WHO HAS THE NERVE?
SOMETHING NEW
A few Republican lawmakers are doing what should have been done years ago, telling the self righteous and dangerous Grover Norquist to go pound sand.
Dangerous? How else would you describe an ego freak who collects "pledges" from federal lawmakers to abide by his view of government or else face a challenge by a Norquist lackey, funded with millions of dollars. Norquist really believes that a pledge to him is more sacred than any oath of office, or the unfettered performance of the duties of the office to which his "pledgees" were elected. He likes to strut, bantam rooster like, before a weekly gathering of political operatives, mostly conservative and mostly Republican, who are there to kiss his keister.
PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL
Really, where does Grover Norquist get off thinking that he alone can control Republican tax policy and votes?
Who appointed him to this extraordinary power? By the way, Norquist is a bit of a fraud.
He's been an associate of Jack Abramoff, the convicted power broker who found plenty of ways to use and divert federal tax funds. He's also an associate of the phony Ralph Reed, who has ripped off and manipulated Christian rightists with his own brand of sleaze. Why Norquist has not been tossed over simply because his association with those scum probably goes back to those pledges that he collects and his threats to unseat anyone who challenges his view.
Norquist calls himself a boring Methodist. He is of a particular ilk of Methodist though, one who is married to a Palestinian Muslim who worked for the Islamic Free Market Institute. The Islamic Free Market Institute was founded by Norquist. That's cozy isn't it? The Institute also took money from two organizations that were linked to SAAR-the organization with ties to international terrorism. Norquist should feel right at home since he employs a kind of political terror on the Republican party. And Norquist's wife worked with USAID. USAID of course pumps US tax dollars into foreign venues and initiatives. Boring Methodist hardly seems an apt description for such a master of double talk, phoniness, duplicity, sleaze, self aggrandizement and zealousness.
If the late director Alan Pakula were doing the film, Norquist would be brought down by his own self importance and fraud. If the Wachowski's were directing Norquist would be vaporized by a drone as he preened before the Wednesday gathering of sycophants. But since this is real life it is men like Senator John McCain, Speaker John Boehner, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Tom Coburn and Senator Bob Corker who may be the founding architects of the movement to depose the self exalted would be dictator.
Senator Tom Coburn called Norquist's pledge "a tortured vision of tax purity." The inclusion of torture and Norquist in the same sentence seems to bring this screed full circle. What goes around, comes around.
Proprietors of the historic Cambria Pines Lodge have
added to their already well visited Christmas lights display.
This year they have added a Christmas Bazaar.
