“Rat heads in a Coke bottle”
Anti-tax advocate gives award to state legislator | LJWorld.com:
Grover Norquist, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform, came to the Statehouse to give state Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R‑Fowler, an award for opposing tax increases.
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“Republicans who vote for tax increases are rat heads in a Coke bottle. They damage the brand. They don’t just hurt themselves,” Norquist said.
Lovely.
I’ll await the Republican versions of the DLC to condemn this remark, followed by angry condemnations from the party faithful, followed by weeks of soul-searching by the more intellectual Republicans.
That, of course, is a parody of the reaction on DailyKos and TPMCafe to the DLC’s simultaneous offer of a cease-fire and attack on the left.
How is it that the Democrats persist in having big, noisy and petty fights over who represents the party, when raving lunatics (and lunatic Roves) have free reign in the Republican Party.
As the Nation summarizes:
Norquist gained notoriety as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s right hand in the mid-1990s–helping to design the 1994 Contract With America and rallying the right’s grassroots to go to the polls that year, a drive he chronicled in his book Rock the House. When Newt crashed and burned, Norquist survived to become an ally of Gingrich successors, including Tom DeLay, the House majority whip, and Dick Armey, the majority leader. And since late 1998 Norquist has been George W. Bush’s unofficial liaison to so-called movement conservatives.
He also said that his goal was to shrink the government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” He also compared the estate tax to the Holocaust.
Now, I appreciate the principle of opposing unnecessary tax cuts. But declaring that no tax cut is ever necessary, and that supporting any tax cut makes someone into “rat head in a Coke bottle” is just absurd. Where is the outrage?