Also, it confirms the grassroots skepticism about Congress being full of self-dealers. Cantor is sure to land a high-paying job in which his political connections are monetized. “He’s got a lot of private-sector friends he has done favors for,” former congressman Tom Davis (himself a lobbyist) told New York Times Magazine. “I think it would be easy for him to become Eric Cantor Inc. and make a few million dollars a year.”

Talking to other lobbyists and Capitol Hill Republicans, the betting is that Cantor won’t go to a K Street lobbying firm, but instead will land in finance — probably a hedge fund or private equity. There he can leverage his intimate knowledge of the House, and the close connections he made throughout the finance world in his role as the GOP’s liaison to Wall Street.

From a good government perspective, this route is preferable to becoming a lobbyist and using connections to influence policy. But to the regular American — to the average Cantor constituent — it still looks like Washington is a town where the insiders use politics to enrich themselves.