From Newsmax
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s historic loss in yesterday’s Virginia primary sent shock waves through the Republican Party, creating an opening for a Tea Party-backed candidate to vie for a leadership post and likely cementing Washington gridlock for years.
Cantor is highly unlikely to quit his leadership post, according to a Republican familiar with his plans.
But that didn’t stop many the next generation of GOP leaders from jumping into the fray early Wednesday.
Rep. Paul Ryan said he is not interested in a leadership position. Ryan said Cantor’s defeat is “very disappointing” but did not change his view of pursuing an elected House leadership job.
“That’s just not been my interest,” said Ryan, who was the Republican party’s vice presidential candidate in 2012.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling said he was “humbled” that people had approached him about possibly taking on a new leadership role and was considering his next steps. Hensarling, a Texas lawmaker who leads the powerful Financial Services Committee, has since been mentioned as a potential new member of House leadership.
……“It is stunning on so many levels,” said Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary to President George W. Bush and a onetime House aide. “The most important is it likely means that there is no chance that immigration reform gets on the House floor this summer.”
Cantor’s loss could also have long-range market repercussions, as the seven-term House veteran was an ally for Wall Street on issues ranging from the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program to defending the Export-Import Bank. Those connections also made him vulnerable to the challenge from the small-government movement that emerged after Congress passed the bank bail-out in response to the 2008 financial collapse.
‘First Shot’
“It’s going to speed up the process of Tea Party members positioning themselves for a leadership run,” said Ron Bonjean, an aide to former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican. “This stunning news could be the first shot in an all-out-war between the establishment and Tea Party over leadership control.”
The upset marks a shift in this year’s momentum in the intraparty power struggle between the small-government movement and Republicans aligned with the business community. Until Cantor’s loss, the pro-business forces had protected almost all of the incumbents targeted by the Tea Party.
The defeat of Cantor, 51, will add momentum to the campaign of Tea-Party endorsed Chris McDaniel in his bid to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Thad Cochran in a June 24 runoff primary in Mississippi.
Cantor was one of the derelict House RINOs who helped the Dems raise the debt ceiling with no spending cuts.
We are sick of the big government abuse and the mentality of the go-along-with-the-Dems rank and file GOP.
PAY ATTENTION GOP. The following are the basic principles of the Tea Party movement; common sense Constitution-based precepts.
Principles of the Tea Party Contract From America (excerpts)
Individual Liberty
Our moral, political, and economic liberties are inherent, not granted by our government. It is essential to the practice of these liberties that we be free from restriction over our peaceful political expression and free from excessive control over our economic choices.
Limited Government
The purpose of our government is to exercise only those limited powers that have been relinquished to it by the people, chief among these being the protection of our liberties by administering justice and ensuring our safety from threats arising inside or outside our country’s sovereign borders. When our government ventures beyond these functions and attempts to increase its power over the marketplace and the economic decisions of individuals, our liberties are diminished and the probability of corruption, internal strife, economic depression, and poverty increases.
Economic Freedom
The most powerful, proven instrument of material and social progress is the free market. The market economy, driven by the accumulated expressions of individual economic choices, is the only economic system that preserves and enhances individual liberty. Any other economic system, regardless of its intended pragmatic benefits, undermines our fundamental rights as free people.
Protect the Constitution
Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does. (82.03%)
Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington
Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities, or ripe for wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution’s meaning. (63.37%)
End Runaway Government Spending
Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. (56.57%)
Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care
Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn’t restricted by state boundaries. (56.39%)
Stop the Pork
Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. (55.47%)
Stop the Tax Hikes
Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011. (53.38%)
If more Republicans actually believed in those concepts, they wouldn’t be at risk of losing their office.
Reblogged this on theThumpHouse.