attack-of-the-zombie-republicans/Batchelor
""""Consider what the rest of us see in the "Young Guns," who are neither young nor noticeably armed. Eric Cantor, VA-7 (R), has limited social skills and no charisma; his position as majority leader-in-waiting is built on the money he can raise as the only Jewish Republican in the Solar System. Kevin McCarthy, CA-22 (R), is a backslapper and small-talker from a safe district, who can work a room full of Gingrich cronies as a stand-in for the slow-tongued Cantor. McCarthy is useless as muscle, as an enforcer, because, says an observer, "That would put him in a position [where] he was unpopular."
Paul Ryan, WI-6 (R), is the babyface of the lot, no money, but lots of braininess about taxes and spending. Ryan loves to spew numbers in Cantor's earshot, which makes Cantor feel smart and less bad about the fact that he voted for TARP twice and every other bank bail-out he could find in Nancy Pelosi's kitchen. Ryan also has the problem of two "yes" votes to TARP. Oddly, McCarthy, thinking of his options, rejected TARP twice, but he is too polite to bring it up to his amigos, the "young conservatives" Eric and Paul.""""
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McCarthy may look like a backwater Dan Quayle, yet he's arguably one of the most powerful GOP politicians in the House. He is in effect Congressperson- for-life--the Demos simply don't bother fielding someone against McCarthy in District 22, aka Kern county, a large chunk of west Texas at the south end of the Central valley of California--Steinbeck country.
McCarthy operated a few successful sandwich shops in Bakersfield before enterting politics and he remains popular with the Kern locals (and baptists in particular) but the bumpkin act's rather deceiving--for one, he's got the support of many corporate sugar daddies. He regularly receives large contributions from Goldman Sachs, insurance corporations, real estate and the Altria group, formerly known as Phillip Morris---not exactly the B-field lunch counter.
McCarthy also has close ties to the Kern petroleum racket (that is, Exxon, Chevron, Occi) and to Halliburton and Bechtel. Many Californians fortunate enough to live in coastside chateaus or bay or LA 'burbs probably are unaware that Kern's sort of the westcoast corporate headquarters for the GOP. Dick Cheney himself was known to party out on the fairways of west Bakersfield with the young McCarthy (Bill Thomas's protege) and various oil execs when he paid a visit to California power brokers--that is, pre-artificial heart Cheney did so.
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