National Public Radio has a nasty profile up of Eric Cantor, the House majority leader.
Issue no. 1: "Cantor, who has a perfect rating from the American Conservative Union." Uh, actually, according to the American Conservative Union's own Web site, Cantor's lifetime ACU rating is 97 out of 100. Not bad, but not perfect.
Issue no. 2: "In a 2003 interview with the conservative Insight on the News online magazine, Cantor...described himself like this: 'Someone who likes to work toward consensus, somebody who desires to work with all different types of people.' Times have changed, and, Democrats may argue, so has Eric Cantor."
I guess with a news staff of a mere 300 persons, NPR doesn't have the resources to actually interview any Democrats or even gather their comments made elsewhere and find out what they actually argue. It can simply use its conjectural powers to imagine what Democrats may argue. An accurate or fair-minded report might point out that if Democrats did argue that, they'd be wrong.
It's actually not hard to come up with recent examples of Mr. Cantor working with all different types of people. I did it in five minutes of online searching, without even the benefit of NPR's 300-person news staff. Example A: Mr. Cantor works with Virginia's Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Jim Webb, on using tax laws to save the city of Norfolk money on rehabilitating historic school buildings, and wins praise from the former chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party. Example B: Mr. Cantor works with Maryland Democratic Congressman Steny Hoyer, the Democratic whip, on Middle East issues, issuing a joint statement praising the Obama administration for vetoing an anti-Israel U.N. Resolution and co-sponsoring the Cantor-Hoyer Resolution on Mideast Peace.
Issue no. 3: The NPR piece dwells bizarrely on Jewish money: "Accounts of Cantor's rise from Richmond, Va., prep-schooler to Republican House leader are laced with tales of ambition, money-raising prowess and anti-tax fervor...An article in his hometown newspaper, The Richmond Times-Dispatch, a few years later detailed his fundraising prowess, including events in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Aspen. It is that fundraising finesse, and his ability as the lone Jewish Republican in the House to appeal to traditionally Democratic Jewish donors, that has helped to cement his influence within his caucus...In 2004, the political publication Roll Call provided details of a Cantor fundraiser at the Plaza Hotel in New York City during which mostly Jewish donors contributed about $500,000 to the congressman's leadership committee, ERICPAC..." There a fundraising events at which mostly Christian donors give money all the time. Some Jews give money to Eric Cantor's political action committee in 2004 and seven years later it's still news to NPR?
