All hail Grover Norquist!
Bow down, Lindsey Graham. The Republican senator dared to say he might consider supporting a tax increase recently — but then Norquist paid him a visit. “Every once in a while you have somebody with an impure thought like Lindsey Graham,” Norquist told me. But after their talk, Norquist could report that “Graham will never vote for a tax increase.”
Kneel before him, Tom Coburn. Also a Republican senator, Coburn, too, had toyed with the idea of supporting a deficit-reduction deal that includes some tax increases, before Norquist conquered him. “He had a moment of weakness where he thought you had to raise taxes to get spending restraint,” Norquist said. “He now knows that’s not true.”
Prostrate yourselves, House Republicans. On June 21, a day after Republican senators hosted Norquist on their side of the Capitol, Republican House members opened up the Ways and Means Committee room so that he could counsel them on The Pledge, an anti-tax edict written by Norquist and signed by all but four House Republicans, most Republican senators, and Mitt Romney. Lawmakers leaving their private audience with Norquist were agog at his majesty. “I agree with him tremendously,” reported Rep. John Fleming, R-La. But Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means committee, had a less favorable view of the spectacle. “Ways and Means Republicans and others are holding royal court for a person who single-mindedly is determined to prevent a balanced approach to deficit reduction,” Levin complained. “Essentially, Norquist is here to hold feet to the fire when we need open minds.”
Norquist doesn’t dispute that. The tax-pledge effort he began a quarter-century ago is now the defining mantra of the party: no tax increases, no matter the consequences. With the possible exception of Newt Gingrich, Norquist has done more than anybody to bring about Washington’s political dysfunction. Since he began, the federal debt has increased roughly eightfold. But Norquist still believes that as soon as next year victory will be his — all because of his pledge. “Because almost all the Republicans took it, it became, actually, the branding of the party,” Norquist told me on June 21. Though I think Norquist’s approach has been disastrous for the country, I am awed by his success with the pledge.