GOPurge

Rep. Roy Blunt out as Republican Whip (#2 guy in the House to the Minority Leader), as expected, his replacement is now certainly to be Screaming Wingnut Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia. The message is that the Democrats are the ones in trouble here and that Cantor expects much of the House agenda to be set by the New GOP.

His constituents wouldn't mind seeing Cantor take the reins. Ted Brown, a Richmond resident and professor of political science, crumpled in his seat at Tuesday night's party when the networks called Old Dominion for Obama, but brightened considerably when asked about his local congressman. "I'm certainly not trying to write the political obituary of John Boehner or Roy Blunt, but there's some scenarios that one could easily picture Eric Cantor as the new Republican floor leader," Brown said. "If he wanted to exploit it he's earned a lot of political credit." Brown said Cantor's leadership could make a huge difference in preventing a Democratic stampede from taking over Washington. "Just as Bill Clinton did with health care, Obama, with such a large congressional majority, could be easily vulnerable to hubris and could overreach and hopefully we could see a tremendous bounce back in the midterms in 2010," Brown said.

Echoing Brown's sentiments about the dangers of Democratic overreach and predicting success at beating back the Democratic tide, Cantor said House leadership and especially Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have alienated voters by flexing partisan muscles at a time of economic crisis. But he also sounded a hopeful note, saying he expects Democrats to work cooperatively with the minority in Congress and govern from the middle. "They're going to have members who frankly are coming from Republican seats," Cantor said. "They won't be able to survive in those seats unless they support some common sense conservative solutions and not be so far to the left." He added that: "by virtue of the way [Obama] conducted his race he understands this is a center-right country and you run on a conservative platform of cutting taxes for the middle class. That sort of indicates someone gets it."

Cantor was vague about his plans for an upcoming series of meetings Republicans will hold to decide how to rebuild, but he did not deny the GOP brand has taken a hit. Cantor cited Obama's financial advantage and the toxic environment for Republicans as factors contributing to the party's decline. The biggest problem, Cantor said, is that the GOP allowed Democrats to co-opt what has traditionally been a conservative message. "All of a sudden you hear Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and Chuck Schumer talk about the middle class as if the Democrats own the middle class issue," he said. "The middle class is, really was, our playing field. That's how Ronald Reagan came into power, that's how Newt Gingrich came into power, is to stick up for the working families … If nothing else, we couldn't get the message out. Look, Barack Obama ran as a conservative."

Now, understand the GOP just got their clock cleaned. But you see Democrats never win...it's only a case where heretical moderate Republicans who "strayed from the path" lose.

Cantor honestly expects Obama to govern as the competent version of Bush. Since there's no way Obama will be able to do that to satisfaction of the Right, the GOP will simply remind him the same way they did with Clinton: bury the Dems in 2 years, get control of Congress, and impeach him.

Mitch McConnell and John Boehner will be convinced to step down as the GOP leadership, and quickly...or they will be removed. There is no possible compromise Obama can make, and the sooner he learns that, the sooner he can fight back. Clinton gave in...look where that got him for his efforts.