It's all you ever wanted to know about Eric Cantor, and more. A 60 Minutes interview with the majority leader fills us in on Cantor's life away from Capitol Hill, his taste in music (he apparently likes "Wiz Khalifa stuff and Jay Z, Lil Wayne), and his love of President Obama.
Cantor's feuding with Obama came up on numerous occasions throughout the interview, and interviewer Lesley Stahl grilled him on compromise, Congress's low approval rating and tax cuts.
When Stahl mentioned that Ronald Reagan had on several occasions raised taxes, including once during a recession in 1982, her interview with Cantor was interrupted by Cantor's press secretary, who was standing off camera.
Here's the play-by-play of the incident:
Stahl: But you know, your idol, as I've read anyway, was Ronald Reagan. And he compromised.
Cantor: He never compromised his principles.
Stahl: Well, he raised taxes and it was one of his principles not to raise taxes.
Cantor: Well, he-- he also cut taxes.
Stahl: But he did compromise--
Cantor: Well I --
[Press Secretary: That just isn't true. And I don't want to let that stand.]
And at that point, Cantor's press secretary interrupted, yelling from off camera that what I was saying wasn't true.
[Reagan: My fellow Americans...]
There seemed to be some difficulty accepting the fact that even though Ronald Reagan cut taxes, he also pushed through several tax increases, including one in 1982 during a recession.
[Reagan: Make no mistake about it, this whole package is a compromise.]
Cantor: We as Republicans are not going to support tax increases.
You can watch the rest of the interview below. There are also a couple more web extra videos to watch, as well.
* As you've probably heard by now, Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli has pulled back from his calls to change the state's ballot access law for 2012. The Bearing Drift blog's Norman Leahy's take: "This story initially appeared to be a rather simple case of campaigns failing, miserably, to meet ballot access rules. The longer it goes on though, the more it resembles an onion. And I suspect we’ve only just begun peeling the layers."
* Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's is apparently adjusting his stance on offshore wind energy, according to the Washington Times. The paper reported that O'Malley will probably "focus on giving utilities the option to buy renewable energy certificates from wind-energy providers." The big difference -- he's no longer going to push for 25-year contracts, which many legislators took issue with.
* The Herald-Mail reports that Del. Neil Parrott (R-Washington Co.) wants to grant the same secrecy to petitions for referendum in Maryland as an individual person's vote. It's an interesting idea. According to the Herald-Mail:
After his group, MdPetitions.com, turned in enough signatures in 2011 to get a public vote on a law granting in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants, the state let supporters of the law review the petitions before filing a lawsuit to negate the referendum effort.
Parrott said hundreds of petition signers contacted his group, angry that identifying information they used on the petitions was released upon request. They argued that signing a petition was akin to privately stepping into a voting booth.
Parrott already has filed a bill for the upcoming Maryland General Assembly session that would make petitions confidential and “not subject to public inspection.”
