This piece detailing the growing enmity between Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Minority Whip Eric Cantor is interesting, but actually left me with the reverse impression. The mistrust and outright contempt that characterizes Hoyer and Cantor's relationship isn't what's weird. Canter is a retrograde bomb thrower consciously patterning himself off Newt Gingrich and his famous strategy of total obstructionism. Why should Hoyer and Cantor share a post-vote milkshake? But the familiarity and cordiality that defined Hoyer's bond with former Republican whip Roy Blunt is weird.
For years, Hoyer and Blunt have had lunch together at least once a month. They alternate offices, and staff is typically barred from the meal. According to former Blunt aides, the Missouri Republican — who's now running for the Senate seat being vacated by Kit Bond (R-Mo.) — also called Hoyer during his race for leader two years ago to question Speaker Nancy Pelosi's support for his rival, Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha.The Hoyer-Blunt friendship is such that both men shared a laugh during the tense midpoint of a now-mythic three-hour vote to approve the controversial Medicare prescription-drug bill. Blunt encountered Hoyer in the center aisle of the hushed House floor, and the Maryland Democrat joked, “When this is over, let's go get a beer.” Their laughter was the only thing to punctuate the angry silence in the chamber that long night.
The Medicare prescription-drug vote was one of the sorriest chapters in House history. The vote was held open an unprecedented three hours to ensure passage (by contrast, when Democratic leaders held a vote open for 15 extra minutes in 1987, then-congressman Dick Cheney called it "the most arrogant, heavy-handed abuse of power I've ever seen in the 10 years that I've been here."), a lawmaker was bribed, and Tom DeLay was reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee. And amidst this, Hoyer was promising to buy Blunt, the guy twisting the arms and holding open the clock, a cold one? Why?
