Posts on Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist has decided to request a government bailout: 

I write today to formally request $700 billion from the TARP Capital Purchase Program. Since unionized auto companies, state and local governments, and certain credit card companies are applying, I thought I should, as well … I have a plan for this $700 billion which should be just what’s needed to get the American economy going.  Since the money came from the taxpayers in the first place, I propose giving it back to them.

I suspect that he is trying to make a joke because he tells the Treasury Department to “consult my staff for any ACH transfer information your people may need.”  As anybody familiar with Norquist already knows, that’s not how he operates at all. 

If he was serious about getting funding for his operations, he’d just have Jack Abramoff swindle some Indian tribes out of millions of dollars and then funnel the money to him via his Americans for Tax Reform.  And he certainly wouldn't pass the rest on to the taxpayers; instead he would take a large cut and the rest would go to people like Ralph Reed in order to cover the money trail and nobody would find out until a Senate investigation uncovered the illegal activity and a bunch of people went to jail.

A week or so ago, Politico reported that various right-wing leaders were set to gather following the election to plot strategy on how to move their agenda forward and revitalize the conservative movement.  Now Politico is adding a few more details regarding who will be in attendance and what will be on the agenda:

A group of prominent conservatives will meet tomorrow at the Virginia weekend home of Brent Bozell to discuss the future of the movement and the GOP.

Bozell, chairman of the conservative watchdog group, the Media Research Center, is convening the group along with longtime GOP strategist and conservative pr executive Greg Mueller.

“There will be roughly twenty leaders at the meeting all of whom have been successful fundraisers and grassroots organizers, combined with a few conservative political and media strategists," said Mueller.

As I reported last week, on the agenda will be the role of conservatives in the party, how to go forward in a capital dominated by Democrats and ultimately what path to take to recapture power in the mid-term elections and beyond.

In addition to Mueller and Bozell, other conservatives attending the private session will be: Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society, and a leading figure in the movement on judicial and Catholic issues; Grover Norquist, the anti-tax crusader who heads Americans for Tax Reform; and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Center and one of the most high-profile social conservatives.

Club for Growth, the radically anti-tax and anti-government organization, has often targeted Republican incumbents it deems insufficiently devoted to its free-market fundamentalism. But Politico points out that its endorsement may not be such a great thing for candidates these days.

It couldn't have been a nicer Saturday for Democrat Frank Kratovil, up on stage playing blues guitar for an oyster-slurping, beer-drinking crowd on the water in Queen Anne's County, Md.

 When he's done with his set, reporters from CQ, Politico and the New Republic are waiting to talk with the man who may be the next member of Congress from Maryland's 1st District.

This isn't what the Club for Growth had in mind.

Back in February, the conservative PAC helped knock off moderate Republican Rep. Wayne Gilchrest in the GOP primary here, in the hopes of installing a more conservative Republican in his place.

But it may not work out that way. With less than a month to go before Election Day, Kratovil is running neck and neck with the Club for Growth-backed GOP nominee, Maryland state Sen. Andy Harris, in a district that's about as red as they come.

And with voters worried about their retirement accounts and suddenly suspicious of the free-market economics espoused by the Club for Growth, Kratovil is using the Club for Growth's support of Harris as a way to bludgeon him.

 "We need to stop listening to those people, like my opponent and his million-dollar backers, the Club for Growth, who believe in no regulation," Kratovil says.

For Club for Growth-backed candidates across the country, this is sounding like a familiar story.

Politico reports that Rep. Tim Walberg, elected in 2006 after defeating moderate GOPer Joe Schwarz in a Club for Growth backed primary challenge, is now seeing the Club's backing used as a major line of attack from his opponent. And it's forcing the GOP to spend money to defend what were once considered safe seats:

Still, the club's investment in GOP efforts may end up costing the party more than it saves it, forcing the National Republican Congressional Committee to spend money in what might have been forget-about-'em races if more moderate Republicans were on the ballot.

It seems likely that Grover Norquist's expressed desire to shrink government to the size that he could "drown it in the bathtub" doesn't resonate too well with voters who see the financial meltdown draining their retirement plans as the result of a little too much "magic of the marketplace" and not enough oversight or regulation.

In addition . the group played a key role in funding conservative Rep. Steve Pearce in his New Mexico Senate primary victory against Rep. Heather Wilson. Wilson was viewed as the more electable Republican against Democrat Tom Udall; with Pearce as the nominee, the GOP has written off the seat.

According to Fortune, McCain, who voted against Bush’s tax cuts twice, is more or less back in the fold with Americans for Tax Relief and other economic conservatives: “Now when Norquist convenes his weekly Wednesday strategy meeting at ATR headquarters in Washington, there's always a McCain campaign representative at the table. Apparently all is forgiven.”

With the passing of right-wing luminaries such as Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy in recent months, coupled with the aging of many of the Right’s traditional leaders, the movement itself appears to be in flux and some are getting worried about just what will become of it in the future.  Just last week, James Dobson voiced these concerns while addressing the National Religious Broadcasters Convention:

“It causes me to wonder who will be left to carry the banner when this generation of leaders is gone. The question is, will the younger generation heed the call? Who will defend the unborn child in the years to come? Who will plead for the Terri Schiavos of the world? Who’s going to fight for the institution of marriage, which is on the ropes today.”

The emerging conventional wisdom is that the Religious Right is on the verge of being replaced by a “new evangelical” movement that shares the old-guard’s opposition to gays and abortion, but also cares about issues like poverty and the environment.  The standard-bearer of this “new breed” is Mike Huckabee who, as he puts it, drinks “a different kind of Jesus juice” than the traditional leaders and routinely says things like this: 

I don’t see [the right-wing movement] going into decline. I see it going into a maturing process. I think the issues are going to broaden and force Evangelicals to expand their horizons of concerns to poverty, disease, issues of education and homelessness. These are issues that I think are going to become increasingly important along with the environment as part of an overall focus that you’re going to see from - I would use a broader term - values voters - that would include not only Evangelicals but also Catholics and conservative Jewish voters as well.

Of course, just because a bunch of young upstarts think that caring about the environment is important doesn’t mean that the old-guard has any interest in broadening their agenda.  As we noted last year, when the National Association of Evangelicals started to voice concerns about the environment and global warming, right-wing stalwarts like Dobson, Tony Perkins, Don Wildmon, Gary Bauer, Rick Scarborough, and Paul Weyrich dashed off an angry letter essentially demanding that the NAE fire its own Vice President over it.

The NAE didn’t back down, but the Right didn’t give up.  Instead, they formed their own organization, the American Environmental Coalition, and now seek "to bring balance to the debate by being an alternative source of reliable information to Americans who seek the best way forward for our country.” 

It’s all over but the shouting in the Republican primary, and more and more right-wing figures are falling in line behind the presumptive nominee. Still, there are some hold-outs, unwilling to reject McCain (as James Dobson has) but hoping to squeeze the last few drops of their leverage into yet more concessions.

It seems to be working. Rather than looking towards building a broader coalition for the general election, McCain still seems to be concentrating on the last few corners of the Right. Grover Norquist, who just weeks ago was lambasting McCain for not signing his tax pledge, now gets to hear McCain mouth the promise again and again. And Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council must have been pleased to have been one of the first people McCain called when the senator was trying to manage the New York Times lobbyist story:

"It's early in the process and he's made inroads with social conservatives," said Perkins, who got a call from McCain shortly after his morning press conference. "He's been very aggressive about handling this and he assured me this is not true." McCain's campaign is pointedly attacking the Times, which last month endorsed the senator. And that always plays well in the conservative community, Perkins says.

"When I speak to social conservatives around the country I tell them I read my Bible daily to see what God has to say about matters of importance," Perkins says, "and then I read the New York Times to see what the other side has to say."

The Washington Post reports that Rudy Giuliani and Grover Norquist are bonding over their mutual dislike of taxes: "Norquist responded ... with a letter filled with praise for Giuliani. In it, Norquist lauds Giuliani's 'tremendous record of pro-growth tax policy.' He also expresses his 'delight' with Giuliani's simple 'yes' answer in response to Norquist's request."

Ever since the news broke that many right-wing leaders were considering abandoning the Republican Party if Rudy Giuliani secures the presidential nomination, lots of ink has been spilled speculating about just how serious they are about carrying out the threat and discussing what it could mean for the 2008 election. 

Today, Bloomberg ran an article that pretty well encapsulates the utter confusion plaguing the movement at the moment by quoting a variety of leaders and activists, none of whom seem to agree with each other:

- “I am asking them to at least consider Voltaire's question: Do you make the perfect the enemy of the good?'' said Richard Land, a leader of the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention, based in Nashville.

- If Clinton, 59, wins, “her administration would declare war on social conservatives,'' Bauer said. “She'll go after conservative talk radio, she'll go after Christian radio' … Bauer said that with some “serious negotiations'' over his platform, religious conservatives could find a way to support Giuliani. He declined to provide specifics, citing a need to maintain his bargaining position if Giuliani is the Republican nominee.

- “Some leaders will hold to principle and will not vote for someone who is pro-abortion,'' said Tom Minnery, the political director of Focus on the Family.

- Michael Farris, the chancellor of Patrick Henry College, an evangelical school in Purcellville, Virginia, said he would consider supporting Giuliani only if “he named my mother as vice president.''

- “The entire conservative movement is going to be united because Hillary is going to be on the ballot and the Supreme Court is going to be at stake,'' said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a Washington-based anti- tax advocacy group.  Land sees things differently. “I know a lot more evangelicals than Grover does,'' he said. “If Giuliani is the nominee, Grover will be shocked.'

The National Tax Limitation Committee and the National Center for Policy are hosting an awkwardly worded “The ‘Optimal (Right) Size of Government’ Conference” (PDF) tomorrow that will bring together “more than 20 of the leading free-market experts will convene in Washington to discuss whether there is and can be an objective standard to determine the proper size and role of government.”

Among the participants is Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform – and it is not hard to figure out what his view of the proper size of the government will be:

“My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

Citizen Outreach and Americans for Tax Reform plan Conservative Leadership Conference for October in Nevada. Gingrich, Thompson, Tancredo, Giuliani, McCain, Romney invited.

Rolling Stone blogger Tim Dickinson recently talked to Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist about the right-wing credentials of the leading GOP candidates for president. Norquist, a key organizer of the D.C.-based coalition of economic and social conservatives, declared that the anti-abortion and anti-gay litmus test proffered by the Religious Right is hooey: “What brings social conservatives to the Republican party is not some list of 20 things that James Dobson would like to see.” Instead, according to Norquist, they are really a “parents-rights movement” who “are worried about raising their kids in their own faith and being left alone.” Says Norquist:

You can make the argument that some candidates would be more enthusiastic about going further on the social conservative agenda, and some may well excite the leadership of the social conservative movement, but I don’t believe that it moves votes. Take a look at how McCain and Giuliani and Romney are polling. Who are the three top guys? Pat Robertson sees two pagans and a Mormon. Everybody’s heard that Giuliani dressed up in drag. If my analysis was wrong, would he be polling as well as he is? Romney is a Mormon, which evangelicals see as theologically flawed, and McCain picked a public fight in 2000 with Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Those are the three Republicans polling the best!

If 40 percent of the GOP base truly had Dobson’s 20 point test then a candidate such as Huckabee should be one of the frontrunners. He’s not, and that’s why I think my analysis is the correct one. The press is going to want to talk about and solicit quotations from self-appointed leaders about how unacceptable certain of these candidates are. I don’t think that translates.

This isn’t the first time a prominent leader of the economic Right has singled out Dobson: Dick Armey, head of FreedomWorks and the former House majority leader, attacked “Dobson and his gang of thugs” last year.

To “offset” social positions (temp link). E.g.: Steve Forbes endorses Giuliani.

Much has been written of the unseasonably early 2008 presidential campaign, but one unanticipated side effect is that the Conservative Political Action Conference agenda is larded with ambitious politicians hoping to surprise – or at least appease – what all of them have apparently decided is their best hope, the far-right base. No less than eight Republican contenders (if you count Newt Gingrich, who appears to be looking for the side entrance to the White House) are scheduled; the only major candidate missing is John McCain.

And so the activist crowd, compared to last year’s conference, is more enthused with people than with causes. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a relatively unknown candidate, managed to fill a good portion of the large hall first thing in the morning. By 10 this morning, Mike Huckabee had people standing in the back, and at noon, CPAC staff closed off the wing as Rudy Giuliani had filled it up. At that point, a line began forming for those who wanted to see Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and Mitt Romney, and by the time Giuliani finished his hour-long speech, the hundreds in line stretched back to the exhibit hall in the next wing. Of course, that may not have reflected any popularity on the part of the candidates themselves so much as the crowd wanting to get their money’s worth at the three-day event.

Weyrich unconvinced: He “made it clear that he hates the Religious Right.”

Gaffney, fresh from Lincoln quote incident, accuses Grover Norquist of running “pro-Islamist influence operation.”