Grover Disappoints
Like a lot of other media types in Minnesota this week, I was intrigued by the fact that Grover Norquist was on the agenda to speak on Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic. Norquist is a bold, outspoken kind of guy not afraid to overreach rhetorically and not afraid to say something mean about a Republican now and again. But at the same time, he’s very much a pillar of the conservative establishment — was he really going to talk to a movement that’s so furiously opposed to mainstream American conservatism?
Well, he was. But for those of us hoping for something interesting to happen, it was a huge disappointment. He delivered a straightforwardly partisan speech that barely deviated from his standard talk about the Leave Us Alone Coalition against the devious liberals. He tossed the odd brickbat in the direction of overspending congressional Republicans, but praised the GOP for its slavish adherence to his “no tax” pledge at the federal level, and saved all his ire for the usual Norquistian rogues’ gallery of public school teachers, poor people in need of public assistance, environmentalists, and civil servants more broadly.
All of which sort of leaves me wondering why he bothered.
22 Responses to “Grover Disappoints”
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September 2nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
http://www.tighroslin.com/
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
well, part of why he bothered may be that he realizes that the coalition that has brought him a lot of money and power over the last twenty years is going down the drain.
the delay/abramoff/bush/mccain/rove nexus has been his powerbase for a long time. he has been a very successful insider, and gotten very wealthy doing it.
but that gravy train is now headed off the tracks. so he is looking for some alternatives, and wants to make sure he does not burn his bridges with other communities, e.g. the paulistas.
i’m not sure that’s the answer. but i’m confident that it has nothing to do with the good of our country. the sooner norquist finds his own final bathtub, the better for america, and the world.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Did he talk about the idiocy of the Fed’s helping out NOLA this week? How many times did he say Bush and McCain and the whole Rebub convention were stupid for pandering to the people down there? Does he really want government and real actual people to drown? Or is he Ann Coulter with a beard?
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I saw a CSPAN event – sponsored by the ACLU – where Grover sat side-by-side, cheek-by-jowl with various far-lefties, and they all were in basic agreement. Oh, what could that subject that they agreed on be? Hint: it’s the one where MattY and Grover Norquist also basically agree, and the one I mostly cover. Maybe MattY could have chatted with Grover about the subject on which they basically agree.
In fact, that topic is related to comment #3. GN apparently was the one who got Bush to lift DavisBacon, and at the same time Bush sent the message that anyone employing IllegalAliens wouldn’t be prosecuted. While the Dems fought against the first, they colluded with Bush on the second. As a result, U.S. citizens paid:
1. To warehouse former NO residents in other cities…
2. Inflated costs to contractors…
3. The social costs of not getting NO’s residents to work rebuilding their city…
4. The cost of giving a foreign government even more power inside the U.S., as Mexico established a presence in NO…
5. Healthcare costs; for instance, underage IllegalAliens were working without proper safety gear, something that legal workers wouldn’t have done.
Maybe MattY should have asked Grover for an autograph.
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
“I was intrigued by the fact that Grover Norquist was on the agenda to speak on Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic”
I’m confused. Did he speak AT the rally? Or was he talking to someone about it somewhere else?
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Or, as some would say, an asshole.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Well, isn’t the reason he bothered obviously to remind the crackpot, no-government, libertarian Ron Paul coalition that they in fact share just about all of their governing principles (or non-governing principles) with the Norquistian no-government classical conservatives, and that once they get past the Big War Issue, and some fussy tactical questions about how to best to handle, repudiate or co-opt the religious conservatives, then they can all go back to being one, big, happy anti-government family?
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Irrelevant Tangent
I hate to say it but Norquist looks like he could be Yglesias’s older brother.
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:28 pm
This guy is a prize. He’s all for capitalism, the entrepreneur, get the government off my back, the self made man, etc. Yet he has made a pretty handsome living as a parasite of the thing he abhors. He’s just a Washington bloviator, making a living off of government for all intents and purposes. What a wretched excuse for a human being.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:45 am
Hilarious, too, that Ron Paul should borrow the name of a French political party that existed to promote a strong Gaullist state..
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:53 am
To me he looks kind of like a Wolfman kept in check, just barely, by 3x/day shaves and haircuts and too-tight shirts.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Did anyone ask him what he thinks about Sarak Palin raising taxes as mayor?
Ha!
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