Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.)

A mild firestorm erupted in the blogosphere this afternoon when Think Progress covered Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) attacks on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for her trip to Syria. Atrios posted on it as well.

Sure, Cantor's attacks are baseless and slanted -- what did you expect from a Republic congressman? -- since he failed to note the fact that several Republic members of Congress, including his neighbor, Frank Wolf (R-Va.), had visited Syria just days before the Speaker's visit.

The truly heinous thing, though, is that whoever was monitoring Cantor's blog not only was moderating comments and deleting some (including mine, shown above; click image for a larger version), but they were editing some comments to read the opposite of what the commenter actually meant:

Following a link from Eschaton, I visited a Think Progress post about Eric Cantor's Partisan and ridiculous attack on Nancy Pelosi, where he asks his supporters to call House Democrats and let them know how angry they are about Pelosi.

I couldn't help posting a comment on Cantor's site:

Mr. Cantor, how's the "Stop Pelosi" thing going for you so far?

Don't listen to all these Liberals who are angry at you for not mentioning the Republican traitors. Stick to truthiness.

And one more thing, I tried calling the numbers above to let them know what I think but everyone on the other line speaks Arabic now. NANCY!!! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!

Problems [sic] is, comments are moderated on Cantor's site, which means that now the comment above has been changed to this:

Don’t listen to all these Liberals. Stick it to them.

And that's not the only comment edited, either.

Cantor's web site altered my comment as well. Here is what I originally posted at 11:17:

Mr. Cantor,

I assume, given your passionate call for pressure being brought against House Speaker Pelosi for meeting with President Bashir Assad of Syrian, that you will also be calling for the same pressure to brought against Rep. Issa of California for doing the same.

Is that right?

Check out how they changed it.
Diane C. Barking-Mad

Here's what actually was posted as Diane's comment:

Mr. Cantor,

I applaud your passionate call against House Speaker Pelosi for meeting with President Bashir Assad of Syria; but I hope that you will also be calling for the same pressure to brought against the Republicans who did the same.

This is absolutely unconscionable. To alter the very meaning of something that was said is the cardinal sin of writing, whether it's journalism, books, or blogs.

I've already e-mailed Keith Olbermann and recommended that Rep. Cantor be named Worst Person in the World today - I hope you will do the same. Others have contacted Cantor's office and Speaker Pelosi's office as well. This cannot be left to stand without challenge. Perhaps Rep. Cantor has violated an ethical canon as well?

Either way, all I have for him now is schadenfreude, happy in the knowledge that Cantor's attempted deception is being revealed for the world to see. So congratulations, Rep. Cantor, you disingenuous douchebag -- today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!