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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumIs it game over for Grover Norquist?
The anti-tax activist's grip on power, even in the GOP, has never been weaker -- just as he faces a critical test
BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD
Two meetings in Washington today tell the story of the decline of Grover Norquist, the conservative activist who is seeing his near-iron grip on GOP tax policy over the past two decades slipping. One is Norquists weekly Wednesday Meeting, a gathering of more than 150 elected officials, political activists, and movement leaders who plot strategy and coordinate messaging every week. After big losses at the polls in last weeks election and a fracturing conservative base just as Congress heads into its most important tax negotiations in years, its safe to assume that this mornings meeting was tense.
There was a time when almost every single elected Republican in Washington and even state capitals would sign Norquists anti-tax pledge, which binds elected officials to a promise not to raise taxes under any circumstance. As recently as last years negotiations over the debt ceiling, Norquist had fealty from a majority in the House of Representatives, including Speaker John Boehner and the entire GOP leadership. 60 Minutes Steve Kroft labeled Norquist the most powerful man in Washington. Those who violate his pledge could long expect to face attack ads aimed at unseating them, bankrolled by Norquists massive war chest. Americans for Tax Reform spent almost $16 million on independent expenditure ads in 2012. Crossing the group has always increased the likelihood of a primary challenge.
But times are changing. Todays second interesting meeting is taking place a few blocks away from Norquists downtown D.C. headquarters, at the White House, where President Obama is meeting with a dozen CEOs of the countrys biggest corporations. How did Norquist react to news of Obama reaching out to the business community, which he aims to represent in Washington? Not positively. Norquist told the Washington Post the CEOs were acting like a group of trained seals for Obama, posing for a photo op to give the president cover.
Youd think Norquist would be happy that Obama is giving an audience to the titans of the private sector, but no. Thats because the meeting, which gives the president a chance to win some business support for his agenda without any input from Norquist, represents a threat to his personal power. Is his petulant reaction he invoked the term poopy head on national TV on Monday a sign that hes losing his once awesome power over the nations capital? Maybe.
continue reading:
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/is_it_game_over_for_grover_norquist/
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Is it game over for Grover Norquist? (Original Post)
DonViejo
Nov 2012
OP
Dubster
(427 posts)1. Spam deleted by gkhouston (MIR Team)
creon
(1,183 posts)2. Norquist did not help himself
when he used the
phrase 'poopy head'.