Where's Eric Cantor?

Almost every politician does work in their district, in their home office, communicating with the people they represent.  Some, like Russ Feingold, do it a lot more than others, and they give the impression of actually giving a damn about their constituents.  Eric Cantor does not.  In fact a quick overview of his websites indicates nothing about any time spent actually talking with the people of the 7th District.  He has only what he calls an "Advisory Council," for which you must sign up and enter your personal information, along with the requisite request for campaign support/funds, before you are allowed to even know about when he is willing to listen to what you have to say.  (I've signed up for it. Should be fun.)
I've contacted a lot of politicians in my time, from when I was in Philadelphia and wrote to Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, to my time here when so far I've contacted Senators John Warner and Jim Webb.  Always I've received a response from these representatives.  I didn't always agree with them (seriously, who actually writes a rep to tell them how much they agree?), but they've always returned my e-mails, letters, or phone calls, with a clarification of their positions and stances.  Not Cantor.  I've twice tried to reach him to explain certain repugnant positions he's taken or to express my displeasure with his behavior, always in the most polite terms my seething anger could muster, and I've never heard back.  Not once.  Not even a form letter.

And his blog, which was unveiled as some new innovative forum enabling him to listen to his constituents (his own words:  "I would like to use this blog to create a two-way dialogue..."), has only recently even allowed relatively unmoderated comments.  This after flak over his censoring of critical comments, a common occurrence among conservative bloggers, and actually changing critical comments to make them read as if they advocate support.  That's enough of a kick-in-the-teeth for the "two-way dialogue" concept, but it gets even better.  A quick perusal of the blog offers nothing in the way of policy ideas or even comments on why he supports certain legislation or opposes it.  In order of importance to him are posts on "interesting articles," "security," "taxes," and "caucus of confusion," i.e. his funny little term for Democrats.  It's almost entirely a vehicle for his attack machine and pimping of his own op-eds and television appearances.  Which brings us to...

... what Eric Cantor actually does.  Posturing.  That's it.  He's served as the mouth-piece and genial public face for the far right of the Republican party, with his appearances on news programs (such as this particularly embarrassing episode in which he tries to convince Chris Matthews that the military should not take orders from the government) and his statements simply decrying Democrats (such as his  revolting National Review piece complaining about Pelosi's visit to Syria with no mention of the Republicans joining her).  Since 2001 thirteen bills he has sponsored have actually made it out of committee, and only two were enacted, a particularly shoddy track record considering his own party was in power during the entire time of his congressional career, save the last eight months.

He serves almost no useful purpose in Congress, he doesn't reflect or listen to the people he is supposed to represent, and, as his ties with Jack Abramoff show, he's not to be trusted.  It's far past time for this guy to go the way of George Allen.  2008 sounds like the right time to me.

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