Eric Cantor: The Most Dangerous Whiner in America [actual title]

Whiny, playing the victim, refusing to take responsibility for his own party's behavior: Ladies and gentlemen, the great statesman Eric Cantor, during one of the darkest moments in the recent history of the United States.

And so here we are again, hurtling toward a self-inflicted wound that could be far more devastating than one bungled vote in the fall of 2008. And who do we have standing at the center of the mess, effectively blocking any progress toward a deal that would preserve the credit-worthiness of the United States? Eric Cantor, now the majority leader of the House of Representatives. As the representative of the no-compromise House GOP, Eric Cantor is now the most powerful, and dangerous, politician in America.

The New York Times' Michael Shear has a silly article up today in which he characterizes Democratic efforts to "demonize" Cantor as the new "boogeyman" as mere partisan maneuvering. No doubt, strategic partisanship is playing a role. But the Democratic position is strengthened by the fact that it just so happens to be an accurate representation of reality.

After the failure of his own attempt to strike a "grand bargain" with Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner has been rendered silent and powerless. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is scrambling to cobble together some kind of face-saving deal that would allow Republicans to keep attacking Obama without creating an economic meltdown. But Cantor? Cantor is going out of his way to torpedo any chance of a deal. He walked out of the Biden negotiations. He blew up the Boehner-Obama rapprochment. Perhaps worst of all, as Matthew Yglesias has documented, Cantor is actively misrepresenting the state of budget negotiations to his own party.

http://www.salon.com/news/budget_showdown/index.html?story=/tech/htww/2011/07/14/eric_cantor_the_most_dangerous_whiner_in_america