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Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA
Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor addresses the Value Voters Summit in Washington, DC, Friday. The Value Voters Summit, sponsored by the Family Research Council, is an annual gathering of the religious right; it provides Republican politicians and presidential candidates an opportunity to display their conservative bona fides.
The second-ranking House Republican castigated "Occupy Wall Street" protesters on Friday, just as Democrats begin cozying up to the weeks-old demonstrations.
House GOP Leader Eric Cantor decried the protests that started several weeks ago in New York, and have spread to major cities across the country. Cantor said in a speech at the Values Voters Summit in Washington that he is "increasingly concerned" about the "growing mobs" represented at the protests.
Cantor's remarks, some of the harshest by a Republican toward the "Occupy" demonstrators, comes amidst a growing political divide over the protests. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi backed the demonstrations, saying, "God bless them for their spontaneity." And other Democrats have been even more open in their embrace of the movement, which has also attracted support from organized labor.
Organizers behind the movement, which expresses outrage toward the conduct of corporate America and seeks campaign finance reform, have hoped it develops into an analogue for the Tea Party on the left, which has helped fuel a Republican political resurgence over the past two years.
"Some in Washington have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans," Cantor said of the protests after accusing the Obama administration's policies of being an "assault on many of our nation's bedrock principles."
Other political leaders have been more coy in their approach toward the demonstrations; President Obama nodded toward the protests as a sign of broader frustration over the state of the economy.
As for Republicans, Mitt Romney accused the protesters of engaging in "class warfare," but has otherwise stayed silent about the demonstrations. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called them the "Obama demonstrations," while Texas Rep. Ron Paul encouraged the protests.
"If they were demonstrating peacefully ... and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed–I would say, good!" he told the libertarian magazine Reason.
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I envy the Occupy protesters. Their style is more laid back. I Brought a Tambourine to the Tea party rally . I thought they would have a heart attack. I also see the media coverage as totally unfair. The Occupy protester only have to meet a minimum of accuracy and credibility. Yet they were all over the Tea Party folks. Lastly when some Duff wants me to get up in arms . It better be some one I can trust my country to.;
LOL, Robert. The only part of your post I understand is the tambourine!! Yeah, no one is ever going to accuse those Tea Party people of being "way cool".
Mr Cantor: The Republican mob has already divided this country - you have divided this country. And if you persist in this insane diatribe with your co-conspirators you will allow corporate fascism to further take over this country. Campaign reform - no funding from outside your district - sounds good to me; no business donations or pacs - sounds good to me. But not to you or your cronies. Money buys power and thats what the 99% are saying. Enough! Or you will have violence. Oh and your words? echoes of 1930 Germany when the corporal was drumming up fear about communists and socialist - pointing to the mobs.
tregun, we simply must keep the Colbert Nation Super-Pac, though. :)
Hey Cantor please come up with one job for someone stop blocking any progress. He is a lost cause. Teapublicans please wake up...back an adult please, compromise is the only way to go.
LOL Maybe they're not drinking enough tea to wake up! Doesn't sound like much of a "party" to me.
The Muppet Show called. They want their balcony back . Ha,Ha
to imatthabeach
Uh..........What, Robert?
I don't see it as Americans against Americans. I think it's more like Americans against the system that has failed. Regardless of politics, Cantor should look at the people's interests, not just his own.
Canter calls these protesters (MOB'S). Well it was about a year ago there were (MOB'S) every where, carrying semi-automatic AR 15 Rifles or with a gun strapped on their side, strutting around like Banty Rooster's. Cantor praised these people (The Tea Party) and spoke at their Mob Gatherings. They were concerned and mad Americans at that time, now they are MOB'S, because they are marching to get Wall Street to cut lose some money to smaller banks and tax the Million and Billionaries, who according to Mr Warren Buffy, a billionaire who stated that he paid less taxes than his seceraties and felt he was not paying his fair share. Several of the other Million and Billionaries have said the same thing. Cantor should be trying to get other GOP's Members to vote for President Bamha jobs bill to let millions of unemployed Americans got back to work.
Just in Cantor's district in VA., there was over 200 bridges that have been declared unsafe for all traffic, school buses, (wonder how Cantor would feel to have a bridge fall like in MN and OK and kill a bus load of kids)? I bet he would still vote no on the job's bill. If the people in his District in Richmond,VA., then they have no more conscious than Cantor. He needs to be replaced ASAP by the Voters of the Great State of VA. We shall see what kind of people lives and votes in his District, Before you pull that handle, mark the box or what ever your State requires, think of that school bus with your kid's or grand children on the bus goes into the river, because Cantor wouldn't vote on a job bill, because this would keep Cantor from getting campaing funds. Vote with your HEART VA.
Mr.Cantor, Mr.Boehner, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the pack have managed to insult or have shown disdain to most of the American Population....The Unemployed, Women, Gays, Blacks, the Poor, American Car Manufacturers, Teachers, Union workers, College Grads. Really, who is left to vote for them?? While this country needs JOBS they are busy passing useless laws on Abortion, talking about Mormons and protecting the large conglomerates that they created with out-sourcing, allowing the Banks to gouge the American Taxpayers, Health Insurance premiums to go through the roof and somehow they expect to be elected and put back in their do-nothing positions....Bye, bye guys!!!
I recall that the politicians in the 1960's also had concerns about the protesters against the Viet Nam War! That did not mean that the politicians fared any better in the following years when they came up for re-election. I hope Mr. Cantor has his retirement plan figured out, because he is on his way out!
I don't think I agree, Dan. The public demonstrations at the Democratic convention in 1968 handed us Nixon on a platter. (If that addresses your point.)
Cantor is fecal matter that needs to be flushed away in the next election he is involved in. I can only hope the good people of VA see him for what he truly is.
I don't understand. We have a short-term unemployment problem and a long-term debt problem. Which is more important -- putting Americans back to work or paying down the debt? Which should we tackle first? Isn't the answer obvious?
Unless we WANT the economy to stay in the tank so that Obama loses the White House.
Bingo Robert, I think that what the GOP wants. For the government to break down so they can stop everything they don't like by default. Cantor wants the government to fail.
Aw, get over it, Cantor! If you people in Congress would get smart and start solving the bigger problems we have in America, I think you'd see the so-called "mobs" disappear.
Exactly.......Don't give a "mob" motivation to form up, and you'll never have to worry about what a "MOB" wants to do to you and your "employers", Eric.
The price you pay for being part of the WRECKING CREW of good governance, is that the government will be unable to enforce the laws which protect you when the majority of people have had enough of your sabotage of their government and authority.
If Mr. Cantor is afraid of this "mob" milling about in NYC, imagine what terror these words written on July 4, 1776 must strike in his heart.
... whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,..."
The rest of the words may be found at
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/
Peace.
In 2010 Boehner, Cantor, McConnel and the rest of the lying nitwits ran on the promise to pass bills that had to deal with creating jobs. How many bills have they provided? None, zero, zilch, nada. If anything they are trying to reduce jobs. Did losing the presidency hurt that bad that they decided to make the whole country suffer. I can hear them saying,"I'm taking my ball and going home", just like the bunch of little whiny children that they are. Grow the F--- up! That goes for anybody else who is willing to place party, religion or ideology before the welfare of our country and our fellow citizens. Grow the F--- up!
Why is it that every single time Eric Cantor makes a speech, he spews some right-wing extremist viewpoint that has little if any basis in reality? I wish he would justify his description of the citizens who are protesting inequity of responsibility to support our nation as a "mob". As far as I've seen, there is no report of anyone being violent or threatening violence. In reality, Cantor is the leader of a mob of tea-party folks who frequently promote the carrying of weapons and use the most extreme comments to espouse their views. Exactly, who is the "mob" here? But, Eric's speeches always get press attention; something that he craves more than food or sex.
Eric Cantor SHOULD be worried about HIS job. No jobs for America means no job for Eric cantor. He is one pathetic obstructionist. GOP=GRAND OBSTRUCTIONIST PRICKS, enough said.
Apparently his use of the word mob has proven correct......
If you think they are as yet acting as a mob, you are in for a very BIG surprise. Go ahead and tell them that you think they should just go home and eat cake.