Grover Norquist comes to town

By Jill Burcum

Last update: November 19, 2008 - 1:29 PM

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Grover Norquist’s no-room-for-compromise views on taxes have won him passionate fans and just as many passionate critics. On Tuesday, it was clear the hard-charging conservative activist — who once said he wanted to cut government "down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub" — isn’t toning down his rhetoric after an election where Democrats captured the White House and large majorities in Congress.

Norquist still divides the nation into two: his team , which he calls the "Leave Us Alone" coalition, and the "Takings" coalition,’’ the vast coalition of leftist politicians, bureaucrats, labor leaders and environmentalists who want to suck evermore taxes out of hardworking, guntoting folks and increasingly intrude in their lives.

The president of Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist was in St. Paul for to speak at CONtacts, a center-right group meets monthly at the St. Paul Central Library. He was clearly intent on rallying conservative troops, boiling down his main point in familiar football terms. "We need to be on offense, not defense.’’ He also added his oft-repeated call for "google government" projects, which would enhance transparency in government by posting expenditures on publicly accessible web sites.

Here’s Norquist’s take on a number of topics:

Why Republicans lost ground this election

Norquist is preaching a variation of the "we weren’t conservative enough" theme, adding a strong dose of criticism for the Bush administration. The Republican "brand," he said, relies on two key pillars: promoting itself as the party that doesn’t raise taxes and the party that reins in spending. This year, he said, the GOP’s brand was particularly hurt in states where some Republicans had voted for tax increases at the federal or state level — something that happened in Minnesota last spring when the so-called Override Six voted to approve a gas tax increase. Norquist also acknowledged that years of escalating deficit spending during the Bush White House hurt the party. The party, he said, needs to rebuild its reputation for responsible spending and reducing regulation. As to why neither of these happened under Bush, Norquist said the president was too distracted by Iraq to get things done. "Bush tried to be mayor of Baghdad as well as president of the United States... Every briefing on the number of police (officers) in Baghdad was a moment that he wasn’t president of the United States.’’

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