Mic check! (photo: House Republican Conference)

Eric Cantor, staunch protector of the 1 percent and champion for that portion of the 99 percent duped into protecting the 1 Percent, but ever fearful of the mob, startled a disbelieving Beltway a few days ago by announcing that income and wealth inequality were real problems and that the GOP should do something about that.

In a moral universe, that epiphany should have been followed by lightning striking the man, as on the road to Damascus, but that didn’t happen.

Cantor promised to address those issues in a speech he planned to give today at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School. What would an unrepentant representative of the 1 Percent possibly have to say? Would he explain why the Senate members of his party unanimously opposed taxing the rich at one half of one percent on annual income over a million dollars so we could have 400,000 more teachers and thousands more first responders?

Well, we may never know. It seems Mr. Cantor has bugged out, after learning from his hosts that his speech might become the occasion for a mic check. From the Hill:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) abruptly cancelled a planned economic address Friday at the University of Pennsylvania after learning that the event could be flooded with protesters aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement. 

Well, of course members of the actual 99%, victims of Washington and his party’s relentlessly unequal policies would want to hear what you had to say, Eric. What did you expect? But apparently this came as a surprise.

Cantor’s office said it scheduled the speech several months ago with the understanding that the audience would be comprised of about 250 “members of the Wharton community,” including students, faculty and invited guests. But on Thursday, the university’s student newspaper, the Daily Pennsylvanian, reported that between 500 and 1,000 protesters affiliated with Occupy Philadelphia planned to rally outside the hall where Cantor was to speak.

Cantor’s office also said it learned Thursday night that university security planned to allow the first 300 people in line to attend the speech, regardless of affiliation, raising the possibility that Cantor would be addressing a room full of protesters.

Apparently Mr. Cantor does not understand that the point of letting in a couple hundred members of the 99% is to allow them to be the mic check for Eric’s important speech, so that everyone forced to be outside the select group would get to participate. That was supposed to be the point of the speech, wasn’t it Eric? Just asking.

Btw, the headline in the Hill article says the Occupy folks forced Eric to cancel. Uh, nope. Nobody forced Cantor to do anything. It’s called cowardice.