So Many Republican Hypocrites, So Little Time

January 30, 2009 | SEND TO A FRIEND | GET EARLY NOTICE OF THE HOTW

Eric Cantor

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

We don't mean to dwell too much on the release of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds (especially when Republicans are falling all over themselves trying to be more hypocritical than their neighbors over the stimulus package), but money seems to bring out the hypocrisy in people.

Last week, we listed the 19 senators who voted for the release of bailout funds for the Bush Administration to spend, but against giving them to Obama. There were also plenty in the House that made that same political calculation.

One of those hypocritical Congressmen was House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA). But Cantor has more layers of duplicity than just his voting record.

Last week, ProPublica.org poked a hole in Cantor's facade of moral superiority. The investigative news Web site revealed that Cantor's wife works for a bank that received $267 million from the first half of the bailout funds. From ProPublica:

The bailout for New York Private Bank and Trust (NYPBT) came earlier this month as part of a Treasury Department program to boost "healthy banks" with extra capital. NYPBT is the holding company for Emigrant Bank, a savings bank with 35 branches in and around New York City. Diana Cantor runs the Virginia branch of Emigrant's wealth-management division, called Virginia Private Bank & Trust, which targets an ultra-rich clientele.

Cantor, meanwhile, has been highly critical of how TARP funds have been spent. In his argument against releasing TARP funds to the Obama Administration, Cantor appeared almost populist in tone, repeatedly railing against greedy financial institutions.

"There's a lot of reluctance on our side of the aisle to just unleashing another $350 billion of taxpayer money to go really unfettered," Cantor said on FOX News. "We'll be very focused on trying to look to small businesses and families to re-instill their confidence so that they can deploy capital again and create jobs."

Small businesses such as NYPBT, Mr. Cantor? Families such as your own?

Furthermore, it may be that NYPBT didn‘t even really qualify for those funds. The $267 million came from a fund designated for healthy banks, but as ProPublica notes, the bank itself is "less than fully healthy," having been demoted to below investment grade back in October 2008.

We're betting this isn't the last time we hear about Cantor's hypocrisy. He's often referred to as a rising star in the GOP, and he sure likes to shoot his mouth off about economic matters when he should probably just keep it shut.

Just yesterday, he wrote an op-ed for Politico.com saying "it would be a great mistake for the House GOP to turn inward and simply become the party of 'no.' We want our new president to succeed." Yet just the day before, he was successful in whipping all his House GOP colleagues into a frenzy over Obama's stimulus package, convincing every last one of them to vote "no," even though the bill was modified to address the concerns of conservatives.

Hmmm... saying one thing and then doing another? I'm pretty sure there's a word for that. Oh, yeah. There's an award for it too. Congrats, Eric.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

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This is the first HOTW Award for Eric Cantor. Welcome to the Club.