Update: Video
Update II: Transcript
UPDATE III: Kos link
Cantor's "performance" last night is now getting more play on Daily Kos. Please rec and comment; we need to get this out in the MSM. Thanks.
Here's the "best" of Cantor, courtesy of the transcript now available from last evening's episode of Hardball:
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about this war is-war, this word is being used like it`s a regular war with an army against another army with the other side, you try to get them to capitulate. When we got to Berlin, we knew we won the war because the allied forces reached that city and overtook the capital of Nazi Germany and won. Hitler was dead, the top guys were hanged. And that was it, we know we won, because the bad guys gave up, they lost. We know the same thing happened in Japan because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.I think we can all agree that E.R.I.C. "Every Republican Is Crucial" Cantor is a fool who doesn't understand the Constitution of the United States of America. He desreves to lose his seat, and if he continues along with this kind of "intelligence", he probably will.Who has to surrender in Iraq for this war to end? Congressman Cantor, be specific. Who is the person who has to sign a surrender document? Who is this person?
CANTOR: I think your point is a good one. We`re in a new wage war against an enemy unlike that which we`ve had before. The enemy-you`re right. There`s a lot of enemies out there. We`re in a long-term war with an irreconcilable wing of Islam, number one. We`re at war certainly with the Sunni insurgents. We`re at war with some of the Shias. Muqtada al-Sadr. And certainly, ultimately, the drivers, the funders. Those providing help and resources in rogue regimes such as that in Tehran. That`s who we`re at war with.
MATTHEWS: How many wars are we going to have to fight in our lifetime? You want to go to war with Iran now?
CANTOR: I`m not saying we should take anything off the table.
MATTHEWS: Do you think we should go to war with Iran?
CANTOR: I don`t think that`s responsible for to us take that option off the table right now.
MATTHEWS: I`m asking you, do you think we should go to war? Yes or no?
CANTOR: I think all options including the military option should be left on the table.
MATTHEWS: This isn`t an option question. This isn`t multiple choice. Right now, February 8, 2007, do you believe we should go to war with Iran?
CANTOR: I`ll leave that decision up to the commanders on the ground and those in our military ...
MATTHEWS: Commanders on the ground whether we go to war with another country?
CANTOR: I will leave the decisions in the military arena to-this is exactly the point.
MATTHEWS: This is Barry Goldwater taking. He used to say that. Regional commanders can decide whether we want it use nuclear weapons. You`re obviously saying soldiers should decide which country to go to war with.
CANTOR: I`m here to say the military experts are those which might come up with the recommendation to the commander in chief that makes the decision. It is silly for us to expect.
MATTHEWS: I`m not talking - I just asked you a very simple question.
CANTOR: We`re going 535 commanders in chief.
MATTHEWS: I`ve never heard of anything like this in my life. Never in my life.
ISRAEL: Congress has a constitutional responsibility to decide whether we`re going to war or not. That`s what we`re elected to do. Those are the debates we should have.
CANTOR: Every president since.
MATTHEWS: The idea of declaring war as a soldier is unimaginable.
We`ll be right back to talk HARDBALL with the two congressmen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. We`re back with Republican Congressman Eric Cantor to of Virginia and Democratic Congressman Steve Israel of New York.
Let me ask you Congressman Cantor, very clearly, to clear up our discussion, if the U.S. Congress were to discuss tomorrow morning whether to declare war on Iran, would you vote yay?
CANTOR: This congress is not going to do that because it`s the commander in chief`s role, Chris, and Steve knows that as well. It`s not Congress that will ask for that. It is the commander in chief that will make that decision. Every president whether republican or Republican or Democrat since the War Powers Act was in place has interpreted it as being the commander in chief`s role to do that.
MATTHEWS: Would you support the president if he declared war in Iran tomorrow morning? As things are right now.
CANTOR: I will support what is in the best interest of securing this homeland and providing our troops with what they need and if there is a threat on the ground in Iraq and in the region that our troops need us, I will support them and that`s exactly the point on this Iraqi resolution because the Democrats want to have their cake and eat it, too. This is a nonbinding resolution. It`s a sense of Congress. It doesn`t mean anything. In fact it pollutes the message and sends the wrong message to our troops.
MATTHEWS: Congressman Israel, what`s the role of Congress in war and peace?
ISRAEL: Congress under the Constitution of the United States authorizes war. The War Powers Act requires Congress to vote on whether we should insert troops into hostile situations. The law is clear.
CANTOR: Absolutely not.
ISRAEL: Come on, Eric.
CANTOR: As a commander in chief the constitution gives.
MATTHEWS: Congressman Cantor, why did the president ask for approval of Congress before he went to Iraq?
CANTOR: I certainly think his counsel gave him guidance why he need to do that but the Constitution gives the commander in chief the right to send our troops into battle.
MATTHEWS: Maybe when it comes to war we don`t need a Congress according to that. Thank you very much Congressman Cantor, thank you Congressman Israel.
End Updates
The following, as we all know, is the law:
"The Congress shall have Power. . .To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water. . ."Rep. Cantor doesn't seem to know that rule, as he declared that a. only the President can declare war, and that he thinks that no option, INCLUDING WAR WITH IRAN, should be left off the table, and b. the soldiers in the field and on the ground should be the only ones to help the President determine whether or not the U.S. Army should invade Iran...--United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8
So, he doesn't know the law, he doesn't understand government, and he has no grasp of his own job as minority whip. He also apparently thinks that our brave troops have time to sit down with President Doofus to discuss Iran, while they take a break from what they are doing in Iraq, I presume.
Another embarrassment by the Virginia Republicans...
x-posted at WOS
more talk at Daily Kos
He is utterly shocked by Cantor's stupidity.
Chris Matthews looked like he was trying to deal with a teenager on PCP. It was so pathetic and pitiful.
Eric's telling us Bill and the boys should be able to decide to invade Iran. I can just imagine Bill deciding to invade because he's heard Iranian ladies are hot and he'd like to meet some. Actually, this mental image is pretty funny.