The Anti-tax Man Cometh M
THEY LOVE HIM
“ATR has been singularly focused on the issue of taxes and keeping them low . . . And that’s why I think it plays such a vital role in today’s discussion.”
— House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.
“I think it’s
absolutely critical to have voices like Grover’s here in Washington.” — Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga.
“No one in modern times has fought harder to shrink the size of the state than the founder of Americans for Tax Reform.” — John Stossel,
Fox Business host
“I like and respect Grover Norquist . . . despite the many matters on which I disagree with him.” — Lanny Davis,
attorney and former special counsel to President Bill Clinton
“It’s because of soldiers like Grover that the conservative movement is so vibrant today. ” — Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
48 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2012
He’s “hijacking the ability of the American people to solve problems.”
— former
Obama green-jobs czar Van Jones
He’s leading Republicans “like puppets.” — Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
“Mr. Norquist is a roadblock to realistically reforming our tax code . . . ideological purity is paralyzing Congress.”
— Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., member of the
Appropriations Committee
Norquist is the “dark wizard of the right’s anti-tax cult.”
— Arianna Hufington,
Hufington Post
ention the name Grover Norquist anywhere in Washington, D.C., and you can be sure of one thing: You won’t get a wishy-washy reaction. Beloved as
a defender of liberty by some, and excoriated by those who like big government, Norquist lives at ground zero of the nation’s political divide. A few examples of the strong reactions he provokes:
THEY LOVE HIM — NOT
“An anti-tax zealot” and “the most powerful man in Republican politics.”
— MSNBC
host Lawrence O’Donnell
most-powerful person in Washing- ton, trailing only the U.S. Congress. (Noting Norquist got half of Congress to sign his pledge, the faux Obama quips, “Wow . . . I tried to get some Democrats to pledge to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies from my daughter Malia, and all I got was one maybe from Nancy Pelosi.”)
OUTRAGED OPPONENTS At 55, Norquist is the creator, evan-
gelist, and top enforcer of the pledge that directly helped lead to $2.5 tril- lion in budget cuts last year. It was enough to prompt 60 Minutes corre- spondent Steve Kroft to say in his in- terview with Obama: “There are peo- ple in your own party who think that you were outmaneuvered. That you were stared down by [House Speaker] John Boehner and Grover Norquist, and capitulated.” Outraged that Republican politi-
cians aren’t free to join their Demo- cratic colleagues in raising taxes, Norquist’s enemies see him as a dark Svengali-like character who somehow has mesmerized Republicans into drinking the anti-tax Kool-Aid. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, for exam- ple, claims that Norquist leads GOP congressmen around “like puppets.” New media maven Arianna Huff-
ington, meanwhile, brands Norquist as “the dark wizard of the right’s anti- tax cult.” And former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pronounced “the oath to Mr. Norquist is more important than other oaths that members take.” But the attacks that portray
Norquist as a villain suitable for com- ic books seem to miss their intended target. In part that’s because Repub- licans are alternately bemused and outraged that Democrats would sug- gest they’re beholden to Norquist, or unable to think for themselves. “I applaud his efforts,” Rep. Paul
Broun, R-Ga., told Newsmax after one of ATR’s now-famous “Wednes- day meetings” of conservatives. “Gro- ver’s not forcing members to sign the pledge. That’s preposterous, that people think that Grover can make
AP IMAGES / JONES/ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES NEWS/GETTY IMAGES WOLF/TOM WILLIAMS/CQ-ROLL CALL GROUP/GETTY IMAGES
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