Poor Li'l Eric Cantor Wins GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award for Using 'Threats as Political Weapons'

Eric Cantor

Welcome back to GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Did the stork just bring Eric Cantor a new baby brother or something? Because he sure is in need of attention lately.

Last week he was so angry about all the attention Democrats were getting (because people wanted to kill them) that he held a press conference to tell the media how he felt about it:

“It is reckless to use these incidents as media vehicles for political gain,” said Mr. Cantor, who delivered a stern-faced statement on the issue but did not take questions from reporters. “To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible. By ratcheting up the rhetoric, some will only inflame these situations to dangerous levels. Enough is enough. It has to stop.”

Of course, Democrats were not happy with the tongue-lashing. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) reportedly asked, “How dare he suggest we are being political instead of standing up for our families?”

Well, Cantor reasoned, my unmarked office was shot at, sort of! So we all felt bad for little Eric for a minute, until the police said the bullet that landed near the office was totally random. Then we just felt bad for his staff. 

But then, hey, look at this! Someone was arrested for threatening Eric Cantor! So people care about the minority whip after all!

Then we found out that this guy was a total You Tube nutcase, who had made threats against many a politician in some 2,000 videos. As Talking Points Memo's David Kurtz points out:

In one video he addresses President Obama, Vice President Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid by name and says, "Your punishment is coming, the swine, it will be severe, and you will beg for mercy to your god, it will be severe, you will know god's swine, god has warned you."

So why was this nut job arrested for threatening Cantor, and why now? Wonkette's Ken Layne has a theory:

Hooray for History’s Greatest Victim, Eric Cantor! Finally, after police immediately dismissed his bullshit claim that somebody shot up his office... authorities have found an actual insane person on YouTube who threatened poor little Eric on YouTube! The same deranged man-child posted another “2,000 videos in which he made threats,” but only the one about Eric Cantor should be taken seriously, because hey, Eric Cantor!

...Anyway, nice digging, Eric! Hope you paid your staffers overtime for combing f*cking YouTube all weekend looking for a retarded person who mentioned your name.

Either way, let's not make a big deal of it, guys. Because, as Saint Eric says, "To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible" (and thankfully, Cantor has so embarrassed himself and his wingers that the conservative media hacks are doing his PR for him).

And that's why Eric Cantor is this our GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

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

Catch up with you soon.

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This is the fourth GOP Hypocrite Award for Eric Cantor. He also won the award on May 1, April 3 and Jan. 30 2009. You can see a list of all previous nominees here.