The GOP, in perhaps its most delusional and tone-deaf play yet for 2010 dominance, has enlisted Eric "I Hate Working Americans" Cantor to recapture the party's 1994 glory. The New York Times reports on Cantor's determination to turn the political clock back more than 15 years, when the Republican Party captured the hearts of millions of angry white men:
WASHINGTON — The last time Congressional Republicans were this out of power, they turned to a college professor from Georgia, Newt Gingrich, to lead the opposition, first against President Bill Clinton in a budget battle in 1993, and then back into the majority the following year.
Representative Newt Gingrich, left, and Senator Bob Dole just after the 1994 vote that put Republicans in control of Congress.
As Republicans confronted President Obama in another budget battle last week, their leadership included another new face: Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, who as the party’s chief vote wrangler is as responsible as anyone for the tough line the party has taken in this first legislative standoff with Mr. Obama. This battle has vaulted Mr. Cantor to the front lines of his party as it tries to recover from the losses of November.
So far, Cantor's strategy has included his office's attempts to disparage working Americans and Cantor's own personal and zealous effort to deny them desperately-needed job creation in favor of more tax cuts for people who don't need money (and wouldn't spend it if they got it). The New York Times credits this anti-worker zeal in particular with vaulting Cantor into the Gingrichsphere:
As Republican whip, Mr. Cantor succeeded again on Friday in denying the White House the support of a single House Republican on the stimulus bill. That was a calculated challenge to the president, who, in his weekly address on Saturday, hailed the bill as "an ambitious plan at a time we badly need it."
As the article goes on to report, Cantor has received one-on-one guidance from Gingrich, who has shepherded his search for a voice that can mobilize every other Republican who is bitter about the disappearing vestiges of their former white privilege. In describing Newt's heavy influence, Cantor echos his colleagues' sentiments that Republican is the new Taliban:
I talk to Newt on a regular basis because he was in the position that we are in: in the extreme minority," he said.
And so it goes. The GOP eagerly continues down the path of its own destruction by futilely trying to obstruct the will of the people while openly and unapologetically likening themselves to Islamic extremists. The 2010 election should be a fun one.