ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: As President Obama famously said earlier this year, one day soon House Republican Whip Eric Cantor would say, “Boy, Obama had a good idea.”
That day may be here — on Afghanistan and Pakistan policy.
On ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today, Cantor, R-Va., made clear that Republicans are largely supportive of Obama’s policy efforts — even while Democratic leaders, including House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., question the US mission in the region.
“This is an instance where I think you’ll find most of us on the Republican side of the aisle supporting the spirit of what the president is trying to do,” Cantor said. “That is to ensure that that region of the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan, not become a base from which terrorists can launch attacks against us or our allies.”
“Chairman Obey has even gone so far as to say that the administration has but one year, and if he is not successful in one year this president will be stopped by — I assume what Mr. Obey suggests — the Appropriations Committee here in the House,” he added.
“But again, that goes to the point, there is only one commander-in-chief. There are only so many generals on the ground from which the commander-in-chief gets his information, and I think any time we begin to impose the 535 members of the House and Senate onto what the generals are saying on the ground, we are in for a recipe for real trouble.”
Cantor’s comments suggest that, if President Obama is owning the Afghanistan-Pakistan policy like never before, Republican leaders may own it with him.
Also today, speaking about the Republican Party’s National Council for a New America initiative — which Cantor helped kick off over the weekend in Arlington, Va. — Cantor pushed back on the notion that this amounts to GOP “re-branding.”
“It’s not a re-branding message. I do take issue with that, because the National Council for a New America is a group that has been launched to go about reconnecting with the people and so that we can adopt the Reagan model of going and selling the conservative message,” Cantor said.
“It is not about re-branding the conservative message, it is about fostering discussions, wide-open policy debates, robust discussions around the issues facing this country and around the issues facing people across America and in their communities. And obviously given the direction that we see this administration going in and this Congress going in, we need a dose of conservatism to return.”
Cantor also defended his March vote to impose a 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses — a vote that split the Republican caucus. (On the program, I wrongly characterized Cantor as being in the “vast minority” inside the GOP on that vote; in fact, 85 House Republicans voted for the measure, while 87 voted against it.)
Former governor Jeb Bush, R-Fla., attacked Congress’ move to recoup bonuses via a retroactive tax as “un-American” and “scary for so many people” at Saturday’s National Council kick-off event, sitting beside Cantor.
“Listen, at the end of the day AIG is a government-owned entity at this point,” Cantor said. “You’re essentially like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The taxpayers own almost 90 percent, I think between 85 and 90 percent of AIG. You do not have a situation where you can take a step back, as the governor suggests, because a government is all-in all-fours. And so when we have that kind of situation where the taxpayer dollars are at risk, the more conservative thought in my mind is to make sure that we’re not rewarding failure on the part of taxpayer dollars.”
Watch our full interview with Cantor HERE.
We also chatted with Ana Marie Cox of The Daily Beast and Air America about investigations of Bush administration lawyers, Sen. Arlen Specter’s party switch, and — most importantly — what to wear and where to party during the annual Washington prom that is the weekend of the White House Correspondents Association dinner.
(Find out why it always makes sense for women to just wear simple black dresses.)
Watch our full interview with Ana Marie Cox HERE.
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