CSotD: Reflections upon a door-nail
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Cantor was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. … Eric Cantor was as dead as a door-nail.
Even conservatives like Glenn McCoy acknowledged it, though the cartoon doesn't make it entirely clear whether he considers the unexpected development to be positive or negative.
However, if you compare the face of the dog in Ben Sargent's commentary with that of Cantor in McCoy's piece, I'd suggest that McCoy sees it as a matter of a RINO getting his just desserts, while Sargent is pursuing the "hoist by his own petard" angle.
Like McCoy, Pat Oliphant leaves an element of the head-scratcher in his piece, since his disdain for women in pants makes it unclear how he feels about candidate herself, but he could be right that GOP in-fighting will create a clear path for the Democrats to hold the White House in '16.
Or he could be a victim of smugness.
Smugness is a very dangerous thing in politics. As a progressive, I'm inclined towards Dan Wasserman's uncertainty about the significance of the whole thing.
Maybe that should be "as an old progressive," though I don't think you have to be downright ancient to remember when George W. emerged as the Republican frontrunner and we all giggled because the silly, fumblemouthed nitwit would certainly self-destruct on the campaign trail.
Instead, we got eight years of the Imperial Vice-Presidency, and that's not just a reflection back on the Halliburton Wars. It was clear from the start.
In March, 2001 — six full months before W's "My Pet Goat" moment — Cheney went in for an angioplasty and stent, and the joke going around was "If Cheney's operation goes wrong, who becomes president?"
Here's a pretty good argument against smugness over Cantor's defeat: While I wish David Horsey would quit writing better essays around his cartoons that I do, he makes a cogent point in his commentary on Cantor-as-Robespierre: While the geniuses of the Beltway are citing immigration reform as the reason for Cantor's downfall, the Tea Party that threw him out is as sick of fat cats as are the Occupy people.
However, he adds, One big difference: Tea party folks understand the power of voting; the Occupy crowd does not.
In any case, about all that can be said about Cantor's defeat at this point is that it's interesting. We'll know more when we see who bothers to show up to vote for, or against, the more radical right-winger who beat him in the primaries.
And then the question will be who gets lulled into staying home by those results, and who gets fired up about carrying around clipboards, burning up shoe leather and offering sympathizers free rides to the polling place.
A truly odd bit of personal synchronicity
My granddaughter Liz graduated last evening, and, like Luann, who is also graduating from high school this spring, it was her BFF who made valedictorian. Unlike Bernice, however, Nell turned to a closer and less flighty blonde friend than Tiffany for input on the joint speech she and the salutatorian made together.
Which I know because, by golly, they gave her a shout-out from the stage, saying that, if people didn't like the speech, they should blame Liz, but, of course, if they did like it …
That's Nell on the left. No glasses, but she's certainly got Bernice's hair.
Dunno how Greg Evans was able to not only spy on the kids but — given the deadlines involved — do it with such stunning precognition, but we'll just chalk up today's strip as their first unpaid internship.
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