Just a couple of months ago, as the Abramoff scandal was picking up steam and lawmakers were anxious to recast themselves as champions of reform, the Republicans’ “[tag]K Street Project[/tag]” was seen as Exhibit A in the culture of corruption.
John Boener campaigned to be House Majority Leader on an anti-K Street Project platform, telling his colleagues, “If I am elected majority leader, there will no longer be a K Street Project, or anything else like it.” Rick [tag]Santorum[/tag], who helped lead the project, was so embarrassed by the initiative that he went into complete denial, telling reporters, “I had absolutely nothing to do — never met, never talked, never coordinated, never did anything — with Grover Norquist and the – quote — K Street Project.” It was untrue, of course, but helped highlight just how radioactive the Project had become.
It also helps explain why this is completely hilarious.
Conservative activist [tag]Grover Norquist[/tag] is seeking a trademark on “K Street Project,” saying Democrats and Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) have wrongfully acquired the term to describe unethical practices that have nothing to do with his organization.
Far from running away from the term, as most other Republicans have since January, when lobbyist Jack Abramoff agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges, [tag]Norquist[/tag] is embracing it.
As Norquist told The Hill, “Some people say Kleenex when they mean tissue. We will jealously guard the real phrasing the way Kleenex and Coca-Cola do. We will sue anyone who says it wrong and make lots of money.”
Which part of this is the most ridiculous is entirely up to you. Josh seems to think it’s the obvious contradiction between this trademark effort and Norquist’s “unbridled libertarianism,” while I’m still stuck on Norquist’s desire to embrace a notoriously corrupt employment scheme and file “junk lawsuits” over it. Either way, Norquist is beyond parody.