{"id":6506,"date":"2006-02-01T15:52:04","date_gmt":"2006-02-01T20:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6506"},"modified":"2006-02-01T15:52:04","modified_gmt":"2006-02-01T20:52:04","slug":"stop-the-presses-norquist-is-saying-something-sensible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/stop-the-presses-norquist-is-saying-something-sensible\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop the presses, Norquist is saying something sensible"},"content":{"rendered":"

When conservative scholars<\/a> denounce the president’s warrantless-search program, that’s one thing. When conservative lawmakers<\/a> raise serious doubts about the surveillance, that’s something else.<\/p>\n

But when Grover Norquist, perhaps the most powerful conservative activist in DC, takes an aggressive, principled stand<\/a> against Bush’s domestic spying, it should raise eyebrows throughout the political word. (via TP<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, says he knows some fellow conservatives have labeled him a traitor for condemning the same administration that instituted the biggest tax cuts in recent American history — cuts for which Norquist vigorously lobbied. But an even greater disloyalty, Norquist responds, would be to allow what he regards as the trampling on civil liberties to go unimpeded.<\/p>\n

“The president’s friends are exactly who you want telling him this,” said Norquist. “No one else has the credibility. We are being team players by telling him, not by keeping quiet.”<\/p>\n

Norquist said one of his main concerns is that, once the government becomes so intrusive, there is no way to prevent continued erosion of individual rights.<\/p>\n

“Even if you believed an angel was making these decisions, and that’s not what I’m saying, at some point the person in the White House will change,” he said. “Hillary Clinton might be making these decisions.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I literally had no idea Norquist was capable of such consistent thinking.<\/p>\n

In case there was any doubt, I take a backseat to no one in rejecting Norquist’s vile smears. We’re talking about a guy who believes the Estate Tax is morally equivalent to the Nazi Holocaust<\/a>, calls WWII veterans “anti-American<\/a>,” and believes “bipartisanship is another name for date rape<\/a>.” But on the NSA controversy, Norquist is spot-on.<\/p>\n

What do you know; a broken clock really is right twice a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When conservative scholars denounce the president’s warrantless-search program, that’s one thing. When conservative lawmakers raise serious doubts about the surveillance, that’s something else. But when Grover Norquist, perhaps the most powerful conservative activist in DC, takes an aggressive, principled stand against Bush’s domestic spying, it should raise eyebrows throughout the political word. (via TP) Norquist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}