George,

After Eric Cantor declared the earthquake victims of Joplin, Missouri should not get any relief from the federal government without commensurate cuts in other government programs, I did not think he could be more odious and contemptible, but, I surely underestimated his contempt for the role of government in tragedies as we are now witnessing in the aftermath of hurricane "Irene."

The State of Vermont, for example, is a vast land of devastation and destruction--homes washed away, roads and bridges destroyed, lives lost. Much of Northern New York State suffered equal devastation as did New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, in fact most of the northeast United States.

Once again Eric Cantor suggests we play a form of "Whack-A-Mole" with the suffering of many Americans, , cuts at the top first, before any aid to those Americans at risk and with unfathomable losses.

What sickens me about this creature is his and his right-wing henchmen/women's constant criticism of the Obama Administration's failure to uphold our Constitution. Apparently the words "to provide for the general Welfare" escape his and his fellow traveler's purview.

How did we get characters like Eric Cantor? The Republican Party; the Party of Lincoln, the Party of Theodore Roosevelt looked on governance as an opportunity, an obligation to protect, defend and care for the citizenry. Cantor and his gang seem to worship at the alter of Grover Norquist who wants to reduce government to the point where "he can drag it to the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Using Norquist's analogy, I wish I could do likewise with the likes of characters like Eric Cantor and Ken Cuccinelli!

Harry Tenney (Electronic mail, August 30, 2011)