WP,pg1: Powerful GOP Activist Norquist Sees Influence Slip Over Abramoff

[DeepModem Mom]

Powerful GOP Activist Sees His Influence Slip Over Abramoff Dealings
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 9, 2006; Page A01


Grover G. Norquist is fiercely defending his group after a congressional report alleged that it served as a "conduit" in Jack Abramoff's schemes. (By Yuri Gripas -- Associated Press)

For more than a decade, Grover G. Norquist has been at the nexus of conservative activism in Washington, becoming a Bush administration insider whose weekly strategy sessions at his Americans for Tax Reform have drawn ever-larger crowds of lawmakers, lobbyists and even White House political adviser Karl Rove.

Over the past six years, Norquist has been a key cheerleader and strategist for successive White House tax cuts, extracting ironclad oaths from congressional Republicans not to even think about tax increases. And even before President Bush's election, he positioned himself as a gatekeeper for supplicants seeking access to Bush's inner circle.

But in the aftermath of reports that Norquist served as a cash conduit for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the irascible, combative activist is struggling to maintain his stature as some GOP lawmakers distance themselves and as enemies in the conservative movement seek to diminish his position....

****

For now, Norquist's well-publicized financial links to Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges and is cooperating with prosecutors, have had little obvious impact on Norquist's prominence....But beneath the outward signs of normalcy, the infighting is taking a toll on Norquist's standing. Some social conservatives who have jousted with him over his more libertarian views on the regulation of television and its depictions of violence and depravity are exploiting his weakness to press their positions on Capitol Hill. Security-minded defense hawks who for years have questioned his ties to Muslim activists are resurrecting charges that Norquist has turned a blind eye to terrorist sympathizers.

Republican lawmakers who have chafed at his dogmatic position on taxes are also ready to shrug off his heavy hand. In recent interviews, a half-dozen conservative GOP lawmakers said they are consciously avoiding Norquist's meetings, and they have begun questioning the purity of an activist who has always portrayed himself as motivated by ideals, not money....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800983.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Grover Norquist has always been motivated BY IDEALS?

What? Have we all gone mad? It's simply not possible.

The word can't be stretched to cover his life's history, or any part therein.

May Grover Norquist burn in hell, or in his bathtub, if convenient.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. close. motivated by iDeals.

As popular as an iPod or an iMac, an iDeal is a popular Republican method of selling your office to the highest bidder or most generous lobbyist. The iDeal allows the the congresscritter to travel to various tropical locations, play golf, inspect fake manufacturing companies, and take his family or lover with in secret. Scotland, while not tropical before global warming took off, is another highly rated destination.

[MagickMuffin]

2. Drown in your own Piss, Norquist you Bastard

An interesting name in the article Cesar Conda, who Abramoff met in the White House in April 01. His name came out with the release of the secret service WH records.

"I don't think he's lost one iota of influence in conservative circles," said Cesar Conda, a Republican lobbyist and a former top aide to Vice President Cheney.

The April 21, 2001, appointment was with Cesar Conda, Vice President Cheney's assistant for domestic policy. Five days later, the Associated Press reported, Patrick Pizzella, one of Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, was nominated to be assistant secretary of labor.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Group_uncovers_more_White_House_visits_0707.html

[Vogon_Glory]

3. If We Get A Tough Democrat And Not A Wuss Elected in 2008

If we get a tough Democrat who'll act like a tough Democrat and not a wuss in 2008, I hope that he or she will strongly encourage the Justice Department to look into Norquist's affairs and if investigators find sufficient evidence, indict and prosecute with vigor.

Personally, I think that Federal Bureau of Prisons Orange would compliment Norquist's beard quite nicely.

[CBHagman]

4. He's done incalculable damage to our country.

What acrimony, inequality, and bad policy this creature has encouraged! If he is called to account in some fashion, so much the better. Readd these quotations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist#Quotations

"We are trying to change the tones in the state capitols -- and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship."


This is the mind-set that dominates the party in control of the federal government. Unfortunately, Norquist is under the radar of anyone who isn't reading Mother Jones and the like.

More on Norquist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist

[Rose Siding]

5. Right. And Poindexter, Abrams, Reich, Gingrich are persona non grata, too.

More business is probably just being conducted on the QT. My guess is that that's a temporary arrangement.

[vixengrl]

6. Much as something like this should give him the political equivalent

of "cooties", it's simply a case of "what they say versus what they do." Conservatives who like what he says won't care about what he does. And people happy to work with him might not necessarily say so.

[onehandle]

7. Good. He's an absolute asshole. nt

[bluedeminredstate]

8. John Stewart had a clip of him

talking this past week and it was the funniest bit on the show. Boring and monotone can't begin to describe his affect. It's a wonder he's as powerful as he is since he doesn't seen dynamic at all. I can't imagine how he's made all the connections he has and enjoys an insider status with his severe charisma limitations. Does he come from money? A powerful family (though a ridiculous one, since they named him Grover on top of that last name...)?

[AirAmFan]

10. Sluggos like Norquist, Ralph Reed, and Karl Rove tend to share the same

mentor, Morton Blackwell of the "Leadership Institute" and College Republicans national operation.

Blackwell last surfaced in the big media at the 2004 Republican National Convention, handing out the "Kerry Purple Heart Bandaids" he'd just invented.

IMO, the DNC ought to take a page out of the RNC playbook and start training committed activists young, only for the benefit of the people, not the plutocrats.

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=789918&mesg_id=791126 and the Original Post for that thread.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. That would be a wise move, AirAmFan. These guys...

have been really effective promoting their misguided gospel.

[sidpleasant]

12. Norquist is open about his goal: a one party state

He told the Boston Phoenix a few years ago that the point of the "K Street Project" was to wreck the Democratic Party by destroying the institutions and groups that fund it. He was quite clear that his ultimate goal is a one party state where the Republicans run everything everywhere. The Democrats, if they continued to exist at all, would be the political equivalent of the Washington Generals that lose to the Harlem Globetrotters every game. Norquist, Rove, Abramoff, DeLay, et al really do want the US to be reduced to something like Mexico during the 70 years when the PRI ran that country with only a token opposition to distinguish it from outright authoritarian states like East Germany.