Hagel and Cantor in the Spotlight

I'm watching a well-prepared Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel make an opening statement in the hearing on the exchange for American prisoner of war, Bowe Bergdahl.  Hagel's delivery— of what I'm hearing as a substantive and convincing statement to the House Armed Services Committee— is impressive. 

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Last night's Primaries turned out pretty much as expected—with one exception.  That exception was House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's stunning loss to Tea Party candidate David Brat.  Brat is an economics professor at Randolph Macon.  The kicker is that Cantor spent more on steak dinners (millions on all phases of the campaign) than Brat spent on his entire campaign.  Cantor outspent Brat 26-1.  Over $5 million!  Apparently Bratt had far more door-to-door "retail politics" going on than Cantor.  It's good to know the person to person thing isn't down the tubes.  (We Dems know how to do that!) Cantor's internal polling had him winning by double digits.  

 

Here's what stunned me this morning was Brat's response to Chuck Todd's simple question this morning:  "Are you in favor of a minimum wage?"   Brat said, "I don't have a well-crafted response to that."  A well-crafted response?  Really?  How about an opinion? That seemed to be a yes or no question.  Geeez.

Brat will face Democrat Jack Trammel (also a professor at Randolph Macon) in November. Get out your walking shoes, VA Dems; get out your checkbook, DNC!