Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Friday that he was "stunned" by Speaker John Boehner's resignation and blamed it on conservative Republicans who "have not been honest with our fellow conservatives."
"They have not been honest about what can be accomplished when your party controls Congress, but not the White House," Cantor, who worked nearly six years with Boehner as Republican whip and majority leader, said in an op-ed piece in
The New York Times. "As a result, we missed chances to achieve important policies for the good of the country."
Cantor, who represented Virginia, was handed an embarrassing defeat last year in a primary election battle with political novice and university professor Dave Brat. He now is vice chairman and managing director at Moelis & Co., an investment-banking firm in Richmond.
He called Boehner's resignation "another selfless act" by the Ohio congressman.
"By stepping down amid the tumult in the House conference, he has given my former colleagues in the House, fellow members of the Republican Party and the broader conservative movement a chance to demonstrate to the American people that we are prepared to govern and worthy of their trust," Cantor said.
That does not mean shutting down the federal government, as some conservatives are threatening during the current budget process if Planned Parenthood is not stripped of its taxpayer subsidies over undercover videos on the sale of fetal body parts, he said.
Republicans must "fight for what we believe in," Cantor said, "but we should fight smartly."
"I have never heard of a football team that won by throwing only Hail Mary passes, yet that is what is being demanded of Republican leaders today," he added. "Victory on the field is more often a result of three yards and a cloud of dust.
"In politics this means incremental progress, winning hearts and minds before winning the vote — the kind of governance Ronald Reagan perfected."
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