Cantor and Newt

Mon, February 16, 2009 - 9:25 AM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich credited Democrats, not Republican Whip Eric Cantor, with uniting the House GOP in total opposition to President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan Friday.

In an interview published in the New York Times over the weekend, Gingrich said, “I’ d like to tell you Cantor did a brilliant job, but the truth is that [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [Appropriations Committee Chairman David] Obey pushed the members into his arms,” Mr. Gingrich said.

By not releasing the text of the compromise stimulus plan until hours before the final vote, Democrats made it harder to win last-minute support from GOP members, Republicans said.

In his first months as whip, Cantor has been taking cues from past Republican Speakers of the House. “I talk to Newt on a regular basis because he was in the position that we are in: in the extreme minority,” Cantor told the New York Times.

Recently Dennis Hastert was seen leaving Cantor’s Capitol office after a meeting with the Republican whip.

--Neil Simon