Digby predicts we will see a lot of handwringin' on the Sunday shows about divided Democrats but let me declare my pride in joining "the crazed, angry purists of the left who are trying to drag the party away from the center of American politics." To avidly celebrate my Wicked blogofascism, I thought I'd assist WaPo in driving a stake into the heart of a vampire whose gilded coffin was built by the House of GOP, and thus, the House of Bush. Jonathan Weisman writes:
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.
"People were willing to cut him a lot of slack because he's done a lot of favors for a lot of people," said J. Michael Waller, a vice president of the right-leaning Center for Security Policy.... "But Grover's not that likable."Poor unlikable Count Norquisla. Cold-blooded ruthlessness and frequent denials of avarice does zap the energy and leave a distinctive, unappealing pallor. No doubt the Sunday shows will hypnotically overlook the Count's fangs for McCain and the senator's rebuff through his aide, Mark Salter:
"Obviously, Grover is not well. It would be cruel of us to respond in kind."Not well? A kind remark for the undead. Grover's an ancient blood-sucker who, like his clansmen, have drained the blood and treasure of Community since people began huddling together and stockpiling their resources in caves. Count Norquisla joined the decomposing Jack Abramoff in channeling fresh wampum to their Renfield sidekick, Ralph Reed. A series of emails exposed by McCain's Senate Indian Affairs Committee directly connected Abramoff and the Count through his Americans for Tax Reform pep club. Who knew vampires loved cheerleading so much?
To pound a stake into the bloody coil of a vampire is one incapacitating tactic but more lethal and permanent is to behead and purge by fire. For that, we can rely on terrorism, the hysteria du jour of the land, the grand cause celebre of the Latter Day Faints:
Frank J. Gaffney Jr., the firebrand director of the Center for Security Policy, has developed an anti-Norquist presentation, complete with charts and graphs, that he has shopped around to other conservatives, saying it shows Norquist's ties to terrorist sympathizers....
...At issue is the Islamic Free Market Institute, which Norquist created in 1998 to steer Muslim voters to the GOP. To run the institute, Norquist tapped Khaled Saffuri, whose dealings with the American Muslim Council linked him to Abdurahman M. Alamoudi, a founder of the council, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from top Libyan officials and admitted participating in a Libyan plot to assassinate then-Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Norquist dismisses Gaffney's charges as anti-Muslim bigotry and part of a long-standing vendetta against him. And he says he has never violated his small-government principles to raise a buck.Well, damn-a-nation! I didn't know terrorist sympathizers were funding big guvmit projects as well as the usual assassinations and mayhem.
But [Norquist] conceded that there are Republican lawmakers who want to see him weakened. He has been brutal at enforcing the no-new-taxes pledge he extracts from the candidates he endorses, so much so that many in the party are beginning to chafe, he said.Vendetta? Brutal enforcement? Chafing? Ahem. I don't foresee Big Timmy
But the apparatus [Norquist] has created for conservatives -- with fundraisers, social dinners and weekly meetings not just in Washington but in 43 states and even Europe -- has become too important to destroy.Ah, but a successor could keep the mortuary hummin'. So who will rise as the fledgling vampire to sustain that sucking sound we've heard since Bush II paraded into Washington? Who knows? As for Count Norquisla, we can only pray that sunlight will parch his bones to dust. There's something wickedly just about a death blow that could be delivered by alleged ties to terrorism. Stay tuned for more Dark Shadows melodrama.
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