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ric Cantor is hardly the
first establishment GOP
lawmaker to go down at
the hands of a Tea Party-minded
challenger hammering away on
immigration, federal spending and
the general out-of-touchness of
Washington elites. So this isn't a
case where there's a purge that con-
veniently begins and ends with the
only Jew in the room.
David Wasserman, a House
political analyst at the nonpartisan
Cook Political Report, said a more
local factor has to be acknowl-
edged: Mr. Cantor, who dreamed of
becoming the first Jewish speaker
of the House, was culturally out of
step with a redrawn district that
was more rural, more gun-oriented
and more conservative.
The New York Times observed
that "analysts do say that his
opponent, David Brat — who has
a divinity degree from Princeton
Theological Seminary and often
invokes God in his speeches —
appeals to Christian conservatives in
a way that Cantor simply could not."
The Forward's J.J. Goldberg
argued that it isn't anti-Jewish for
traditional-minded Christian vot-
ers to feel more comfortable with
a candidate who reflects their reli-
gious values.
"I'd bet that 90 percent of the
36,000 zealots who turned out to
vote for David Brat on Tuesday (vs.
29,000 for Cantor) don't have an
anti-Semitic bone in their body ...
They want more religious values
guiding and governing our public
life. And by religious values they
mean Christian values. That's
David Brat's main calling card:'
Conservative pundit Jon
Podhoretz, noting that Cantor has
served his district for 14 years, said,
"his Judaism had nothing to do
with his loss, and the only reason
for suggesting otherwise is to tar
David Brat and the voters of the 7th
congressional district in Virginia
with the taint of anti-Semitism.
Shameful:'
Writing for Yahoo News, Matt
Bai focused on Cantor's coming
down with a severe case of
Washington incumbent-speak.
"In person and offstage, Cantor
can be thoughtful and candid," but
his public persona sounded "trite
and stilted ... after years in leader-
ship:'

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Was Cantor's Loss
A Jewish Thing?

❑

JN

June 19 • 2014

31

