Eric Cantor: Top Givers Are Wall Street

01 November 2011 |permalink | email article

Yes, the House Majority Leader has a vested interest in the outcome of the Occupy Wall Street movement. As Cantor said recently: “I for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and other cities around the country. And believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans.” Daily Kos remarked that as it turns out, Cantor wasn’t just hippie bashing, he was doing the job he’s well paid to do. As Roll Call wrote Monday Cantor has plenty of reasons to bash the protesters because Cantor’s top contributor is Wall Street:

“Cantor’s personal political action committee has collected close to $2 million so far this year, placing it well ahead of any other leadership PAC in the House or Senate. In all of his fundraising efforts top executives at banks, hedge funds and securities and investment firms play a starring role. Securities and investment donors have given close to $350,000 to both Cantor’s campaign and his leadership PAC this tear, making them his top source of donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.”

“Cantor has raised millions more in a lucrative operation known as the Cantor Victory Fund 2012…Ten major donors. Many of them top executives with finance industry firms, have given $50,000 or more to the Cantor Victory Fund, which has collected $2.4 million, according to the most recent disclosure reports.” The article confirms my longtime suspicion that “Cantor is acting like a shadow Speaker in waiting.”

Fringe Frontrunner

The Republican Party, as the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reported online, has a problem. Herman Cain, with a comfortable life as a motivation speaker, like many public figures, has fantasies of becoming President. Lizza opines he has taken over his party’s nomination process and represents a truly new phenomenon in Presidential politics: the fringe frontrunner. “Cain has it made, and the result is to a dog catching a car, noting in the past 24 hours a wide range of subjects, Including accusations of “inappropriate behavior;” and a possible violation of campaign finance laws. “We are witnessing the next great disruption in our politics: at a moment when everyone would like simpler answers to a tough set of questions, Republicans are rallying around the Chauncey Gardiner of the GOP – Being There, the 1979 American comedy starring Peter Sellers whose knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television.

2012 Presidential Debates

There will be only four debates during the general election, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced last Monday. President Obama will face the Republican nominee in New York, Florida and Colorado. The vice presidential debate will be in Kentucky. The West Coast is again shut out like it’s another planet.
 

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