California Conservative

Congratulations to the Hill Magazine for this article. In writing this article, they’re the first national media organization that gets beyond the ’shiny object argument’ of whether Rush Limbaugh leads the Republican Party or if Michael Steele leads it. Here’s the title of their article:

Rush may not lead GOP, but Cantor and Ryan may

I’d like to be the first to congratulation Michael O’Brien for being the first reporter to burst the Beltway Ecochamber’s noise machine. Here’s what Mr. O’Brien wrote:

After a week of intense media coverage and debate over who leads the Republican Party, two House lawmakers have worked to stand out more as public voices for the GOP.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), via spates of media appearances and accolades by party elders, have begun to distinguish themselves as the next generation of Republican leaders.

“Well, we’ve got a new generation of leaders now in the same fight,” House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said at CPAC last weekend. “People like Eric Cantor, Mike Pence, Thad McCotter, Paul Ryan.”

Both Ryan and Cantor made waves during the interregnum between the 110th and 111th Congresses, with Cantor replacing Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) as minority whip, and Ryan mulling a challenge to Boehner, only to quickly rule it out after news broke.

Since then, both have taken roles as young, public faces for the party.

In the past week, Ryan, for instance, made appearances on “Fox News Sunday” and CNBC, while penning an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal outlining Republican budget priorities. He also won headlines for partnering with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to write legislation proposing a more constitutional line-item veto.

When I read this, I rejoiced. Democrats seem to distract the Beltway media with what I’m calling ’shiny object distractions’. Just like a parent can get a child’s attention by showing them a shiny object, Democrats have figured out that they can distract the Beltway media’s attention with phony arguments like the Rush argument.

Variations of this are questions of whether Rush Limbaugh or Newt Gingrich is the ideological leader of the GOP or whether the GOP has a national leader. Frankly, I don’t care about any of these questions. I won’t care about whether the GOP has a national leader until February, 2012. Right now, I’m focusing on the talent found in the House GOP leadership.

We aren’t electing a president in 2010; we’re electing a (more conservative) congress. Until that election is in the rearview mirror, the other stuff is just foolishness.

Now the Democrats are targeting Rep. Cantor. They’ll pay a price for that, too. They’re attempting to make Rep. Cantor the latest conservative boogeyman, just like they’ve done with Newt, Rush and Tom DeLay. While that might provide them with a temporary distraction, it’ll hurt them overall.

When Congressional Republicans assemble to unveil their alternative to President Obama’s budget, Rep. Cantor and Rep. Ryan will have greater name recognition and additional visibility. When they make the TV talk show rounds, they’ll be pushing an appealing alternative to President Obama’s budget. (President Obama’s budget is best described as a budget that only a spendaholic could love.)

I’ve written before that Paul Ryan is always the smartest man in the room when it comes to budgetary issues. Thinking about it, I’d say he’s this generation’s John Kasich. All Kasich did as Budget Committee chairman was put together budgets that balanced 5 straight years.

And as Steele works to get his footing at the RNC, Cantor and Ryan have secured the backing of other GOP all-stars.

“I think there are some very talented people out there on the Republican side,” Vice President Dick Cheney said in January shortly before leaving office. “I think of people like Jon Kyl, who is the Whip in the Senate; or John Thune from South Dakota; or over on the House side, people like Eric Cantor, for example, from Virginia; Adam Putnam; Paul Ryan, from Wisconsin.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), meanwhile, said this week that Cantor would one day be speaker.

I can easily picture Eric Cantor as Speaker. I’m positive that House Minority Whip won’t be his last leadership position. Perhaps that’s what President Obama and Rahm Emanuel are figuring out:

Cantor was reportedly at the president’s table; White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was near Ryan, and warned the Republican with a laugh, “Don’t be a jerk.”

Rahm Emanuel has all the charm of a seasick crocodile. If anyone needs admonishment for being a jerk, Mr. Emanuel should with the man in the mirror. Emanuel is nothing more than a one-note hyperpartisan. He’s good at creating distractions to take focus away from the Democrats’ weaknesses.

Thankfully, the leadership of Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Mike Pence always brings the media’s attention back to what’s important rather than let them be distracted by the latest shiny object.

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