President Barack Obama's hope of any movement on immigration reform in Congress died Tuesday night when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his Republican primary election. Canter will resign his leadership post as of July 31, sources said Wednesday. And with him out he way out, the GOP's future House leadership picture has been thrown into chaos. While political commentators and Democratic Party insiders have crowed that the populist right-wing tea party movement was on its last legs, the rumors of its death now appear to be greatly exaggerated. Not so, however, for the prospects of passing an immigration reform measure into law. Virginia voters dug a grave for the idea on Tuesday night and kicked Democrats into it.
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House GOP calls emergency meeting for 4pm Wednesday to plot future without Eric Cantor
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Cantor will resign his leadership position as Majority Leader in the House on July 31
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Immigration reform doomed Cantor, the second most powerful House Republican, along with a lack of attention to his district's voters
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Cantor lost in a 56-44 drubbing to Dave Brat, an economics professor who was so unknown that his Wikipedia entry was just two lines long
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The stunning upset has restored conservatives' hope in the tea party movement, which seemed on the wane
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It's unclear who will take Cantor's place as Republican leader in the House of Representatives; at least three contenders are already testing the waters
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John Boehner could also step down from his role as House speaker, a job that would have been Cantor's for the taking
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Cantor favored limited movement on immigration reform, including a proposal that awarded a path to citizenship in exchange for military service
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But Brat painted him as a full-blown 'amnesty' supporter, and anti-immigration conservatives see the race as a bellwether on the issue
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Sources say all hope is gone now for an immigration reform law this year, despite President Obama's prediction on Monday of a 50-50 chance
'He just wasn't around anymore, not since he took a leadership role in the House,' said one, jumping on the bash-@placeholder bandwagon.