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Grover Norquist

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Grover Glenn Norquist (born October 19, 1956) is an American conservative activist and lobbyist. He currently serves as president of anti-tax lobbying group Americans for Tax Reform.

Early years and career

Norquist, who is of Swedish descent, grew up in Weston, Massachusetts, where he learned politics at an early age when his father would liken each bite he took out of his ice cream cone to a different type of tax levied by the government. His political leanings were cemented at the age of eleven by reading anti-Communist tracts such as Masters of Deceit by J. Edgar Hoover and Witness by Whittaker Chambers.

Norquist received a B.A. (economics) from Harvard College, which he attended from 1974 to 1978, living in Winthrop House. He later received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (1979–1981).

After leaving professional school, Norquist became executive director of both the National Taxpayers Union and the national College Republicans organization, holding both positions until 1983. He was an economist and chief speech writer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1983 to 1984.

Norquist founded Americans for Tax Reform in 1985, at the request of President Ronald Reagan, and has headed the organization ever since. Although he is best known as the head of that organization, his introduction to conservative politics was rooted in the anti-Soviet arguments of the Cold War. "I was actually a foreign-policy conservative first," he told an interviewer in 1998.

From 1985 to 1988, Norquist was also an economic advisor to Angola UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. During this period, he was registered with the United States Department of Justice as a foreign agent of Angola.

In addition to heading Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist is currently on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association and the American Conservative Union. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and chairman emeritus of the Islamic Free Market Institute. He was the chair of the September 2005 convention of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies.

Political importance on national politics

Norquist, along with Bill Kristol, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Clint Bolick and David McIntosh is one of the so-called "Gang of Five" identified in Nina Easton's 2000 book by that name, which gives a history of leaders of the modern conservative movement. He has been described as "a thumb-in-the-eye radical rightist" (The Nation), and "Tom Paine crossed with Lee Atwater plus just a soupçon of Madame Defarge" (P.J. O'Rourke). Norquist's page on the web site of Americans for Tax Reform includes a laudatory quote about him from former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Indeed, Norquist co-authored the 1994 Contract with America.

In 1999, he was instrumental in securing early support for then Texas Governor George W. Bush, continuing a decades-long association with Karl Rove ("The Wall Street Journal's John Fund dubbed him "the Grand Central Station" of conservatism and told The Nation: "It's not disputable" that Norquist was the key to the Bush campaign's surprising level of support from movement conservatives in 2000"). After Bush's election to the White House in 2000, Norquist was the prime architect behind the many Bush tax-cuts ("Grover Norquist: 'Field Marshal' of the Bush Plan").

Norquist is "adept at media appearances ... writes a monthly politics column for the American Spectator magazine, and frequently speaks at regional and state think tanks of the conservative movement," according to the critical website MediaTransparency.Org.

In 2007, Norquist was named by GQ magazine as #27 on its list of "50 Most Powerful People in DC", by Washingtonian as one of the "Power 150: People Who Make Things Happen", by the Daily Telegraph as #24 on its list of "The Most Influential US Conservatives", and by The Hill newspaper as among the 24 people listed as "Greatest In Helping the Grassroots to Grow". In 2006, the Harvard-focused 02138 magazine named Norquist as #40 on its list of "The Harvard 100 Most Influential Alumni".

Americans for Tax Reform

As mentioned earlier, Grover Norquist founded Americans for Tax Reform at the behest of President Ronald Reagan in 1985. The flagship project of ATR is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Currently, 194 members of the House of Representatives and 41 U.S. Senators and one President of the United States have signed the Pledge on the federal level. On the state level, 1218 Legislators, 8 Governors, 7 Lieutenant Governors, 3 Attorneys General, 3 Secretaries of State, 3 Treasurers, 1 Comptroller, and 2 Board of Equalization Members have signed the Pledge to never raise taxes.

While controversy may surround the Pledge, the Pledge itself is simple. It binds both candidates and incumbents to a promise never to raise taxes and forces candidates to put their rhetoric in writing. According to Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, “"It [The Pledge] has transformed American politics."

Wednesday Meetings

Shortly after Bill Clinton was elected president of the United States in 1992, Norquist began hosting a weekly, off-the-record get-together of conservatives in his Washington office to coordinate activities and strategy. "We were sort of like the Mensheviks after the Russian Revolution," recalls Marshall Wittmann, who attended the first meeting as a representative of the Christian Coalition.

In 1994, Norquist worked with Newt Gingrich and the Heritage Foundation to draft the Contract with America.

The "Wednesday Meeting" of Norquist's Leave Us Alone Coalition has become an important hub of conservative political organizing. George W. Bush began sending a representative to the Wednesday Meeting even before he formally announced his candidacy for president in 1999. "Now a White House aide attends each week," reported USA Today in June 2001. "Vice President Cheney sends his own representative. So do GOP congressional leaders, right-leaning think tanks, conservative advocacy groups and some like-minded K Street lobbyists. The meeting has been valuable to the White House because it is the political equivalent of one-stop shopping. By making a single pitch, the administration can generate pressure on members of Congress, calls to radio talk shows, and political buzz from dozens of grassroots organizations. It also enables the White House to hear conservatives vent in private — and to respond — before complaints fester".

There are similar meetings in 44 state capitals and an additional 10 in secondary cities such as New York. The state and city meetings generally meet weekly when the Legislature is in session and monthly when the Legislature is out of session. Over the years dozens of foreign guests have joined the meeting and have returned to their home countries and established similar meetings in such places as Japan, Britain, Brussels, and Rome for roughly a dozen overseas meetings.

The Left has had mixed feelings about the meeting since its inception. Josh Benson of the New York Observer reported that Hillary Clinton urged Democrats to follow the example of Grover Norquist. He reported, “Speaking forcefully, she [Hillary Clinton] criticized Democrats for their lack of organization and urged them instead to follow the example of conservative strategist Grover Norquist, whose weekly strategy sessions, she said, produced material for right-leaning commentators such as Fox personalities Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.” He continued, “She was almost admiring—she thinks that Democrats should do the right thing.”

Susan Page of USA Today said, “And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, consider this: At the urging of House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, a group of labor leaders, environmentalists, abortion-rights activists and others this spring began a weekly session chaired by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. She says the group was formed to provide ‘an open exchange of information about a shared agenda.’ When do they usually meet? On Wednesday.”

Lobbying career

Norquist has represented various corporate interests including, American Express, National Rifle Association, Microsoft. Records show that Microsoft paid Grover Norquist $60,000 in 1999.

Influence on state and local politics

Norquist's national strategy includes recruiting politicians at the state and local levels.

In 2004 Norquist helped California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with selling his plan to privatize the CalPERS system.

In Virginia, Norquist was involved in the 2005 Republican primaries, trying to unseat a number of legislators who voted for higher taxes. Norquist has helped to set up regular meetings for conservatives in many states, meetings modeled after his Wednesday meetings in Washington. He wants to set up a nationwide network of conservative activists that he can call upon to support his causes, such as tax cuts and deregulation. There are now meetings in 48 states.

Connections to Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff pled guilty to conspiracy to corrupt public officials, mail fraud and tax evasion on January 3, 2006. According to an investigative report on Abramoff's lobbying released in June 2006 by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns. A second group Norquist was involved with, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, received about $500,000 in Abramoff client funds.

Norquist has been close friends with Abramoff since college, when he ran Abramoff's successful campaign to become national chairman of the College Republicans.

In 1996, the Choctaw tribe, an Abramoff client, donated $60,000 to ATR to oppose a tax on Indian casinos. The funds continued; in 1999, Norquist moved $1.15 million in Abramoff client money to Ralph Reed's for-profit political consulting company, Century Strategies, and to anti-gambling groups working to defeat a state lottery in Alabama. The money routing was deliberate: in one email reminder to himself, Abramoff wrote: "Call Ralph re Grover doing pass through."

In May 1999, Norquist asked Abramoff "What is the status of the Choctaw stuff?", in an email. "I have a 75g [$75,000] hole in my budget from last year. ouch." Abramoff eventually grew annoyed at the amount that Norquist took off the top before sending the money on, e-mails show. "Grover kept another $25 k!" Abramoff wrote in a February 2000 note to himself.

On May 9, 2001, Chief Raul Garza of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas met with President Bush, with Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist in attendance. Days before the meeting, the tribe paid $25,000 to Grover Norquist's ATR at Abramoff's direction. According to the organization's communications director, John Kartch, the meeting was one of several gatherings with President Bush sponsored by ATR. On the same day, the chief of the Louisiana Coushattas also attended an ATR-sponsored gathering with President Bush. The Coushattas also gave $25,000 to ATR soon before the event.

The details of the Kickapoo meeting and a letter dated May 10, 2001 from ATR thanking the Kickapoos for their contribution were revealed to the New York Times in 2006 by former council elder Isidro Garza, who with Raul Garza (no relation), is under indictment in Texas for embezzling tribal money. According to Isidro Garza, Abramoff did not say the donation was required to meet the president; the White House denied any knowledge of the transaction.

Emails released in an October 12, 2006 report by the US Senate Finance Committee investigation, show that Norquist exchanged support for cash donations to ATR. Abramoff asked Norquist, "I have sent over a $50K contribution from DH2 (the mutual fund client). Any sense as to where we are on the op-ed placement?" To which Norquist replied, "The Wash Times told me they were running the piece. . . . I will nudge again."

Norquist denies that he has done anything wrong, although the association with Abramoff has affected his reputation. Whether Norquist could face criminal charges, in addition to civil actions against ATR for violating its non-profit charter, according to experts, is unclear.

Janus-Merritt Strategies

In 1997, Norquist and lawyer David Safavian founded a lobbying firm, the Merritt Group, later renamed Janus-Merritt Strategies (sometimes referred to as "Janus Merritt" or simply "Janus"). Over the next five years, the firm's clients included international companies, Indian gaming interests, the government of Pakistan and the government of Gabon, and the American Muslim Council and Abdurahman Alamoudi, a fierce supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. Senate disclosure reports on file show that for years Janus-Merritt registered as a lobbyist for Alamoudi. In 2002, Janus-Merritt was sold to the firm Williams Mullen. Norquist has refused to release tax records of the firm for the period during which he and Safavian owned the company.

Other criticisms and controversies

Minimizing government power

The Americans for Tax Reform mission statement is "The government's power to control one's life derives from its power to tax. We believe that power should be minimized.

The pledge of "no new taxes" that many Republican legislators have signed was his project. As of mid-2005, more than two hundred and twenty Republicans in the House of Representatives had signed this pledge; in the Senate, forty-six Republicans had done so.

"Cutting the government in half in one generation is both an ambitious and reasonable goal," Norquist stated in May 2000. "If we work hard we will accomplish this and more by 2025. Then the conservative movement can set a new goal. I have a recommendation: To cut government in half again by 2050". To that end, Norquist has been noted for his widely quoted quip: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Thomas Friedman wrote an op-ed in the New York Times stating "An administration whose tax policy has been dominated by the toweringly selfish Grover Norquist ... doesn't have the instincts for this moment. Mr. Norquist is the only person about whom I would say this: I hope he owns property around the New Orleans levee that was never properly finished because of a lack of tax dollars. I hope his basement got flooded. And I hope that he was busy drowning government in his bathtub when the levee broke and that he had to wait for a U.S. Army helicopter to get out of town."

When asked by Alain de Botton, "Why shouldn't the state help the needy?", in the television adaptation of Status Anxiety, Norquist replied, "Because to do that, you would have to steal money from people who earned it and give it to people who didn't. And then you make the state into a thief." Botton follows with, "You're suggesting that taxation is theft?" Norquist continues, "Taxation beyond the legitimate requirements of providing for justice is theft, sure."

Comparison of the estate tax to the Holocaust

A small controversy erupted after an interview between Norquist and Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air program. In the interview, Grover Norquist compared the morality that allows the estate tax to that which permitted the Holocaust. Norquist said that it is a problem when you allow the government to target groups of people and don't care if the group is a small group. .

Personal

On April 2, 2005, Norquist married Kuwait-born Samah Alrayyes, who until then had been the director of the Islamic Free Market Institute. She is a CEO of her own communications firm and formerly a Public Affairs Specialist for Arab and Muslim outreach at the Bureau of Legislative and Public Affairs at USAID.

Religious beliefs

In contrast to his outspoken positions on political issues, when it comes to spiritual matters, Norquist prefers to play it closer to the vest. When asked by Washington, D.C.-based journalist Dave Sperry if he had converted to his wife's faith, Norquist brushed the question off as "too personal".

Book

Grover Norquist's book Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives was published on March 11, 2008 by HarperCollins. Karl Rove said about Grover's new book, “Grover Norquist is provocative, intellectually fearless, and always worth paying attention to. His new book is Grover at his best, which is very, very good. Read this important volume and you’ll understand why Norquist plays such a key role in American politics.” Dick Morris also said, “The old dichotomies of left vs. right or liberal vs. conservative have increasingly little relevance for the politics of America. But Norquist’s formulation, the leave-us-aloners vs. the takers, is vital, relevant, and incisive. Viewed through this prism, politics makes sense.”

References

See also

External links



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