It bothered me immensely that Joe Biden seemed to credit himself as being some sort of grand problem solver during the Obama administration per his remarks earlier this week:
“There’s an awful lot of really good Republicans out there. I get in trouble for saying that with Democrats, but the truth of the matter is, every time we ever got in trouble with our administration, remember who got sent up to Capitol Hill to fix it? Me. Because they know I respect the other team.”
Well one of those good Republicans in 2011 must have been Eric Cantor, who Biden chose to get a little too friendly with at a very inopportune moment:
Boehner and Obama were going back and forth on a possible deal when Bai hints that Biden's big mouth blew it:
Cantor, who had heard about the Obama-Boehner talks only when Biden happened to mention it, was nonplused at having been excluded and appalled that Boehner was offering more revenue. He and others pressed the speaker to drop the idea of a comprehensive deal, and on July 9, Boehner did just that, calling Obama at Camp David to tell him that the grand bargain was dead. He issued a statement immediately after, saying it was time for both parties to set their sights on a less ambitious solution to the debt-ceiling crisis...
So the grand bargain was dead, due to Cantor with the assist from Biden. Biden’s next move with Cantor? A social dinner.
“The Vice President and Congressman Cantor have developed a close relationship while working together over the past year,” said a statement from Biden’s office. “This dinner with their wives is a personal occasion.”
Of which Cantor had this to say:
Cantor “has a great respect for and built a friendship with Vice President Biden from their work together this year,” an aide to the GOP leader said. “This social dinner is a continuation of that friendship with their wives. They’ve been trying to get together for some time.”
The cordial relationship between Biden and Cantor is no secret in Washington. Amid some of the most partisan tensions during budget battles over the summer, Cantor took a moment to praise Biden for his overseeing of debt ceiling negotiations.
“I’ve been very impressed with the way he conducts his meetings — he does like to talk,” Cantor said in a meeting with reporters. “I guess we all do, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”
Where would we be without Biden’s love of talk and his love of his political opponents? Where would Biden be? Possibly somewhere without his current campaign pitch.
Ex-Rep. Eric Cantor, who lost his House seat in a Republican primary earlier this year, told Time magazine that, "unquestionably, the Vice President knows how to negotiate. He understands people" -- probably better than Obama himself.
Cantor -- who had his fair share of clashes with Obama -- described Biden as "awesome," while the president may be a little insensitive to the desires of others:
It certainly says a lot when someone like Eric Cantor thinks you’re “awesome.”