( CNN ) -- Eric Cantor 's loss in a Republican primary against an unknown economics professor with barely enough money in the bank to buy a mailing list is a political twist that 's a little bit Shakespeare and a little bit `` House of Cards . '' Oh , the irony , as the Bard himself would declare : Cantor was one of the original `` young guns '' who recruited some of the tea partyers , whose progeny then destroyed him . He was their rep in the more establishment leadership , a public thorn in the side of the White House during the 2011 budget negotiations . Cantor was primed to go places , maybe even to the speakership . But when high ambition strikes , political roots can be severed -- even if unintentionally . `` Measuring the drapes is never a good political strategy , '' a GOPer told me . See : Shakespeare 's `` Julius Caesar . '' This being politics , a loss is mourned until the sharks circle . Cantor is not yet gone and the questions abound : Who will replace him in the leadership ? ( Establishment or tea party ? ) Will House Speaker John Boehner ( whose job he coveted ) stay on longer ? ( Probably yes . ) Will the tea partyers be in full revolt against all the establishment leaders ? If this were TV , Kevin Spacey might say , `` You might say that ; I could n't possibly comment . '' Cantor 'earthquake ' rattles Capitol Hill . But here 's what 's really going on today : The GOP is trying , once again , to figure out exactly what it is -- and what it can aspire to be . At this point , it 's a successful congressional party : in control of the House . In the hunt to win control of the Senate , with a real shot at it . An opposition party that shut down the government and thwarted immigration reform . One teensy problem : The reasons the GOP succeeds as a congressional party are very much the reasons it fails on the presidential level . Base politics works in GOP primaries , to be sure . It also works in congressional races that have been gerrymandered and tailored to partisan voters . But it 's a lousy strategy if you want to win the presidency . Cantor lost his race for lots of reasons having to do with his own disconnect from his district , or at least the most conservative primary voters in his district . He was so disconnected , in fact , that by the time he realized he was in trouble the train was coming right at him . Arrogance ? Maybe . Political malpractice ? Maybe . Opinion : Who said the tea party was dead ? But there 's something else : Cantor , in recent years , actually started behaving as a leader . While he was a holdout against the budget deal in 2011 , he wanted to end the government shutdown last year -- to the everlasting dismay of the hell-no caucus . And the sin recently was his decision to support one strand of immigration reform -- a path to citizenship for children who were brought to the United States illegally -- the so-called Dreamers . It was a leadership decision . It was the right decision . So now Republicans will run scared , and run away from immigration . They will overread this as a litmus test of what they can and can not support . It 's sad , really , because GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham -- who is trying to work a deal on immigration reform -- won his GOP primary with almost 60 % of the vote in South Carolina . So , if Cantor lost and Graham won , how did that happen ? Graham actually went back home , explained his positions to the voters and got out his supporters . Politics 101 . But , as usual , the politicians will overdraw the lessons from the Cantor loss -- and draw the wrong ones , too . Cantor 's demise will scare Republicans away from immigration reform which , as a national party , is an issue that they should embrace . Sure , it hurt Cantor -- and brought out opponents from the woodwork . But here 's the real problem : Cantor never figured out that he had to explain himself to the voters who were actually going to show up to vote in the primary . Shakespeare might remind Cantor that `` Men at some times are masters of their fates . '' And Frank Underwood would no doubt be succinct in his analysis of Cantor 's loss : `` Friends , '' he tells us , `` make the worst enemies . ''
Gloria Borger : Eric Cantor 's upset is a little bit Shakespeare , a bit `` House of Cards '' She says the irony is that Cantor was the tea party 's rep in the party leadership . Borger : The ambitious Cantor made right decision on supporting `` Dreamer '' legislation . But she says he failed to explain himself to voters in his own district .