Did Grover Norquist blow it a little bit yesterday when he played the “what the meaning of `is’ is” game with his famous No New Tax Edict, which he wields over Republcians faithful like a scythe? Plain as a guillotine, the edict requires all Republican candiates to forswear raising taxes while in office. First, he told the writers and editors of The Washington Post that “not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase. ” So lawmakers who allow the Bush tax cuts to expire wouldn’t be violating the pledge? “We wouldn’t hold it that way,” he said. You can imagine that Norquist must have received a bunch of calls his masters who pay his bills saying “Yo Grover, WTF?”, because Norquist was undertaking a full media press to make it clear that his organization does oppose all tax increases, and that “any failure to extend or make permanent the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, in whole or in part, would clearly increase taxes on the American people.” In other words, I am once again the Great and Glorious Oz, and you should pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. It probably won’t make much difference. I suspect John Boehner and some of the other old-school Republican dealmakers would like to be rid of Norquist, but the Tea Party zealots drink this anti-tax Kool Aid every day for breakfast, and the Norquist shuffle won’t matter to them. But now we know more clearly than ever: Norquist is just a guy with a gimmick, and the rest he makes up as he goes along.
