Steven P. BarrettGROVER NORQUIST: AMERICA'S MOST SELFISH AND DANGEROUS (?) UNELECTED POL (LINK)
July 6th 2008 02:50
Steven Barrett
THE OTHER DAY I INTRODUCED YOU TO THE NATION'S CHEAPEST STATE, TODAY YOU'RE GOING TO GET A LOOK AT AMERICA'S CHEAPEST AND MOST MEAN-SPIRITED, ALBEIT UNELECTED POLITICIAN -- GROVER GLENN NORQUIST.
I didn't have any plans to write about Grover Norquist because he's one guy I try not to think about for the indigestion and tension he causes. But I happened to see something in Robert Novak's column today in Townhall.com about McCain's VEEP selection grind and the young Republican governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. Said Novak;
If Jindal's got any skeletons, the Bayou State will find them for vetoing their pay raises so we'll see how much strength he has left. But Grover thinks this will make him "stronger" and not kill him; so saith the Friedrich Nietszke of tax-cutting/gov't gutting politics: Grover-making-government-grov el-Norquist.
Sad to admit, Mr. Norquist and I have a common tie: We're both Massachusetts natives. Thankfully he hails from the eastern side of the Quabbin Reservoir, a massive government project that provides clean drinking water for Boston area cities and towns, one of which is his old digs, the very cushy town of Weston.
Norquist, who's made a career out of loathing and trying his best to kill government -- all government short of what men wearing white wigs, knickers and bow-tied pony tails two hundred years ago -- ought to be thankful somebody thought it best to say goodbye to four near-dead western Massachusetts farming communities, flood the valleys around them and build a massive aqueduct system so young Grover growing up in the 50's as a boomer child of well-to-do parents, would never go without quality drinking water.
Such trivialities for Republicans on the go like Grover -- head of the Americans for Tax Reform -- who had his own idea of how to deal with government and it's quite the opposite of what Governor James M. Curley who built the Quabbin had in mind. Take this famous one-liner of Norquist's: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
To which New York Times columnist Tom Friedman had this to say:
I've always thought the GOP left itself wide open to suspicions that Cain was the first card-carrying Republican when he asked God (after killing Abel and committing the first cover-up) if he was responsible for his brother's welfare. WELL: NORQUIST REMOVED ALL DOUBTS WITH THIS GEM:
Norquist's stingy tax notions are venial sins compared to what's been alleged about him in a much more serious realm of wrongdoing in a time of war: Suspicion of High Treason.
It's a long article, but you might want to read "A Troubling Influence," an article written by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., a former Reagan Administration Dept. of Defense official. The article was published by Front Page in 2003. Oddly enough, Norquist, whose deep ties within the Muslim community, has escaped prosecution. But there's something this man cannot escape, at least not by relying on a continued pattern of evasiveness concerning his private life as it might pertain to suspicions to any on-going acts of treason.
According to Wikipedia:
"Too personal"? Like hell.
THE OTHER DAY I INTRODUCED YOU TO THE NATION'S CHEAPEST STATE, TODAY YOU'RE GOING TO GET A LOOK AT AMERICA'S CHEAPEST AND MOST MEAN-SPIRITED, ALBEIT UNELECTED POLITICIAN -- GROVER GLENN NORQUIST.
America's Cheapest and Meanest Unelected Pol
I didn't have any plans to write about Grover Norquist because he's one guy I try not to think about for the indigestion and tension he causes. But I happened to see something in Robert Novak's column today in Townhall.com about McCain's VEEP selection grind and the young Republican governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. Said Novak;
A footnote: Vice presidential prospects for Bobby Jindal, the 37-year-old first-year governor of Louisiana, suffered when he vetoed a pay raise for state legislators after promising them he would sign it. However, conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who has boosted Jindal for the ticket, said the veto made him stronger.
If Jindal's got any skeletons, the Bayou State will find them for vetoing their pay raises so we'll see how much strength he has left. But Grover thinks this will make him "stronger" and not kill him; so saith the Friedrich Nietszke of tax-cutting/gov't gutting politics: Grover-making-government-grov el-Norquist.
Sad to admit, Mr. Norquist and I have a common tie: We're both Massachusetts natives. Thankfully he hails from the eastern side of the Quabbin Reservoir, a massive government project that provides clean drinking water for Boston area cities and towns, one of which is his old digs, the very cushy town of Weston.
Norquist, who's made a career out of loathing and trying his best to kill government -- all government short of what men wearing white wigs, knickers and bow-tied pony tails two hundred years ago -- ought to be thankful somebody thought it best to say goodbye to four near-dead western Massachusetts farming communities, flood the valleys around them and build a massive aqueduct system so young Grover growing up in the 50's as a boomer child of well-to-do parents, would never go without quality drinking water.
Such trivialities for Republicans on the go like Grover -- head of the Americans for Tax Reform -- who had his own idea of how to deal with government and it's quite the opposite of what Governor James M. Curley who built the Quabbin had in mind. Take this famous one-liner of Norquist's: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
To which New York Times columnist Tom Friedman had this to say:
"An administration whose tax policy has been dominated by the toweringly selfish Grover Norquist ... doesn't have the instincts for this moment. Mr. Norquist is the only person about whom I would say this: I hope he owns property around the New Orleans levee that was never properly finished because of a lack of tax dollars. I hope his basement got flooded. And I hope that he was busy drowning government in his bathtub when the levee broke and that he had to wait for a U.S. Army helicopter to get out of town."
Norquist's Bathtub - New Orleans after Katrina
I've always thought the GOP left itself wide open to suspicions that Cain was the first card-carrying Republican when he asked God (after killing Abel and committing the first cover-up) if he was responsible for his brother's welfare. WELL: NORQUIST REMOVED ALL DOUBTS WITH THIS GEM:
When asked by Alain de Botton, "Why shouldn't the state help the needy?", in the television adaptation of Status Anxiety, Norquist replied, "Because to do that, you would have to steal money from people who earned it and give it to people who didn't. And then you make the state into a thief." Botton follows with, "You're suggesting that taxation is theft?" Norquist continues, "Taxation beyond the legitimate requirements of providing for justice is theft, sure."
Has this guy ever read "Les Miserables"?
Norquist's stingy tax notions are venial sins compared to what's been alleged about him in a much more serious realm of wrongdoing in a time of war: Suspicion of High Treason.
It's a long article, but you might want to read "A Troubling Influence," an article written by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., a former Reagan Administration Dept. of Defense official. The article was published by Front Page in 2003. Oddly enough, Norquist, whose deep ties within the Muslim community, has escaped prosecution. But there's something this man cannot escape, at least not by relying on a continued pattern of evasiveness concerning his private life as it might pertain to suspicions to any on-going acts of treason.
According to Wikipedia:
On April 2, 2005, Norquist married Kuwait-born Samah Alrayyes, who until then had been the director of the Islamic Free Market Institute. She is a CEO of her own communications firm and formerly a Public Affairs Specialist for Arab and Muslim outreach at the Bureau of Legislative and Public Affairs at USAID.[22] WIKI
In contrast to his outspoken positions on political issues, when it comes to spiritual matters, Norquist prefers to play it closer to the vest. When asked by Washington, D.C.-based journalist Dave Sperry if he had converted to his wife's faith, Norquist brushed the question off as "too personal".[23] WIKI
In contrast to his outspoken positions on political issues, when it comes to spiritual matters, Norquist prefers to play it closer to the vest. When asked by Washington, D.C.-based journalist Dave Sperry if he had converted to his wife's faith, Norquist brushed the question off as "too personal".[23] WIKI
"Too personal"? Like hell.
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