Eric Cantor: The Fourth Branch of Government
Remember the Republican congressfool who thought the government had 4 branches, and I foolishly mocked him? I mocked him for thinking that.
Now I have to apologize to him.
We have the judicial, the legislative, the executive, and Eric Cantor.
In the dark of night, in a secret corner of congress, the Republicans passed a totally new rule that says a majority of votes cannot stop the government shutdown. We have to have Eric Cantor’s permission in order to bring it to a vote.
Chaffetz said the recently passed House Resolution 368 trumped the standing rules. Where any member of the House previously could have brought the clean resolution to the floor under House Rule 22, House Resolution 368 — passed on the eve of the shutdown — gave that right exclusively to the House majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.
This means that all the other members of congress can pack their bags and go home because they can’t do diddle squat without Eric Cantor’s permission. Cantor was last seen strutting around the house gym shaking his money maker in everybody’s face. Okay, so I made up that last thing but it could happen. You know it could. You know he could even go to the White House and do that twerking thing. He’s that kind of guy.
I am totally at a loss to explain how you can make Eric Cantor the fourth branch of government without even a peep from the semi-sane branch of the GOP. That, my friends, is how much power a small group of greedy old white people with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other – neither of which they know how to use properly – run this country.
Dammit.
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
Yuk. How did that get passed without anyone hearing about it?
1Oh, I forgot. The Koch brothers probably paid for it. I am getting tired of the Koch brothers too, along with Cruz and Company.
2House Rethugs have yet to be potty trained. It would take at least the much maturation to get in Cantor’s face and tell him nobody died and made him God.
3I screamed about this for a week on Huff & Puff, and this morning they finally did the story.
Kos had it last week. So did TPM. Article I read said it had to be brought up by either Boehner or Cantor.
Alan Grayson tried to sneak a clean CR into a bill on something else, but got caught, and his remarks were “suspended”. Chris Von Hollen also tried, got caught and was made to go sit in the corner.
Somebody on the Dem side should be trying every day to get a clean CR to the floor for a vote, if for no other reason, than to remind the American people who made this mess.
JMHO
4Not just damn it … but damn it to hell and back!!
5Cantor is the greatest embarrassment of all. He’s Jew without a Temple.
6Just like in Las Vegas, the game is rigged by the rules which are set up so that the House always wins. In this case, it’s the majority party of the House who blithely voted on a rules change which has the same effect as allowing the Senate majority leader to invoke cloture by fiat. The only difference is that if the Senate tried to change the rules it would be all over the news while the House can act with impunity. Why why why can’t we have a better press corps? Are they all owned by the Kochs, too?
7Can’t see Cantor as a branch.
Twig?
Arceuthobium?
8Don A, a lot of the press are owned by the Kochs, yes. God, I miss Walter Cronkite.
9This seems like a very short-sighted rule change. Isn’t the reason the Senate filibuster rule doesn’t get amended that while its very annoying when you’re the majority, both sides see the benefit of having it for when you someday become the minority.
Same here – all roads run thru Eric Cantor may seem like a good idea to the Rs now but I suspect they’ll like it less when all roads run thru Steny Hoyer.
10Don’t worry, the rule will be changed just before a Democratic House is sworn in.
11Rule is Speaker, Maj Leader or their designated representative and it only applies to H.J. Res. 59
Rule came out of committee, was slipped into Joint Resolution 59, the one that went to senate, was sent back to house without Obamacare parts & then sent back to the Senate same way it was first time. That one there.
It was voted on
Here is the paper trail http://legiscan.com/US/drafts/HR368/2013
12I have noticed over the last few years that
13Eric Cantor always stands behind the speaker, on the right side. I think of
Brutus, as in “et tu”.
The last R who thought he was God, Tom DeLay, ended up a convict. Cantor…..
14Nancy Pelosi tweeted earlier this afternoon about this. She linked to a video of Rep. Van Hollen and others talking about the rule change. She tweeted this:
“No one man should have the power to block a majority of the House from ending the #GOPshutdown and averting default”
https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi/status/389843661581611008
15Zyxomma –
16Thanks!
Isn’t it ironic that they would do this when a while ago, along with the Senate rethugs, screamed bloody murder when Harry Reid was thinking about changing the Senate filibuster rules?
17I’d seen the video of Van Hollen and his over-enlarged signs of Rule 22 and the change made by Res 368. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t all over the news. Then tonight I saw an even better one — with Louise Slaughter (Luv Her!) who’s the Ranking Dem Member of the House Rules Committee — she’s questioning House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) (ugh) about the shaky business and why did he do it. The article’s good, but watch the video. Excellent. Will definitely make your head explode though, so have plenty of Jack Daniels available as a medicinal tonic.
18http://freakoutnation.com/2013/10/14/that-awkward-moment-a-house-republican-explains-why-they-rigged-the-rules-to-keep-the-govt-shut-down/
@JuJuBee Thanks for that video! I’m gonna tweet that one out to my followers too. It’s amazing this is going on. It’s such jaw-dropping arrogance by the GOP. Democrats had better continue talking about this rule change VERY loudly.
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