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Washington (CNN) - As Republicans swept the top three offices in Democratic-leaning Virginia last week, Rep. Eric Cantor was in Richmond, shaking hands with supporters and rallying GOP troops as he proclaimed, "The Republican resurgence begins tonight."

He was also taking notes.

In an election that Republicans claim is an indicator that the American electorate is unnerved with the sweeping changes President Obama and congressional Democrats are making in Washington, the GOP sees an opportunity in the 2010 congressional midterm elections, where one in three Senate seats and every seat in the House of Representatives will be on the ballot.

"We're going to take the model that worked in Virginia, so we can unite our party and begin to appeal to independents with solutions that affect our lives," Cantor told reporters in a Richmond ballroom shortly before Bob McDonnell was projected to be the state's next governor.

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Washington (CNN) - A new BlackBerry application released Thursday by the office of House Minority Whip Eric Cantor is the latest technology upgrade for Republicans.

The new "WhipCast" application is "designed to directly communicate with users in real-time," Cantor's office said in an e-mail.

"Today's launch of the WhipCast BlackBerry app is the latest demonstration of our commitment to modernize the way we communicate with Americans from coast-to-coast," Cantor said in an accompanying statement.

The new application - which was tested by Cantor's new media team before its public rollout - will deliver text, audio, image and video updates to users, according to Cantor's office. "WhipCast" also gives users access to Republican talking points, policy discussions, polling information, and floor schedule updates.
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Editor's note: Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, is the Republican whip in the U.S. House of Representatives.

(CNN) – Given the heated rhetoric and sharp partisan divides that have characterized this year's debate, it's easy to forget that there are several key reforms in health care that Democrats and Republicans can agree on.

Unfortunately, congressional leaders in control of the legislative agenda seem to be making this very mistake. A bipartisan deal can still be salvaged, but only if Congress focuses on common-sense principles to keep health care costs in check, preserve the doctor patient relationship and give Americans more options for affordable, high quality health care.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/10/24/cantor.bipartisan.healthcare/index.html

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he thinks President Barack Obama could be in for an ousting from office similar to what happened to Democratic President Jimmy Carter after his first term. (PHOTO CREDITS: Chris Welch/CNN)
MACKINAC ISLAND, Michigan (CNN) – Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he thinks President Barack Obama could be in for an ousting from office similar to what happened to Democratic President Jimmy Carter after his first term.

"I think the people wanted a change," the Florida Republican said, speaking of the election of Obama in November while drawing similarities to events decades earlier.

"They wanted a change back in 1976. You remember? Richard Nixon had been president. That ended. Gerald Ford took over. The people decided they wanted a change. They got one-Jimmy Carter. Four years later, they took care of business-Ronald Reagan."

"It may happen again," Crist went on. "I believe that the people have seen that they wanted a change but not this much. Not this kind, and not this way. America is awake and we're coming back."

Crist, who's now running for U.S. Senate, said Republicans feel a winning streak coming on for the next few years, "so bad they can taste it," he said. "Especially after the seven or eight or nine months that we've had of this new administration."

Crist was the keynote speaker Friday night at the biennial Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island, Michigan.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor delivered an address himself Saturday morning. Cantor touched on the healthcare debate, calling some of the options being discussed in Washington of late "ill-defined," adding they would be "a gamble," according to remarks sent out by Cantor's campaign committee.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – The House Republican Whip said Sunday that the country needs to move on from South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson’s recent “You Lie!” outburst during President Obama’s address to Congress last week.

“Let’s go about the business that we are trying to get done which is to affect real health care reform,” Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

Cantor noted that Wilson’s apology had already been accepted by the president and Wilson has said he would not engage in that type of behavior again.

“We’ve got to look to how we get this health care reform done right – not just get it done. And there are areas that we can agree,” Cantor also said, citing banning the practice of denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, trying to ensure coverage to people who have employer-provided coverage but who lose their jobs, and working on medical malpractice reform.

But Cantor also suggested that President Obama had a ways to go if the White House is to be successful on one of Obama’s top domestic agenda items.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – The image war over the impact of President Obama's stimulus plan escalated Thursday, as Democrats targeted another major GOP congressional critic of the package, and the vice president again raised the stakes with a visit to the lawmaker's home state.

Hours before House Minority Whip Eric Cantor spoke on a conference call slamming the effectiveness of the administration's stimulus policy, the Democratic National Committee launched a pre-emptive strike: a tough statement tarring opponents of the plan – including the Virginia congressman - as foes of economic recovery.

Vice President Joe Biden is headlining another stimulus-promoting event Thursday, this time in Richmond, Virginia. "I ask those critics...Would they not help prevent (layoffs of) thousands of teachers, firefighters, cops?" Biden is planning to say, according to prepared remarks. "Would they not give a tax cut to 95 percent of the American people? Would they sit back and do nothing as our economy collapsed?"

(Updated after the jump with Cantor, GOP response)

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, used the weekly Republican radio and internet address to slam President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan.

Saying the stimulus bill passed earlier this year was "full of pork barrel spending, government waste, and massive borrowing," the House Minority Whip also says in Saturday's address that "President Obama's economic decisions have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity, and have not worked."

Citing the millions of jobs lost this year and a national unemployment rate hovering just under ten percent, Cantor also uses this week's address to assert that the stimulus package has failed to deliver as promised by Democrats.

"Remember the promises? They promised you if you paid for their stimulus, jobs would be created immediately. . . . Yet just months later, they are telling us to brace for unemployment to climb over ten percent. They promised jobs created. Now they scramble to find a way to play games with government numbers by claiming jobs saved.

"Simply put, this is now President Obama's economy and the American people are beginning to question whether his policies are working."
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WASHINGTON (CNN) - A top congressional Republican on Thursday joined critics of the White House's response to Iran's disputed presidential election, saying the United States has a "moral responsibility" to condemn attacks on protesters.

"The administration's position that what's going on in Iran is a 'vigorous debate' is absurd," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said in a statement released Thursday. "People are being brutalized and murdered by the regime in Tehran. We have no idea exactly how many have died or have been seriously injured, since the regime has restricted journalists. In no way do these actions constitute a 'vigorous debate.'"

The congressman from Virginia, the No. 2 Republican in the House, added that "America has a moral responsibility to stand up for these brave people, to defend human rights, and to condemn the violence and abuses by the regime in Tehran."

Obama said Monday he was "deeply troubled" by the violent protests that followed Friday's vote, which official results show resulted in the re-election of hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But he avoided siding with Ahmadinejad's opponents, telling reporters that "It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be."

Tuesday, he added, "It's not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling, the U.S. president meddling in Iranian elections."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended that approach Thursday, telling reporters Obama "believes that he's struck the right tone."

"I know some people agree with what Sen. McCain said. Some people agree with what other Republicans have said that's very much like the president's position," Gibbs said. "The president strongly believes that we should - and have - spoken out to ensure the demonstrators have the universal right and principle to demonstrate without fear of harm. But at the same time, we have to respect their sovereignty."
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has signed on to the latest high-profile effort to re-brand the Republican Party - but don't expect to see him take a major leadership role for the National Council for a New America, or make a starring appearance at any of the events on the group's national tour.

Organizers of the effort, spearheaded by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, originally told reporters that Gingrich had not been included in the newly-launched group because his 527, American Solutions, was a partisan entity. (The organization describes itself as a "tri-partisan" network.)

Gingrich supporters dismissed that explanation, pointing out that Mitt Romney - a member of the NCNA's panel of experts - headed the explicitly partisan Free and Strong America PAC, which donates to GOP candidates.

(updated after the jump with Cantor camp response)

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The No. 2 Democrat in the House Thursday dismissed talk of what the House Speaker knew or didn't know about the CIA's interrogation techniques, saying that discussion "is a distraction from the central point" of determining what happened during the Bush administration and making sure it never happens again.

Responding to a question from Republican Rep. Eric Cantor about whether he believes that the CIA may have "misled" Speaker Nancy Pelosi in briefings, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he had "no basis (on) which to base such a belief, and I certainly hope that's not the case."

"But it is a distraction from the central point," the Maryland Democrat said. "And I will tell my friend that I think there is far too much discussion about what was said as opposed to what was done."

Hoyer said that a commission should look into the issue "not so much for what was done but to ensure that what we do going forward is legal, consistent with our values, consistent with our morals and consistent ... with protecting our nation and our people. In my view we have a responsibility to do all of those."

"I frankly think that upholding our values is consistent with protecting our security," he said.

Pelosi has been under fire from critics who say that she was briefed on the "enhanced interrogation techniques" - which included techniques that have been labeled torture in other arenas, including the United States at other times in its history.

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(CNN) – A driving force behind the new effort to renew the GOP's image denied Monday that the group is looking to avoid addressing social issues that excite the conservative base but can be off-putting for moderate and independent voters.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia was joined at the group's town hall style kick off event Saturday by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

"During your meeting over the weekend, you didn't talk at all about abortion, gay marriage or immigration," American Morning's John Roberts said to Cantor Monday. "Those are three big Republican social issues. . . . Why were those issues left off the table?"

"The National Council for a New America is meant to be a wide-open policy debate," the Virginia Republican responded. "There is no exclusion about what we'll talk about, who can be involved.

"...The traditional family values are a part of everything we do. The value system that we hold raising our children, educating our children, delivering health care –these issues permeate everything, so there is absolutely no intention to veer away from discussion of any of that."
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(CNN) - House Minority Whip Eric Cantor tells CNN's John King that the GOP still has a lot to learn from President Obama.

"President Obama is a great communicator. We understand that," he said in an interview that aired on CNN's State of the Union Sunday. "He's also been very adept at adopting the technology of today to access the youth vote and the younger population of this country. That's the future, and I believe we've got a lot to learn. The Republican Party can't keep doing things the way it always has in terms of technology."

Cantor, along with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, held the kick off event Saturday for the National Council for a New America, a high-profile Republican effort to engage a diverse group of voters.

One new GOP face who seems to disagree with Cantor's point of view: Meghan McCain, whose father John McCain is involved with the NCNA effort.

"Simply embracing technology isn't going to fix our problem," the 24-year-old told a gay Republican group last month. "Republicans using Twitter and Facebook isn't going to miraculously make people think we're cool again. Breaking free from obsolete positions and providing real solutions that don't divide our nation further will."

The NCNA is planning to hold a series of town halls across the country in the coming months in an effort to re-cast the party’s image.

ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) –  Three prominent GOP leaders kicked off a campaign Saturday to reshape their party's image, gathering at a restaurant in Northern Virginia for the first of a series of town hall meetings.

The goal of the initiative, called the National Council for a New America, is to connect Republican leaders with voters across the country to help get the party's electoral fortunes back on track.

"Certainly our party has taken its licks the last few cycles, but that's why we're here," said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. "The reality is the prescriptions coming out of Washington right now are not reflective of the mainstream of this country."

"It's time for us to listen a little bit, learn a little bit," said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who advised Republicans to work on the party's message and "not be so nostalgic."

"I would say you can't beat something with nothing. The other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it," said Bush, who repeatedly praised President Obama's tactical approach to politics, and commended his 2008 campaign as "forward-looking."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney compared the GOP to Americans fighting the British during the Revolutionary War. "We are the party of the revolutionaries, they [Democrats] are the party of the monarchists," he told the overwhelmingly Republican crowd, saying the Republicans needed to "once again lead the American Revolution."

He blamed Washington for setting in motion policies that led to the collapse of the housing market, and painted his party's current minority status as a boon.

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(CNN) - House Republican Whip Eric Cantor - among the unlikeliest attendees at a Britney Spears concert earlier this week in Washington - told CNN Thursday he went to the teen-dominated show for a political event, to "help the team."

"I had a political event there, and it was simply because it was there to help the team, that's why I was there," Cantor told CNN's Dana Bash.

According to a Republican aide, Cantor was specifically raising money at the concert for his political action committee, ERICPAC. The event was hosted by the Truckers Association, which has a box at the Verizon Center, where Spears was performing.

The Web site Wonkette first reported Cantor was spotted at the event, which took place as President Obama held a prime-time press conference.

Cantor told CNN the concert - part of the singer's "Circus" tour - was "quite a show."

"I hand it to the performer, she was something," he said.

The congressman also said his daughter was "really mad" he did not bring her to the concert. "She had school that day, and the next, and I wasn't going to bring her up here to miss it."

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Republicans criticized Democrats for not using "common sense" as they proposed an alternative solution to address the nation's ongoing housing crisis on Wednesday.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor blasted the administration's plans to strengthen the housing market, saying they are pushing "policies that frankly don't make a lot of sense."

GOP leaders propose expanding tax credits for home owners and buyers while cracking down on fraud in the housing market. "We are committed to trying to pull the agenda back to mainstream," said Cantor, calling homeowner assistance central to reviving the economy.

Provisions in the new proposal, which would be affective until July 2010, include a $5,000 tax credit to help families refinance their homes, whether or not they are backed by the ailing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; tax incentives for mortgage lenders who help homeowners refinance these homes; and a $15,000 home buyer credit to all home buyers who can put at least 5 percent down.

Republicans also proposed working with the FBI, Department of Justice and other government housing agencies to fight fraudulent mortgage companies and borrowers.

GOP leaders were unable to provide an estimate of how much their proposed plan would cost.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Minority Whip Eric Cantor told CNN's John King that the Obama administration's position on the spending bill currently before Congress did not have "any credibility" and represented a "false position."

The Virginia Republican said on State of the Union Sunday that the White House's contention that the legislative process was too far along to change course was completely inaccurate. "Let’s call it how it is. First of all, if you make a promise, people expect that you live up to it. And that's why this administration's refusal to go in and change this bill is, I think, is a false position.

"There is no way anyone could take what Mr. Orszag has said with any credibility. Of course they’re negotiating on this bill in the Senate right now. To say that we would have drawn it differently, but leave $430 billion plus on the table like this? No way. People are expecting this administration to live up to the promises made."

Watch Cantor slam the White House on spending

Cantor denied that Republicans were being hypocritical by blasting earmarks while some GOP congressional leaders and key committee chairs had hundreds of millions of dollars worth of that spending in the bill, saying he and House Minority Leader John Boehner had asked their party to adopt a moratorium on the practice.

Watch CNN's Dana Bash on earmarkers attacking spending

"There is no question that we’ve got to change this entire process, it is a system gone bad," he said.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Republican leaders seem to be a little tired of all the chatter about conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

“The White House has created this big distraction,” House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner said at a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday about recent claims by Democrats that Limbaugh leads the Republican Party and is rooting for President Obama to fail. “So nobody will pay attention to what they’re doing in their budget. We shouldn’t be distracted. This budget calls for higher taxes and more spending.”

“Political operatives in the White House are trying to divert attention away from the challenges facing our economy, the sinking stock market, and the irresponsible spending binge they are presiding over,” Boehner said in a separate news release Wednesday, titled ‘White House Attempting to Divert Attention from Economy and Its Fiscally-Irresponsible, Tax-Raising Budget.’ “This diversionary tactic will not create a single job or help a single family struggling in today’s economic crisis. That’s where our focus should be. President Obama has said we must change the way Washington operates in order to address the challenges we are facing. In the midst of a deepening recession, White House staff should have higher priorities than this cynical strategy.”

Boehner’s sentiments were echoed by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, who also said Wednesday that the political discourse needs to be focused on fixing the nation’s recessionary economy.

“It is not about Rush Limbaugh. It’s not about Rahm Emanuel,” the Virginia Republican said. “This is about real impact on families across this country. Again, the stock market is not a tracking poll. It’s real money. . . .This is where the focus of discussion needs to be. This is where the American people expect us to be.”

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Rep. Cantor's new online 'adventure.'

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A House Ways and Means Committee hearing on America's “carried interest” policy isn't likely to drum up widespread excitement. But GOP Deputy Whip Eric Cantor, who holds a seat on the panel, is hoping to change that.

The Virginia Republican's staff has launched a choose-your-own-adventure style interactive Web video that begins with a Deep Throat-esque parking garage meeting. Three young Cantor staffers are told it's "vital" they figure out who is putting retirement security "at risk."

Viewers are soon prompted to send the intrepid staffers to the Longworth House Office Building, the U.S. Capitol, or the Washington Monument to solve this whodunit caper.

Hint: The perpetrators in question are Democrats.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time anything like this has been done in politics," Cantor Spokeswoman Rachel Bauer said in a statement announcing the video.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney