Grover Norquist is Relevant, Why? And Romney is a Poopyhead

via gifsfln
Grover Norquist was on CBS this morning. In case you don't know who is - and there's not really any reason why you would - he's the guy who strikes fear into the right-wing members of Congress because he makes them sign a pledge to never raise taxes. In the past, if members didn't sign the Norquist Pledge, they might face the ire of angry Tea Party members back home who apparently are as controlled by Grover as the politicians themselves.

It's sick, really. This guy holds no elected office, and is basically a glorified lobbyist. Yet our tax and spend policies have been molded by his tax pledge.

CBS had him on this morning to ask him about whether Boehner should deal with Obama over taxes and the Fiscal Cliff, blah blah, and then Norah O'Donnell asked him about the election, and that brought out Grover's arrested development side - you can't make this up.

Norah O'Donnell: Why didn't people vote Obama out of office?

Norquist: You saw those ads in Ohio saying Romney gave people cancer, for months and months unanswered. You can trash an individual and get them to vote against him. Again - we had an election, there are 30 Republican governors, okay? And they're running campaigns against raising taxes, and in favor of frankly phasing out the income tax in North Carolina, in Kansas, and Oklahoma. Take a look at the states.

O'Donnell: Those are state issues. I mean, Speaker Boehner said clearly--

Norquist: Yeah, the issues are clear.

O'Donnell: Boehner - 'We're willing to accept new revenue under the right conditions.' Would you accept new revenue, and would members who have signed your no-tax pledge be allowed to accept new revenue?

Norquist: Well, of course, the pledge is to the American People, not to me. So they don't need my permission to vote a certain way. They made a commitment to the people in their states. . . .

. . .

Charlie Rose: Seems like to me you're not changing your attitude one bit.

Norquist: Well, we just had an election. And the House of Representatives was elected committed to keeping taxes low. The President was elected on the basis that he was not Romney and that Romney was a poopy-head and you should vote against Romney. And he won by two points, but he didn’t make the case for higher taxes and higher spending. He kind of sounded like the opposite.

O'Donnell: Well, I'm not sure that's what the President called Mitt Romney, Grover.