After Eric Cantor ouster, a skittish GOP and perhaps more gridlock (CS Monitor)

After Eric Cantor ouster, a skittish GOP and perhaps more gridlock

House GOP is knocked for a loop by the defeat of No. 2 Republican Eric Cantor, who plans to step down as majority leader July 31. None of it bodes well for congressional accomplishment, analysts say.

By Francine Kiefer, Staff writer, June 11, 2014

Washington — On the Richter scale of political earthquakes, the June 10 one that knocked Republican Eric Cantor from his Virginia congressional district and from his leadership position in the US House might well be recorded as a 7: "causes damage to most buildings, some to partially or completely collapse.”

Metaphorically speaking, that building is the GOP leadership of the House. Since Mr. Cantor’s surprise primary defeat to Dave Brat – the anti-establishment candidate who is well liked by the tea party – the Republican-controlled House is now in search of a new majority leader. No matter who it is, he or she is likely to pull the House even further to the right, and perhaps presage a completely new leadership team come next year, replacing House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

“It’s fairly clear that a major part of the backlash against Cantor is that he had ‘gone Washington,’ ” says Norman Ornstein, a longtime political observer and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank. In this case, he explains, “going Washington means voting to reopen the government [after the shutdown], voting to raise the debt ceiling.” It also means trying to rebrand the Republican Party as, for instance, more friendly to Hispanics by considering immigration reform.

The current GOP leadership is so scared by the upset of Cantor – who sometimes blocked Mr. Boehner’s more conciliatory efforts – that it will run from anything that looks like a deal with President Obama or even hints at big government, say Mr. Ornstein and other observers.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2014/0611/After-Eric-Cantor-ouster-a-skittish-GOP-and-perhaps-more-gridlock