Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by Tim F| 103 Comments
This post is in: Teabagger Stupidity, The Wingularity
Even the architect of the GOP’s absolute no-tax-revenues-ever, drown-the-government-in-a-bathtub cultist doctrine has started to sweat. That makes me a little more nervous than I was an hour ago.
***Update***
Norquist denies it. That makes me feel a little better. Or worse.
Comments are closed.
[…] that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would not violate that pledge. Then the Tea Party crazies raised the roof, and Norquist recanted (via No More Mister Nice […]
fasteddie9318
This is the head rat deserting the nearly sunken ship, I guess.
eemom
good. Let the pig sweat. Better yet, let him spontaneously combust and die in his own fucking fire.
dpcap
What happened to Robespierre after his precious revolution turned on him?
joes527
He is walking it back.
Grover Fucking Norquist. Cowed by the teatards.
We. Are. Doomed.
PreservedKillick
You just know what these sub-geniuses are going to say after the fact, don’t you?
I mean, it’s what everyone said after doing something colossally stupid as a kid.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
chopper
wow, shades of H.W.Bush. didn’t he try to define ending a tax cut as not violating his ‘read my lips’ pledge?
NonyNony
I was looking for a contradiction from Shit-For-Brains on an earlier topic, but thanks to Steve M. I don’t need to look for myself.
During last year’s budget battle, Norquist said letting those tax cuts lapse was the same as a tax increase. Now he says it isn’t.
Lying little Shit-For-Brains has suddenly realized that the monster he’s created is about ready to strangle him and he’s trying to figure out a way to stop it. Good luck with that Shit-For-Brains – I just wish you going down didn’t mean the rest of us were going down too or I’d just snap a few photos as your monster chased you down next.
Yevgraf
When Grover settles down from long weeks of ducking libertarian rape gangs and is roasting the half a dead rat that he had to fight a starving 9 year old girl for over a guttering fire made of useless stock certificates and EE bonds, he can think about how much more free he is…
Mark S.
Shouldn’t it make you less nervous? Also, too, when the hell did Grover become this powerful?
Did I miss where Grover was elected Teabag Tribune of the Republic? From the article, it sounds like goopers are more afraid of him than they used to be of Limbaugh.
Martin
Oh for fucks sake, these pigfuckers take the Americans for Tax Reform pledge about a zillion times more seriously than their Oath to Congress. Where’s the fucking loopholes in this:
Your unwavering commitment to the he-man-woman-haters-club is an indication that you do not take the federal oath freely or without purpose of evasion. You morons are putting your oath to Grover ahead of your oath to Congress.
NonyNony
@joe527
Naw, that’s Norquist walking it back because his brand is in danger. The Shit-For-Brains brand is all about simple – tax cuts good, tax increases bad. Now he’s trying to find a way to get his pet Republicans off the hook he created without destroying his brand.
He’s trying to sell a subtle idea with a brand that is as subtle as a jackhammer on a Sunday morning. He’s going to be walking back and forth on this one for a while.
dmsilev
I think you mean “let him drown in his own bathtub”.
AWL
You know all those movies where the main villain starts to realize that his side might be going a bit too far and tries to reel things in? Chances are very likely that the teaparty will ignore Grover and turn on him.
They even have their own perfect loophole for this since he married a Muslim woman!
...now I try to be amused
“When I say there is no cannibalism in the British Navy, I mean there is a small amount.” — Monty Python
Brandon
If default does occur, Grover is toast. He’s trying to carefully thread the needle here for the eventual blame game that’s coming.
eemom
Interestingly, that is exactly what Lady Jane used to try to sell her cultbots on the deal when she got in the sack with the sack of shit.
...now I try to be amused
Is Grover afraid that he will be exposed as the most powerful person in Washington, or what?
Yevgraf
Grover is acting like the three star in the Turner Diaries that initially helps the racists then gets cold feet.
chopper
@8:
i’ll be walking down the street and see grover squatting, roasting a pigeon on a curtain rod, and offer to buy him an ice cream cone. but before i hand it to him i’ll say ‘tax!’ and eat 80% of it and watch him curl up, crying and shivering, into a fetal position.
Chris
Ironically, the success of conservatism depends on its principles never actually being followed.
Kind of like the way the thriving black market economy in Cuba helps the “legitimate,” state-run economy by filling in its gaps, or the way government bailouts and support every time there’s a crisis allow free markets to keep claiming that they work just fine.
EdTheRed
Heh – looks like Grover is nothing but a RINO. Looks like someone else just made Erik Son of Erik’s Enemies List.
General Stuck
This is all very intriguing, but when do the Chariot Races start?
Yevgraf
@dmsilev
Sad that there’s nobody around to play Charlotte Corday to Norquist’s Marat…
Redshirt
I know who he is, but really, who the hell is Grover Norquist? How does he have the influence he does? Who’s backing him? Cock Industries?
Mattminus
@PreservedKillick-
These folks are most assuredly not SubGenii, you fucking pink.
fasteddie9318
An apt analogy, considering that once the shit really hits the fan, the teabagger movement is a lead-pipe cinch to devolve into the same back-biting, scheming, No True Scotsman-esque mess that the Convention/Committee did. If they weren’t going to take all the rest of us down with them, it would be quite popcorn-worthy.
Rommie
I have a bad feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more “Hoocoodanode!” mewling.
Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly with his empty pockets and “What Happened” look wasn’t supposed to be an icon, you dimwits!
Mark S.
@Redshirt:
I know, right? A year ago he was just another right wing talking head blowhard; now he’s the most powerful man in Washington?
NonyNony
@Mark S.
This is not true – Norquist has been a power-player in DC for a long time. His “Americans for Tax Reform” were around in the Clinton days and he was part of Gingrich’s Contract On America bullshit.
He’s been building up his cred for a long time. At one point Shit-For-Brains was the head of the national College Republicans organization. He’s a DC Weasel of the highest order – well connected, deeply entrenched, lots of different fundraising tentacles and a willingness to throw money around to candidates he likes.
He is also an amoral monster to the extreme. And he has Shit For Brains.
ETA: Checked his Wikipedia page – according to it he started Americans for Tax Reform in ’85 “at the request of Ronald Reagan”. Possibly bullshit – it’s a quote from ATR’s webpage – but it’s plausible.
GregB
I am going to assume that the next step in the tea-bagger evolution will be to form armed militias to enforce their will.
jwb
PreservedKillik: No, the answer won’t be whocoodanode for a change. They skip straight to blame Obama and (probably) impeach him.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@General Stuck:
August 4, of course, to celebrate the Hawaiian birthday of the Kenyan Islamofascist Usurper in Chief.
Han's Big Snark Solo
I doubt Grover is nearly as powerful as people make him out to be. I don’t know this for a fact, but I’d bet most of the Teabaggers have never even heard of him.
If he said the pledge was no longer functional due to current fiscal realities does anyone really think it would convince the teabaggers to take their medication and chill the fuck out? I don’t.
Grover is only getting the attention he is now because the utter stupidity of outlawing all “revenue increases” is being demonstrated by the teabaggers in the House. But teabagger stupidity is not Grover’s fault, teabagger stupidity exists regardless of Grover, not because of it.
If anything Grover is a fall guy. He’s a patsy. The real problem has far more to do with the Mighty Wingnut Wurlitzer (aka conservative media.)
I don’t mean to be defending Grover. If he were to slip in traffic and get run over by a 18 wheeler carrying pig feces I would dance a jig. But let’s keep our heads in the game and place blame where it belongs.
Joel
It’s too bad Abrahamoff couldn’t have taken Nordquist down with him. I’m sure he’d have loved to.
Trurl
16 comments before a Hamsher bash? You guys are slipping.
Anyway, fear not. I have every confidence that Obama will find a way to persuade the Republicans into letting him cut Social Security.
In his memoir, he’ll say it was an accomplishment worth losing his re-election bid for.
jwb
General Stuck: Hey, don’t knock the circuses. At this point it’s the only thing standing between us and Armageddon.
Comrade Javamanphil
I used to believe the money boys would stop the default when they realized how screwed they would be in case of a default. Then I remembered these were the same geniuses that thought bundling mortgages of sub-prime borrowers eliminated all the risk from the investment. We’re doomed.
celticdragonchick
You win the thread.
jwb
Trurl: Who’s slipping? It took you 35 posts to weigh in. I guess you were too busy getting your new talking points from Grover.
Lydgate
@33
Teabaggers are only powerful when their interests coincide with our oligarchs. Most of the time they do.
Norquist’s interests always do.
Norquist is more powerful
White Trash Liberal
Grover’s career includes advising the Nicaraguan government during Iran Contra, heading the US Chamber of Commerce and the College Republicans. He is a wealthy heir to his daddy’s Polaroid money. Smart money says he’s a dirty cold war spook grown in the Nixon hothouse.
Poopyman
@GregB:
That’s snark, surely. The militias have been around for quite some time. I do wonder, though, how they get mobilized, and who pulls the trigger, metaphorically speaking.
becca
@30- GregB
The Hoveraround Brigade? The Viagra Vigilantes?
Chyron HR
@Trurl:
35 comments before an Obama bash? You are slipping. Usually when someone dares to critcize one of your Republican Messiahs, you’re here in the first ten posts desperately trying to change the subject.
NonyNony
@Han’s Big Snark Solo
You’re neglecting how much Norquist and his cronies have worked hard to create the exact situation we’re in right now.
Norquist has been working for 25 years (at least) to drown the government in the bathtub. He’s worked to push the idea that any tax increase is harmful and dangerous no matter what. He’s spread money around to insane candidates who have pledged to never attempt to raise taxes ever no matter what.
Is he the only power broker in DC – hell no. But he’s one of them. And he has to bear some of the blame for the climate he’s helped to create in DC with his blood oaths and his insane economic ideas.
The Schadenfreude that you’re sensing in this thread is at least partially because Norquist is as close as he’s ever been to realizing his stated dream of “drowning the government in the bathtub” and now he’s blinking. Suddenly the idea of destroying the US government’s ability to function doesn’t sound so good.
And yet Shit-For-Brains will not reflect on this. And, once the immediate crisis passes and his pocketbook is okay again, he’ll immediately go back to pushing to drown the government in the bathtub and cutting taxes no matter what. Because where normal people have brains, Norquist has shit.
gex
The asterisk is that this holds for Republicans only. Democrats who let cuts expire or don’t pass cuts will still be accused of raising taxes in campaign ads.
celticdragonchick
That will depend a great deal on what happens in 2012. If Obama wins and /or the GOP has losses in the House (very possible), the assumption with these folks runs toward “bullets over ballots”. If they don’t get their way, they assume the election was stolen and they are ipso facto justified in formenting armed revolution. There has been an awful lot of talk about this already.
celticdragonchick
That will depend a great deal on what happens in 2012. If Obama wins and /or the GOP has losses in the House (very possible), the assumption with these folks runs toward “bullets over ballots”. If they don’t get their way, they assume the election was stolen and they are ipso facto justified in formenting armed revolution. There has been an awful lot of talk about this already.
celticdragonchick
That will depend a great deal on what happens in 2012. If Obama wins and /or the GOP has losses in the House (very possible), the assumption with these folks runs toward “bullets over ballots”. If they don’t get their way, they assume the election was stolen and they are ipso facto justified in formenting armed revolution. There has been an awful lot of talk about this already.
celticdragonchick
That will depend a great deal on what happens in 2012. If Obama wins and /or the GOP has losses in the House (very possible), the assumption with these folks runs toward “bullets over ballots”. If they don’t get their way, they assume the election was stolen and they are ipso facto justified in formenting armed revolution. There has been an awful lot of talk about this already.
celticdragonchick
That will depend a great deal on what happens in 2012. If Obama wins and /or the GOP has losses in the House (very possible), the assumption with these folks runs toward “bullets over ballots”. If they don’t get their way, they assume the election was stolen and they are ipso facto justified in formenting armed revolution. There has been an awful lot of talk about this already.
celticdragonchick
What happened with my post?
Yevgraf
Focused like a laser on jobs, they are.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/20/house_panel_votes_to_defund_the_oas
As usual, the second generation descendants of cold war Cuban emigres, believing that they will get their beaches and estates back after some magic wand is waved, are leading the charge.
Stupid as this bit was, there was some comic relief.
stuckinred
OOOOOO boogie boogie we’re doomed, we’re doomed. What a crock of bullshit.
pragmatism
you know grover, you could use a bigger bathtub if you can’t shrink gov’t enough.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@celticdragonchick:
It seems to have engaged in spontaneous cloning.
Mark S.
@celticdragonchick: @celticdragonchick: @celticdragonchick: @celticdragonchick: @celticdragonchick:
We get the point already!
(just kidding)
Mark S.
Stupid joke tripped the spam filter.
Han's Big Snark Solo
@NonyNony: Every word you write is true. I’m not denying it at all.
That said, all of Shit-For-Brains pledges and insane policies wouldn’t be worth much without Conservative Media pushing them.
Put another way, if Fox News and a large majority of Hate Radio hosts were to start pushing a meme along the lines of, “Grover Norquist and his pledges can suck it,” how long do you think it would take for wingnuts to start abandoning Shit-For-Brains?
Now a good case can be made that Grover influences conservative media, but I doubt his influence is one one-millionth that of Roger Ailes.
stuckinred
celticdragonchick
Come on dawg, ease up on that shit. The fucking armed loonies are always here.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@stuckinred: Please (strongly) encourage mrs. stuckinred to rest her ankle. When I blew mine out 18 years ago, I actually had good advice from a dancer who told me that he didn’t rest his sprain long enough and was still paying for it 15 years later. Would that I’d listened to him. It’s still weaker and bothers me in “weather” all these years later.
I completely understand the temptation to do too much too soon. I hope mrs. stuckinred can resist it better than I could. Perhaps the heat will assist with that.
celticdragonchick
Replicants are a pain in the ass…especially when they shoot you after failing a Voight-Kampff test.
Nemesis
Yevgraf
21st century Shakespeare, right there my friend.
Nemesis
Yevgraf
21st century Shakespeare, right there my friend.
jwest
Yes, I know this is off topic, but here’s the debate on climate science at the National Press Club a few days ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma6cnPLcrtA&feature=player_embedded
Lots of good stuff.
kay
It’s absolutely chilling how easily and naturally rank and file conservatives and media accept these unelected, unaccountable “movement leaders” handing down directives.
Who elected Grover Norquist, to anything? You’d think there would be a not-insignificant portion of Republican voters who would finally, finally question the whole premise of full-time pundits and think-tankers speaking on behalf of elected Republicans in Congress or the White House.
Grover Norquist gets all of the power associated with elective office without paying the price of admission, which is getting elected.
celticdragonchick
I remember the talk about armed uprising in the 90’s under Clinton. There was discussion of it in the military. Then we had the Oklahoma City bombing. If anything, it is even worse now, with people showing up at political events with rifles and more “free men” shooting at the police again while a 24 hour a day propaganda network eggs them on. So yeah, I think we have a real chance of bloodshed as we approach 2012. My only wonder is that we have (mostly)avoided it so far.
stuckinred
a hip hop artist from Idaho
Ha! Thanks, I am encouraging her to do so. Her foot and calf is discolored so I think she realizes it’s serious. On the other hand, she is an autonomous female unit and I have a limited to impact her behavior. She did quit smoking but after I stopped riding her.
celticdragonchick
That doesn’t sound very good at all. She needs to stay off it and see the doc.
stuckinred
celticdragonchick
Motherfuckers were shooting each other when I was in. There were significant race riots in the Nam as well as stateside. Sure it’s possible but goddamn, are you going to spend your life worrying about shit like that?
kay
Hysterical. Laugh out loud crazy. Like his pledge is a statute someone or other is violating.
Hey Grover. You invented the fake-law. You don’t have any real authority, except through the drone-like, terrified conservative elected leaders who faithfully administer your fake-law.
Conservatives should worry less about Sharia law and more about these wacko pledges grifters like Grover enforce. Didn’t conservatives take some other, broader oath when taking office? I wonder which one trumps. Maybe Grover knows. They better ask him.
Poopyman
@celticdragonchick:
OK! OK! I get it!
Seriously, a quintuple post with a half twist. Nicely done!
@Stuck:
This seems different, plus I’m just as concerned about the evangelical wing of the USAF, HQed at the academy.
dpcap
Seems like he’s pulling a Gingrich now.
(Or Senator “not intended to be a factual statement” Kyl)
Poopyman
@kay:
Grover controls a lot of money, and he’s made it clear that if these guys don’t toe the line, HIS line, he’ll spend it on a primary candidate who will. That’s all the “authority” he needs in our electoral/financial system. And the USSC will back him on that.
stuckinred
Poopyman
Ok, I give up. They are coming to get you.
gex
@70 and don’t for get Blackwater/Xe…
NonyNony
@kay
His authority comes from money – money to give to their re-election campaigns or to withhold from them. Money to pour into third-party “issue ads” in their favor or in favor of a primary opponent who’s willing to bow in fealty to Lord Shit-For-Brains and make the proper sacrifices at his altar shaped like a bathtub.
And they’re all afraid of the lessons of H.W. Bush – raise taxes as a responsible adult and get crucified for it by your own party AND your Democratic opposition. So it’s not like they’re not already pre-disposed to liking the sermon that Shit-For-Brains preaches.
celticdragonchick
I am merely observing.
celticdragonchick
I am merely observing.
Poopyman
They’re probably going to have to wait in line, since I doubt they’ll be first.
celticdragonchick
I give up. The comment cloning is getting annoying.
stuckinred
celticdragonchick
drive on
kay
Well, sure, but I would hope an individual elected conservative would at least meekly protest, or lodge an objection, or file an appeal to the Pledge in the Court of Norquist.
Something. Anything. If they don’t, they’re ceding every bit of actual and perceived authority to someone who was not actually elected. I think the “elected” part is important.
Ronbo
General Stuck is a Republican right? Why just keep moving further to the right? Nixon, in retrospect, was a super-duper liberal?
We’ve got to get smarter people on here. They need to know that the remote control has an IQ of 25. You are truly General Stuck.
Poopyman
Well sure, I do too. But that’s what we think should happen, and then there’s their observed behavior. It could be that the crisis will modify their behavior, but there’s no indication. There’s never been an indication.
Origuy
@stuckinred
The Lysistrata solution, eh?
I’ve had bad sprains on both ankles. RICE is key; after the swelling goes done, start CAREFUL physical therapy. Sprains take a long time to heal.
kay
Grover Norquist, noted libertarian genius, should be asked about this every time he appears in public:
“This is somewhere in between Baghdad and fixing the flood in Louisiana,” Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said, comparing the GM decision to major stumbles by former President George W. Bush. Obama “has decided to take this over. He now owns it.”
He made this pronouncement, and all the elected clowns on the Right parroted him.
gene108
I’m waiting for the Republican coalition to really start pulling for changes to the Constitution, so they can more easily implement their agenda.
The anti-tax-on-rich-people zealots repealing the 16th Amendment.
I think the states rights folks would probably take a swing at repealing the 14th and 15th Amendments.
And the business community may want to amend the 13th Amendment to allow bonded labor.
liberal
@84 Ronbo hoped wisfully,
O-bots are driving most sane people away. Bad drives out the good.
Poopyman
On topic, more or less, but I’m just reminded that today is the 150th anniversary of the first Battle of Bull Run.
NonyNony
@kay
Ah, but see kay – I’ve been informed by conservatives that Shit-For-Brains is STILL correct about this and that GM should have been allowed to fail. Since it wasn’t, eventually down the road it’s going to fail anyway and then everyone will see that conservatives were right and it should have been allowed to fail instead of propping it up.
Conservative economic ideas cannot fail – they can only be failed.
liberal
@68 stuckinred wrote,
Heh.
LGRooney
Grover just got seriously pantsed by his overlords. Now we all better be fucking afraid because bullies who are the lackies of bigger bullies always dole out twice as much as they get to be sure they don’t lose their privileges and to prove to their masters that they know the score.
Grover just had what’s left of his nutsack squeezed and now he is going to turn the screws on these negotiations so the GOP does not compromise in the least. His masters have already moved their assets to security abroad and they no longer give a flying fuck what happens here except desiring a place to return to should they need it.
liberal
@33 Han’s Big Snark Solo wrote,
Someone doesn’t necessarily need to be widely known to be powerful. (Not that I know that GN in particular is essential to the Right.)
Chris
That only happens when they’ve lost any hope of controlling the political system. They’re not there yet – 2010 was good for them and they’re hoping for more victories in 2012.
On the other hand, if they do eventually end up consigned to permanent-minority status like we hope they do, expect exactly that.
bill
Grover Norquist, closet queen? Money.
rollSound
Cermet
Just remember reconstruction and what happened to Blacks the last time the whites in power lost that power – this time, it will be liberals, Brown, Black, Asian, and anyone who does not look, talk and act WASP who will be attacked on all levels but especially economic – that, at least, has started – wallstreet is sucking the middleclass dry as thugs try and turn any white against everyone else but the elite. Time is against them as is peak oil – so the desperate get desperate to control all the wealth.
Tony J
Chris,
When I browse through the posts at the Wingnut-friendly offshoot of the main S. M. Stirling Yahoo site I see exactly that.
They ‘know’ they’re going to win big in 2012. Just like they ‘know’ Liberals are the real racists, and they ‘know’ most Americans support the Teabaggers because they value the purity of their precious bodily fluids. They ‘know’ Governors like Christie and Walker are hugely popular because of their righteous war on Union Thugs and they ‘know’ any polls that say otherwise are faked up by the Liberal Media.
They also ‘know’ that any Liberal efforts to spark a race war by stealing electoral victory from the decent, white, Christian majority will be met by justified armed resistance, and they ‘know’ that the military will support them, because they ‘know’ that most soldiers are rockhard Republican patriots just itching to overthrow the Islamo-Kenyan Marxist usurper and put a leader they can respect in his place.
They ‘know’ a lot of things. But the main thing they ‘know’ is that they really, really want official licence to hunt Liberals through the streets.
Charming folks, I’m sure you’ll agree.
catclub
Cermet @ 97 “anyone who does not look, talk and act WASP who will be attacked on all levels”
This reminds me of the Crusades, in which the one of the first groups attacked by the Crusaders were dusky skinned Christians in Constantinople.
Thomas Sowell would not survive it if it comes as you describe, also Bobby Jindal.
Ruckus
eemom
Better yet, let him spontaneously combust and die in his own fucking fire
Sure wouldn’t want to waste any good urine on that fire.
HyperIon
Joel @43 (damn you, absent reply thingy) wrote:
I don’t understand why Nordquist wasn’t charged with money laundering in the Abrahamoff affair. He was the middle man in the transfers.