In this case, the loser in Virginia is Eric Canter. While no one in Cantor’s campaign was paying attention, a teabagger named Dave Brat came out of nowhere to defeat the seven-term Congressman and House Majority leader in yesterday’s primary.

Did I say House Majority Leader? Not for too much longer!

To Eric Cantor who really, really wanted to be the first Jewish Speaker of the House: Not only will that never happen, but now there are ZERO Republican members of Congress. Period. Good going dude.

As for who will now represent VA-7… On November 4, voters will chose between Democrat Jack Trammel and the aforementioned David Brat, the economics professor at Randall Macon College, about whom the NY Times wrote:

David Brat, the man who derailed Representative Eric Cantor’s congressional career and aspirations to become speaker of the House, faced such long odds in his challenge to the No. 2 House Republican that he failed to win the backing of any of the major Tea Party groups that inspired his candidacy. …

Despite running a decidedly anti-establishment campaign in which he criticized government bailouts and budget deals and frequently invoked God and the Constitution, Mr. Brat was unable to secure the endorsement of Tea Party groups with national networks, a sign of how under the radar his candidacy was. With FreedomWorks, Tea Party Express and Tea Party Patriots all staying out of the race, Mr. Brat raised just over $200,000.

As for Jack Trammell, if you asked “who?” no one would blame you. After all, he was just named the Democratic nominee on a VA Dem Party conference call on Sunday when they figured they should have someone on the ballot.

Mr. Trammell, strangely enough, is also a professor at Randall Macon College!

According to articles posted on the Randolph-Macon web site, Trammell joined the college’s faculty in 2000 after doing graduate work at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He has directed the school’s disability support services department and its honors program and serves as an associate professor of sociology, specializing in disability issues in higher education.

Trammell is also a frequently published author, having most recently published “The Richmond Slave Trade: The Economic Backbone of The Old Dominion” in 2012. He has also served as president of the Blue Ridge Virginia Writer’s Club.

A Kentucky native, according to his campaign biography, Trammell lives on a small farm in Louisa County with his wife and seven children.

This should be interesting!

As she does every Wednesday morning, Crooks & Liars‘ Susie Madrak joined me this morning and, of course, we spent most of our time together discussing this huge political surprise.

We also got into a bit of debate over the failure of the Occupy movement to develop any sort of electoral presence as the Tea Party did on the right. I think it was the one thing they dropped the ball on; Susie believes it would have cost them credibility. (Notice how we progressives can disagree on a major issue and still be OK with each other?)

As we discussed quite a bit earlier in the week, a couple of right wing, white supremacist, nutjobs went on a shooting spree in Las Vegas, killing two police officers and a bystander at a Walmart before killing themselves. My friend and frequent contributor to this program, Cliff Schecter, wrote about it for The Daily Beast in a piece titled “From Las Vegas to Georgia, the NRA Has Created a Monster.”

But before we even had the chance to discuss it, shots rang out yesterday at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, killing a 14 year old freshman  named Emilio Hoffman in addition to the gunman himself.

It is an epidemic, and something must be done And no, bulletproof blankets for school children is NOT the answer.

 I’m going to update, yet again, my piece calling for other nations to issue official travel advisories against visiting the US as it simply is not safe. Here’s the link to the last version. Standby for the update.

We’re back tomorrow, with a look at a world without war(!), some fabulous female facts, and a new segment: the No More Bullshit minute. See you then, radio or not.