Eric Cantor Talks Bipartisanship, Faith and GW

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) spoke before students at the Hillel house at an event sponsored by Challah for Hunger last Thursday afternoon.

With a slight Southern twang, Congressman Cantor, the second-highest ranking member of the House of Representatives, spoke briefly about faith and service. He pointed to the Jewish concept of "Tikun Olam," or repairing the world, as a guiding force in his work.

The Congressman emphasized the importance of students getting involved around Washington, reminiscing about his time working on the Hill while in school, interning and later driving for Virginia Representative Tom Billey.

The House Majority Leader graduated from GW in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and lived in Thurston Hall his freshman year. "I'm glad they didn't have YouTube back then," Congressman Cantor joked.

Despite appearing almost an hour late for the speech, the Congressman still left time to answer questions from the audience. WRGW News was able to ask one question about the difficulties of bipartisanship in Congress. Listen below:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by Wrgw_News on Mixcloud

-Joseph Rabinowitz

Three Minutes with Mayor Cory Booker

The College Democrats hosted Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker as their year-end speaker Sunday night in SMPA's Jack Morton Auditorium.

The Democratic Mayor made headlines last week when he helped rescue a neighbor from her burning house after it caught fire, but focused the majority of his speech on his professional experiences as a Newark city council member and mayor. He also shared stories about his personal development, coming out of  Yale Law School as a passionate idealist and learning the realities of inner-city life while living in a Newark public-housing project.

His speech emphasized faith and positivity in his life, including the "conspiracy of love" from the unsung and often anonymous individuals who helped him along the way.

WRGW News caught up with Mayor Booker after his speech to talk about health care, bipartisanship and working with Governor Chris Christie. Listen below:

Three Minutes with Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker by Wrgw_News on Mixcloud

-Joseph Rabinowitz

Google Donates to GOP, Enters Bipartisan Phase

Google, the perennial left-leaning search engine, has begun to recruit Republican operatives and donating funds to various GOP groups, reported the Huffington Post. 

The traditionally liberal-minded corporation is entering a bipartisan phase with the aim of supporting the causes of both the Republican and Democratic parties. 


Google's executives donated money to the D.C.-based Republican Attorneys General Association. The conglomerate also helped co-sponsor last Thursday's GOP presidential debate with Fox News. 

Among other GOP-linked organizations, Google also pledged monetary support to the Heritage Foundation, web development firm Crossroad Strategies and the Republican State Leadership Committee. Additionally, Google has hired 18 lobbying firms in the last nine months, a figure that includes consultants who are not mandated to register as lobbyists.

Google leadership also provided support to conservative think thanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, both based in the nation's capital.

Naturally, the megacorporation's fiscal support of GOP organizations has found approval among Republican members of Congress. 

"Bipartisanship is a positive thing," said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, head of the Senate's Republican fundraising committee.  "I understand why people feel like they need to have people they can talk to on both sides." 

Google's fiscal support of the GOP is coming at a time when the company's executives are facing a major antitrust lawsuit on Capitol Hill. Eric Schmidt, Google's former chief executive, stood before the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee last Wednesday. 

Schmidt defended Google against allegations that the company is violating American antitrust legislation, which prohibits the formation of monopolies. The investigation into Google's breach of antitrust laws is ongoing.

Ever since Microsoft began funneling donations to both major parties, Google has sought to gain political interest in the same manner. As of mid-2011, Google and Microsoft are at a dead tie in terms of political donations, both corporations citing $3.5-million in lobbying expenditures.

Some GW students believe the megacorporation's donations to the GOP reflect a strategic move with regards to the policy of Net neutrality. Net neutrality, also known as Internet neutrality, is a principle that calls for all Internet content to be treated equally. 

Net neutrality proponents also advocate for no restriction by Internet Service Providers or the government on what type of sites consumers view, what kind of content they see or what modes of communication they employ.


"It seems to me that [Google] is just doing this because the GOP is against Net neutrality," noted freshman Eric Breese. "This kind of stance is better for Google."


Currently, Google handles nine out of ten global searches.