Samah Norquist: Bridging Two Separate Worlds T
his side. An American of Palestinian descent, Samah moved to the
nation’s capital to help America mend its relations with the Middle East. She met Grover while working at the conservative Islamic Free Market Institute. “It’s funny, because everybody, including former staff of
his, said, ‘Do you see how he lights up when you come into the room?’ I said, ‘No, he’s just nice and kind,’” she recalls of their courtship. Once she insisted that the nerdy thick-framed glasses he
used to wear had to go, they knew things were getting serious. Then one night, he asked her to walk with him to the memorial of the late Ohio Sen. Robert Taft, the venerated Senate leader who steadfastly opposed FDR’s New Deal. Norquist began explaining at length why Taft’s is his favorite monument. It was only when he began to tear up that she realized he was proposing marriage. Today, Samah spends most of her time raising
their two daughters, one of whom was adopted from Bethlehem. A native Arabic speaker, she also is founder and president of Global Partners, LLC. The consultancy focuses on building partnerships between the United States and the Muslim world. Beltway wags are sometimes surprised to learn the
ax hawk Grover Norquist does battle inside the Beltway knowing that his wife, Samah A. Norquist, will always be by
GROVER’S TOP
DEFENDER
One of D.C.’s leading power couples, their bond grows stronger with each political attack.
ATR chief is married to an Arab-American. The biggest misconception about her husband, she says, is that he is stoic or unfeeling. In fact, more than once she’s seen him grow misty-eyed at the checkout register when he has to explain to his daughters that they can’t keep every toy they grabbed as he wheeled their shopping cart down the aisle. Democrats probably wish he was that sentimental when they try to raise taxes.
“I think people don’t understand how his work, his beliefs, and his principles are part of who he is,” she says. “This is not to him about being famous, or about making money, or being an agent for the corporate world. He genuinely cares about this country. I could be biased because he is my husband, but I have
never seen more patriotism in any person.” As a Muslim-American, Samah is
accustomed to being a human bridge between two worlds. But the biggest chasm she sees is the
diff erence between the media’s portrayal of Grover Norquist, and the man she knows and loves. To help explain the real Grover, she shared with Newsmax a
portion of their marriage vows. “Years ago,” he proclaimed at their wedding ceremony, “I
promised my country that her struggle would be mine, her cause is mine, and that I would make sacrifices and take risks for liberty that I would not take for others. “Today, I make that vow to you, to our marriage, and to our
family,” he said. “I promise that I will work every day to make you as loved, as happy, and as secure as you have already made me.”
ful pledge he’d thought up long ago. One election cycle later, in 1986,
100 members of the House and 20 U.S. senators had signed onto the pledge. But just when it looked like Norquist’s anti-tax pledge was poised to change Washington, ATR suf- fered its greatest setback. Reagan’s
52 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2012
vice president, George H.W. Bush, had signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in the 1988 campaign. Bush rival Sen. Robert Dole shied away from signing the pledge that year, and Bush’s ads indicated Dole wanted to raise taxes. Bush won the primary and then the general election, prom-
ising along the way: “Read my lips, no new taxes!” Bush of course reneged on that pledge, taking a lot of other Republicans with him. Reagan’s dev- otees were devastated. “It was fatal, just fatal,” Norquist
recollects as he shakes his head. “He had a very successful presidency. End
MICHAEL LOCCISANO/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES
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