THREE MARTINI LUNCH: JUNE 11, 2014

Jim and Greg discuss Eric Cantor's defeat, the fall of Mosul, and Floridians souring on Charlie Crist.



Mainstream Media on Cantor Shocker: We Should've Read Breitbart News

When Dave Brat was on the verge of becoming the first candidate in history to defeat a sitting House Majority Leader in a primary on Tuesday evening, shocked mainstream media reporters and pundits scurried away from their leisurely dinners to become "experts" on television.

Political reporters who often only read and talk to fellow scribes cocooned in the D.C. bubble may not have been blindsided had they occasionally read Breitbart News, which Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) allies dismissed to their cozy friends in the mainstream press.

Breitbart News reported that Cantor ally Linwood Cobb was ousted from a key GOP chairmanship in his district on May 10 in a fight that showed grassroots conservatives in Cantor's district who jeered him were not the least pleased with his team's machinations, especially regarding "slating."

When Brat said that Cantor elevated his name identification when Cantor arrogantly tried to smash him, Breitbart News reported it. Last week, the We Deserve Better independent PAC launched a 30-second spot that warned voters in Cantor's district that Cantor would cut a deal with Obama to give "amnesty and citizenship" to illegal immigrants. Breitbart News reported the significance of it.

And when Laura Ingraham appeared at a campaign event for Brat, Breitbart News reporter Michael Patrick Leahy was there, as even the New York Times recognized in a post-election recap on conservatives and outlets that covered a race the political media ignored -- even though it was in their backyard.

This article sums up the mood of the #VA07 GOP base that sunk Cantor tonight. Most of us weren't reading Breitbart: http://t.co/pnOwXzngX5
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) June 11, 2014

Also read:

Why We Fired Eric Cantor

Yes, Eric Cantor, There Is A Virginia