I have been wondering — who IS this guy? Why does he wield such power? And why does some promise made to him trump the needs and will of the American people? Norquist very happy, now will it? Or is it tax increases on the wealthy — only — that Norquist and his pledgees oppose? First of all, you are trying to argue that the pledge is unenforceable and unconstitutional at the same time. How can something with no real power be in conflict with Law of the Land?
Second, there are plenty of pledges that are unenforceable under your framework. You are simply playing with words. Yes, there is no consideration. No one really thought that Grover Norquist could sue elected officials who broke the pledge.
It was obvious what the pledge was. You say so in your article but act like it is some sort of genius discovery rather than common knowledge. Everyone knew it was a promise. It was explicit declaration of what the elected official would do when in office. It is like Obama saying I will pass healthcare reform when in office. The same with any official who signed the Norquist pledge. They made an explicit promise that could be measured.
If they go against it, it hurts their credibility. But no, keep on pretending that people actually thought this was enforceable contract when everyone actually knew that it was campaign promise that could be measured. I enjoyed your article. Do you disagree, Mr Dean? Is it for a lawful purpose? Well, Warren held no office during the campaign. We have two wars on the credit card.
It is time to return to the tax rates that existed under FDR. Demand Congress members sign a pledge to represent the best interests of Americans overriding the Norquist tax Pledge petitions.
Demand Congress members sign a pledge to represent the best interests of Americans overriding the Norquist tax Pledge wh. Interesting to read comments written so many years ago. Share Tweet Share Share. Posted in: Government. The Norquist Pledge Norquist, who is now fifty-six years of age, recently told 60 Minutes that he first conceived of a Republican anti-tax pledge in , at just twelve years of age, while working as a young volunteer seeking to get Richard Nixon elected president.
Enforcing the Unenforceable Norquist Pledge Norquist is doing his best to keep his pledge from being violated by Republicans.
Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W. If he runs and gets nominated, there will be a third-party conservative candidate, and the Democrats will probably win. In trying to minimize feuding, he concentrates on areas of agreement, such as tax cuts, tort reform, and bashing the Democrats. He has adopted some positions of the religious right, claiming to be anti-abortion, even though that might seem to contradict his libertarianism, and skeptical about evolution.
Still, his laissez-faire views on economics and other issues sometimes create tension. On immigration, for example, his call for a relaxation of existing laws is opposed by traditionalists like Paul Weyrich and Phyllis Schlafly, the president of the Eagle Forum, who have little enthusiasm for another influx of Hispanic, Caribbean, and Asian immigrants, let alone Arabs and Africans.
Under the auspices of Americans for Tax Reform, he has set up a Media Freedom Project, which lobbies against censorship of the airwaves. Earlier this summer, L. It is hard to imagine that Norquist would enjoy living in a country run by people like Perkins and Bozell, but he is so caught up in partisan strategizing that he seldom stops to consider the question. The religious right is a parents-rights movement.
They want the right to raise their kids in their own way. Instead, they call for the whole United States to return to its pious Christian roots—statements that Norquist dismisses by arguing that the religious leaders are sometimes more intolerant than their flocks. In addition to religious conservatives and gun owners, Norquist reaches out to many groups not usually associated with the Republican Party.
Norquist sees conservative ethnic and religious communities as natural elements of the Republican coalition. But what do they want? They want the government to leave them alone, to let them educate their kids, and to not make fun of their faith.
All of them want that. Norquist has denounced the charge as outrageous, and in he banned one of his accusers, Frank Gaffney, who served in the Pentagon during the Reagan Administration, from his Wednesday meeting. We are either a Republican Party that is open to all ethnic groups and all religions, or we die. Another group that Norquist has courted is right-leaning gays. Instead of answering directly, he predicted that twenty-three states would pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, after which the issue would disappear.
Look what happens in California, where they pick on the richest ten per cent. They just have to show up on the same day and vote for the same party. The biggest tribute that has been paid to Norquist is the effort by Democrats to mimic some of his tactics. The room was packed. Soros talked about how his family had survived the Holocaust and how he fled from Hungary to England, where he studied philosophy under Karl Popper and embraced the Open Society before emigrating to America.
Norquist asked Soros how much he had spent trying to defeat President Bush. About twenty-seven million dollars, Soros replied. Other questions followed, many of them hostile, about Iraq, Social Security, the role of free markets, and campaign-finance reform.
Soros answered them all. He called the war in Iraq unjustified and counterproductive. Finally, he said he hoped that the Democrats would win the next election and that the Republicans would then return to the center.
People looked at him as if he had endorsed infanticide. After the meeting, Norquist explained why he had invited Soros. I think he might be interested, because giving money to the A. Why not get Soros to spend some money to support these efforts? Surely he would be interested in getting a return on his political investments.
He should have been in for two and a half billion dollars, for crying out loud. Twenty-seven million dollars—that should have been ante money. What were they thinking? Norquist is an expert on the murky area where money and politics intersect. For years, he has helped funnel financial contributions from corporations and rich individuals to Republican candidates and causes, often skirting the campaign-finance laws in the process. Shortly thereafter, state officials in Oregon uncovered a scheme in which wealthy Oregonians sent large sums of money to Americans for Tax Reform, which passed them on to an organization called Oregon Taxpayers United, hiding the identity of the donors.
Neither case led to any legal action against Norquist. In recent years, he has also been involved in the K-Street Project, an audacious attempt by Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, including Tom DeLay and Senator Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, to turn the busy thoroughfare where many corporate influence peddlers have their offices into an affiliate of the Republican Party.
Republicans have warned lobbying firms not to hire any Democrats or contribute to Democratic causes if they wish to influence legislation. In , Americans for Tax Reform began posting on its Web site information about which candidates and parties individual lobbyists have made contributions to, and Norquist started echoing the DeLay-Santorum line, calling for even the secretaries on K Street to be Republicans.
To a large extent, the K-Street Project has succeeded. Many corporations that used to employ lobbyists from both parties in equal numbers now hire mostly Republicans. Citigroup, for example, has only one Democrat on its congressional lobbying staff. Republicans have come to hold key positions in many of the major trade groups, such as the Securities Industry Association and Pharma, which represents big drug companies. Until , Norquist himself lobbied Congress and the executive branch on behalf of business interests.
He also registered as a lobbyist for unita and for the Seychelles, whose leader, France Albert Rene, was a self-styled leftist. Today, Norquist is no longer officially a lobbyist. He receives a salary of nearly a hundred and seventy thousand dollars, which is modest by the standards of corporate lobbyists, but Americans for Tax Reform, which has a budget of about five million dollars a year, still receives a lot of cash from corporations that stand to benefit from the policies it advocates.
Norquist has always denied pushing legislation in order to attract financial contributions. For years, Norquist has been insisting that Indian territory be exempt from federal taxation, a policy that greatly benefits the tribes that operate casinos there. Meanwhile, it is now clear, Indian tribes have been making generous donations to Americans for Tax Reform, and also, in some cases, using it as a conduit to other conservative groups.
Have you talked to Grover since the Newt development. At the start of , the casino battle intensified. Reed needed more cash, and the Choctaws agreed to supply some. After discussing several options, Reed and Abramoff again decided to send the money via Norquist, but this time, apparently, he kept some of it for Americans for Tax Reform.
How much more do we need? Grover has asked me to line up a few tribes to do so again. Nor did A. I know parts of the left would like to use this to bring Grover down, but that is not going to happen. On Capitol Hill, there is discussion about what John McCain, the main force behind the Abramoff investigation, will do next. Norquist blames McCain for much of his trouble. Since then, he and Norquist have been bitter enemies. I will lead you. That is completely unacceptable.
Add to that, McCain is completely unstable. He throws things. He screams at people. Ask anybody on his staff and they will tell you. Also, remember, McCain is Keating Five. On the contrary, he is pleased that he has never had an association with Mr. Norquist and prefers that it stay that way. The biggest threat that Norquist faces may not be a legal one. For years, he has traded on the fact that other conservative activists looked upon him as an incorruptible outsider.
Now his reputation is being attacked even by fellow-conservatives. As the scandal plays out, Norquist is keeping as busy as ever. A couple of weeks ago, I drove with him to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he attended a regular meeting of local conservative activists. On the way, he talked about the coming battle over the Supreme Court. Norquist backed the White House, telling the dissidents to pipe down.
I believe that, as far as is humanly possible, he is going to pick a judge who is like Scalia and Thomas. I trust him on that because he saw what happened when Bush senior picked the wrong judge.
Also, if you are not going to get Social Security reform, you are not going to get fundamental tax reform, and you are not going to turn the Middle East into Switzerland, then the thing that people will write about you in fifty years is that the judicial appointments you made really shifted things.
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