One of the lead articles in the Times today is about the aftermath of Eric Cantor, majority leader, ducking out on his job. Maybe 22% of the country will defend him as a man of principle but — surprisingly — this time many in the media seem to have spotted him as a guy who just couldn’t do his job. In this article in the Times, reporter Carl Hulse dismissed him as a man who …

… after a contentious negotiating session on Wednesday, evidently decided the job was above his pay grade and passed the debt-limit baton to Mr. Boehner

Somehow the “man of principle” just doesn’t come into the picture of Eric Cantor this time, no more than it does in the photo accompanying the Times report of the two men above his pay grade. I found myself riveted by the utter conventionality — right down to airlessness — of the Speaker of the House’s office, contrasted with the weakness and pretentiousness visible in the two Republican leaders. They are not even conventional Congressional crooks: tough, strong (albeit ornery and easily corrupted) men who have sufficient political conscience to act now and then on behalf of their country.

It could be Boehner’s mannikin tan or McConnell’s weak chin and hands that makes them look ineffectual and somewhat effeminate. In the medley of manly colors warm colors and stripes, the posh North Carolina copies of old wing chairs and the matching Persian oil jar (oil jar!) lamp, the two men sport blastingly bright blue ties, symbols of their opposition in both Houses. Boehner’s tie is appropriately paler than his Republican superior whose tie is so startling that it has to have a secret meaning.

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Charles Blow has an editorial showing the discrepancy in mood between those who make $75,000 a year and upward, and those who are clinging to the edges with under $30,000 and falling. It comes from the Pew Research Center.

It’s hard not to look at the above photo with the eyes of the disillusioned who are clinging to lousy jobs or who have no job at all. Blow points out:

I am forced to assume that if Washington politicians ever knew the sting of poverty then they have long since vanquished the memory. How else to qualify their positions? In fact, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, nearly half of all members of Congress are millionaires, and between 2008 and 2009, when most Americans were feeling the brunt of the recession, the personal wealth of members of Congress collectively increased by more than 16 percent. Must be nice.

Poverty is brutal, consuming and unforgiving. It strikes at the soul.

You defend yourself with hope, hard work and, for some, a helping hand. But these weapons grow dull in an economy on the verge of atrophy, in a job market tilting ever more toward the top and in a political environment that would sacrifice the weak to the wealthy.

The two men in the photo don’t look like men who have any recognition of what’s going on around them. If they were men of character, they would avoid being photographed at this point in our history in a room of this kind. Blue ties and all.

Keep in mind that this is the room — the workplace — of the leader of the Congressional chamber that most closely “represents the people.”

Does it indeed!