Cantor: Democrats 'Didn't Get the Message' From Voters if Pelosi Stays Leader

FILE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., heads to a television interview on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 3. ((AP))

House Democrats "didn't get the message" from last Tuesday's election if they re-elect Nancy Pelosi as Democratic Party leader next year, the expected No. 2 Republican in the House said Sunday.

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., told "Fox News Sunday" that Pelosi's decision to run as the party's No. 1 suggests Democrats aren't listening to voters who rejected the Obama administration's agenda.

"If Democratic members in the House elect Nancy Pelosi as their leader, it's almost as if they just didn't get the message from the voters this election. I mean, the voters outright rejected the agenda that she's been about," he said. "I mean this is the woman who really, I think, puts ideology first, and there have been no results for the American people. And that seems the direction they want to take again. It just doesn't make sense."

Cantor argued that Pelosi has refused to meet with House Republicans for nearly four years, even though Americans have been making clear that they are not in accord with the Democratic agenda.

"I don't think there's any question that this says to the voters, 'We're not listening to you.  We think we're right. We're going to continue the same path,'" Cantor said.

Cantor, who will be among the guests to attend a White House meeting later this month of President Obama and incoming congressional leaders, said that the president's agenda is "anathema" to most Americans.

"It hasn't produced results," he said, suggesting that he plans to go into the White House meeting offering to work on mutual solutions, but unwilling to continue on the path the administration is headed.

President Obama said Sunday that the election means that he's going to have to make some "midcourse corrections." Over the weekend, he gave an Internet and radio address in which he said the "message was clear."

"You're rightly frustrated with the pace of our economic recovery. So am I. You're fed up with partisan politics and you want results. I do, too," he said.

But those "midcourse corrections" apparently do not apply to the Democratic leadership.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who is vying to become House minority whip in the next Congress -- which could put him in a race against Rep. Steny Hoyer for the Democrats' No. 2 spot -- said Pelosi has a place in the Democratic leadership next year.

"I am perfectly satisfied with Nancy Pelosi's leadership and I don't have any problems with that," he said.

Clyburn added that he disagrees with the argument that squeezing out Hoyer, who is considered a moderate by many, means that the Democratic leadership will be seen as even more liberal than if Hoyer were to retain his post as No. 2 in the caucus.

"I would ask anybody to look at my record of 18 years, look at my record here in South Carolina and tell me why you'd classify me as being liberal or conservative," said Clyburn, the highest ranking African American ever in the House.

"Everybody tells me it's very hard to pinpoint exactly where I am on the political spectrum. And I think that people are doing that by making some assumptions because of the way that I look."

Fox News' Alex Finland contributed to this report.