Far from holding out any comfort, the shock defeat of US House Majority leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary is set to make things more difficult for President Barack Obama in terms of getting Congress to clear several key pieces of legislation including immigration reform.
Even as Cantor announced that he would be quitting his post by July-end and an election is to be held next week itself to choose his successor, warnings have been sounded that the White House should not expect any major legislative push with Republican cooperation till the Congressional elections in November.
Political commentators have declared that the much-touted immigration reform is practically dead at least in this Congress. Former White House spokesman Robert Gibbs commented: “This (Cantor’s defeat at the hands of a resurgent Tea Party) is the end of anything productive getting done legislatively in Congress either this year or maybe for the next several years.”
But President Obama himself is putting up a brave front. Saying he still remains hopeful, Obama has indicated that he will continue to pressure the Republican-controlled House to bring the immigration legislation for a floor vote.
Arguing that Cantor’s loss does not represent the death knell for House passage of immigration reform, Obama said at a Democratic event in Boston: “I fundamentally reject that and I will tell the Speaker of the House (John Boehner) he needs to reject it.”
In support of the Obama assertion, the White House is also pointing to the victory of another prominent Republican, Senator lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who was more closely identified with the immigration overhaul, having been one of the co-authors of the package passed by the Senate last year.
“You would be hard-pressed to name a constituency more conservative than those who cast ballots in South Carolina,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters, adding Graham had made a “persuasive case why comprehensive immigration reform was the right thing for the country”.