Eric Cantor ... his star is rising

It's before 9 a.m. on the day after midterm elections and the U.S. Capitol is virtually empty -- except the office of Rep. Eric Cantor, R-7th.

The House minority whip and his staff have been up and running for hours -- juggling network television interviews, making calls and making plans after a historic GOP surge across the country that shifted power in the House to his party.

It is a surge that could chart a new, higher trajectory for Cantor's political future now that he is poised to become House majority leader.

Being successful in his own backyard has rarely been a challenge for Cantor, 47, a resident of the Wyndham subdivision in Glen Allen and former state delegate who succeeded the man for whom he once worked as an intern, Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr.

So begins today's front page article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Richmond hometown boy, Republican leader, and rising star ... one of the new generation of Young Guns.