If you are wondering whether or not to bother reading Ryan Lizza’s 10,000+ word New Yorker profile of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., don’t bother. The article is a complete waste of time. Here is the nut graph:
In the next few years, a new field of Republican Presidential candidates will emerge to sort out some of these issues. Until then, House Republicans, who have moved sharply to the right since January, 2011, are the face of their party. They will also determine the destiny of President Obama’s second term, which features an ambitious agenda including taxes, immigration, and gun control. The Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has often shown a willingness to compromise, but for more than two years he has been stymied by a small and unruly group of right-wingers, led by his deputy, Eric Cantor.
Got that? Boehner = good. Cantor = evil. The rest of the article is just as subtle.
But the best line in the piece comes in the middle of Lizza’s recitation of the 2011 debt limit deal which, of course, Lizza blames entirely on Cantor. Lizza writes, “What’s more, by scuttling the 2011 Grand Bargain negotiations, Cantor, more than any other politician, helped create the series of fiscal crises that have gripped Washington since Election Day.”
Apparently Ryan Lizza has tracked the source of all partisan evil in Washington to H-329. Gimme a break.
