistan is enormously complex, but our efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban are vital to the security of the American people. I support the strategy the President unveiled today because it reflects the advice of our commanders on the ground. I hope he will continue to honor their counsel because we should not allow political considerations here at home to trump the importance of achieving success in the region. Moving forward, we must ensure this strategy is implemented in a manner that is both flexible and reflective of the situation on the ground, and we must aggressively monitor its progress.”

Of course we’d be remiss if we forgot what Dr. No aka Eric Cantor said yesterday to the Washington Times. It must have killed Cantor to utter these words: : “The GOP has the obligation to be the honest opposition. When we believe the president is correct — for example, in his handling of Iraq policy — we will stand with him.” So while the GOP is playing partisan politics, their leadership is talking out of both sides of their mouth. Again.

The question has to be begged, if the Republicans are calling President Obama’s plan “naive,” and they support it, then what does that make them?  Naive would probably be the proper term. Naive that the American people don’t see this ploy for exactly what it is. Hyper partisan politics from the other side of the isle. I think Eric Cantor and John Boehner should relax a bit and worry about themselves. The GOP is losing seats in congress like a game of musical chairs, and this is the very reason.

Meet The Press : (AP Photo/Meet The Press, Brendan Smialowski)

After weeks of blasting the Obama/Democrat budget and turning in a vague alternative, the Republicans presented their budget Wednesday morning. The plan will simultaneously lower tax rates and curb spending. The budget states that the Obama plan makes clear the intent to “shovel on more spending and more borrowing” as well as to “Europeanize” America. The Obama plan would lower taxes for individuals making less than $100,000 while raising taxes for those making more.

Alternately, the Republican budget would “permanently” extend Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. They propose to pay for those tax cuts through a five-year spending freeze on any funding not related to defense or veteran’s health care. The GOP also wants to repeal stimulus funding, “excluding unemployment insurance” beyond 2009.

The GOP makes clear in the budget that they want to cut unnecessary spending. They have been vocal about their disdain for earmarks and Democrats’ “hypocrisy” for allowing earmarks to continue slipping into legislation after denouncing them. Aside from the fact that not all earmarks are bad (many of them help low income citizens and stimulate the economy in the poorest areas), the Republicans should not be shaming the Democrats for approving earmarks when Red states are reaping the bulk of the benefits from them. An analysis of the 2009 omnibus package conducted by Taxpayers for Common Sense revealed that only six out of the top 20 earmarking senators belong to blue states. Mississippi is the state bringing in the most money, with over $470 million in 24 earmarks.

House minority whip Eric Cantor (or Dr. No, as the Democrats fondly call him) has been especially vocal about his opposition to President Obama’s policies, specifically earmarks. But, as proven by the March 15, 2009 edition of Meet the Press, Cantor has no response when it comes to the countless earmarks he’s requested during his time in office. Republicans see Cantor as a symbol of hope for their party because of his fundraising techniques, but he may fall off that pedestal yet. Recently he has been blasted in the press for attending a Britney Spears concert during the President’s prime time press conference. Cantor claimed that he attended the concert for fundraising purposes (he’s known for his fundraising prowess, after all). But he should have invented a better excuse, or at least brought his teen daughter along as an alibi.

YPA Press has tried repeatedly contacting Cantor’s office to discuss the budget and Britney, among other things, but to no avail. You’d think his press secretary would be eager to defend him. Apparently that’s not the case. The American people deserve accountability from their representatives and Cantor has not delivered thus far.

           While most were tuned in last night to watch President Obama field questions on the recent   plan for an economic comeback, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va) was watching      another kind of comeback. GOP aides confirmed to the Huffington Post that House Minority      Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) attended the pop concert at the Verizon Center, where Britney      appeared on stage brandishing a leather lash and cavorted with scantly dressed dancers that  would make Sarah Palin blush.

     One House GOP leadership aide said Cantor went at the request of a fundraiser. “If suffering through a Britney Spears concert will raise one more dime to help Republicans take back the House, then I’m glad Cantor’s willing to do it.” Yes, because watching the half naked Brittany dance around half naked really is “suffering” while the jobless rate hits a all time high. As one House Democratic aide shot back, “Looks like Eric Cantor’s not that innocent.”

The gossip blog Wonkette first reported the Cantor sighting on Wednesday afternoon, and then ran the quote from Cantor’s office alleging that Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu was also in attendance.

But Landrieu’s office denies the charge. An aide insists that numerous witnesses can place the Senator at Matchbox during that time (a bar/restaurant that is suspiciously close to where Spears performed). What was once a funny story has now effectively turned into Brittany-Gate. Here we thought Barack Obama liked to hang out with celebrities. The question remains, who did Brittany vote for?

But the aide held firm. “I can assure you she was not at the concert,” he said. Nor did she attend the show after the meal. Instead, she went to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s annual spring reception, he said.