QUOTE OF THE DAY…. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) chatted with National Review this week, and shared his thoughts on the proposed Cordoba House a couple of blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. Cantor offered the kind of thoughtful, well-reasoned response we’ve come to expect from the GOP leader.
“Everybody knows America’s built on the rights of free expression, the rights to practice your faith, but come on. The World Trade Centers were brought down by Islamic extremists, uh, radicals who were bent on killing Americans and accomplished that in unimaginable ways. I think it is the height of insensitivity, uh, and unreasonableness to allow for the construction of a mosque on the site of the World Trade Center bombings.
“I mean, come on.”
Well, it certainly isn’t easy to argue with logic like that.
But let’s give it a shot. First, “come on” is not a good reason to ignore the rights America was built on. Second, murderous, violent extremists executed the 9/11 attacks, and this would absolutely be relevant in this debate, if murderous, violent extremists were trying to build a community center in Manhattan. Since that isn’t happening in our reality — Feisal Abdul Rauf was a sought out ally of the Bush administration — Cantor’s point seems pretty foolish.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Politico described Cantor as “a serious wonk.” It wasn’t a quote, it was simply something Politico asserted, as if it were obviously true.
It’s not. Cantor has a reputation for being slightly more cerebral than his House Republican brethren, but it’s not deserved in the slightest.
Eric Cantor continues to be a classic example of a post turtle — you know he didn’t get up there by himself; he obviously doesn’t belong up there; he can’t get anything done while he’s there; and you just want to help the poor, dumb thing down.
Some Republicans may disagree with this assessment, but I mean, come on.
