Why The "Norquist Rebellion" Delights The Media

It's unusual, one would think, for the head of a financial advocacy group to get so much negative press, especially when their stated purpose is simply to limit the growth of taxation - one of the key issues that ignited the American Revolution, and eventually changed world history.  But with the media now shedding their sheep's clothing and baring their teeth as guardians of the Democratic agenda, a man named Grover Norquist has become infamous for daring to stand up for this nation's founding principles:

Listening to Democrats and the media, you could be forgiven for thinking the point of a deal over the looming “fiscal cliff” wouldn’t be to reduce the deficit so much as to reduce the influence of one man — Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.

Known to one and all simply as Grover, he is the keeper of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge signed by almost all Republicans committing themselves not to raise taxes. For this offense, Grover is deemed the enemy of all that is right and just.

[Meet Grover Norquist, "...the lobbyist whose Svengali-like control over the GOP has forbidden them to end the Bush tax cuts for the rich, creating unpresedented gridlock and putting them in a very “uncompromising position” negotiating the fiscal cliff."]

...everyone acts as if Grover is the instrument of the party’s Babylonian captivity. If only the dastardly Norquist didn’t make Republicans say they won’t raise taxes — and put it in writing — the party could fulfill its role in the “good governing” of Washington, namely joining Democrats to raise taxes.

...whenever a Republican says he won’t abide by Grover’s pledge, the media act like a choir of angels celebrating another saved soul.


True, that.  The most popular article on the Washington Post op-ed page this morning?

Breaking Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge:

Maybe the fever is breaking. Maybe the delirium is lifting. Maybe Republicans are finally asking themselves: What were we thinking when we put an absurdly unrealistic pledge to a Washington lobbyist ahead of our duty to the American people...


Of course, when the Democrats hold fast to an ideological position, it is called "principal". When Republicans do the same, it is absurd, unrealistic, loopy, selfish, intransigent...

But why the media pile-on here? Why is the media so forcefully pushing the meme that the Republican position is bonkers, that the anti-tax pledge is falling apart, that the needs of the nation and the call of bipartisanship compels them to abandon their principles once and for all?

Right here:

Speaking from the the Senate floor, McConnell said Republicans have made a concession in the talks on taxes but that Democrats have so far refused to produce real spending cuts to match.


The Democrats want to turn Obama's re-election momentum into a complete repudiation of conservative principles while entrenching theirs - an ever-expanding government and welfare state - as sacrosanct and untouchable.

The left refuse to move one inch towards the middle.  But we can't have them blamed if the nation falls off the fiscal cliff into Recession: The Sequel.  So the ever-helpful media has found their scapegoat, and of course, he's an economic conservative.  Portray the Republicans as slaves to Grover Norquist and his idealistic fervor, and we thus have a financial version of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.  A position which, ironically, would be better suited to the likes of Jon Corzine.  But that's not gonna happen....

So when you hear the Norquist named tossed about in derision, remember the media is playing you with the long con.  But they're just lesser partners to the Democratic party - whores to the pimp, the carnival barker luring you to the crooked game, the lucky "winner" designed to attract your attention to a urban 3-Card Monte table...

Somebody ought to call them out.  But our "leaders" are too busy trying to dance to the media's tune, whle distancing themselves from truths they once held dear...