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DEL.ICIO.USA back story on the GOP debate and taxes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the unremarked elements of this week’s Republican presidential debate was the subject of taxes.
The YouTube questioner was Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, who is famous for two things: 1) Insisting that GOP candidates sign his group’s pledge not to raise taxes; and 2) getting tangled up in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Americans for Tax Reform served as a pass-through for Indian tribe money that Abramoff — then Washington’s most influential lobbyist — funneled to anti-gambling campaigns, most notably conducted by Ralph Reed. The object was to defeat competing gambling interests.
Norquist’s question was this: “Would you promise to the people watching this right
now, that you will oppose and veto any efforts to raise taxes as long
as you’re president?”
Signing the ATR pledge wasn’t mentioned, but the Republican candidates understood what wasn’t being said. Tancredo said sure — and thanked Norquist as if the question weren’t recorded. Mike Huckabee said he’d already signed the pledge. Mitt Romney said he was the first to do so. Rudy Giuliani said he was open to it.
Then came Fred Thompson. “Never met a tax I liked. I’ve got a tax-cut
bill on the table,” Thompson said. “But I don’t do pledges to anybody but the American people.” He got some applause for his answer.
Thompson was followed by John McCain. “I’m like Fred. My pledge and my
record is up to the American people, not up to any other organization,” he said. There was no mention of the fact that McCain’s Indian Affairs committee uncovered much of the Abramoff scandal, and Norquist’s involvement.
Suffice it to say that McCain and Norquist are not close friends.
Duncan Hunter was the final candidate to weigh in. “I think it
would be wrong to say, ‘Absolutely, I would pledge to Grover Norquist
that I would never raise taxes.’ Could have a national emergency,” Hunter said.
The final score for Norquist was four to three. He still has influence, but that clout is not as absolute as it once was.
Comments
By aks is dumb
November 30, 2007 10:51 AM | Link to this
is this a Ralph Reed blog?
By Will Jones
November 30, 2007 1:43 PM | Link to this
Wake up America. Babylon is risen. Norquist, apparently a recent convert to Islam, and his Roman Catholic pals Richard Viguerie and Paul Weyrich make up the “Christian” right-wing, “conservative,” “braintrust” of the Republican Party. It is not a coincidence that under their guidance Hitler’s banker’s closet-queen, draft-dodging grandson has been cheated in Our White House by the Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court, or that pervert Bush has no compunction about walking hand-in-hand with a sodomite Saudi “prince.”
By lane filler
November 30, 2007 4:26 PM | Link to this
Anyone interested in what Huckabee is really like face to face should try this funny (but it actually happened) column: http://goupstate.us/index.php/lanefiller/2007/11/02/title_14
By ATR Alum from Georgia
November 30, 2007 10:28 PM | Link to this
Grover still wields great influence. President Bush didn’t sign the pledge in 2000, but like all the other candidates in the debate, he said he wouldn’t raise taxes.
By Allen Wilson
December 1, 2007 2:38 AM | Link to this
Though McCain is willing to put the American people into debt for 17 generations by funding a civil war in Iraq, at least he’s got the dignity to oppose something that’s Republican on the surface level- tax breaks. Mass communications is key here.
By Allen Wilson
December 1, 2007 2:43 AM | Link to this
Though McCain is willing to put the American people into debt for 17 generations by funding a civil war in Iraq, at least he’s got the dignity to oppose something that’s Republican on the surface level- tax breaks. Mass communications is key here.
By All Libs are Whining Babies
December 1, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this
Allen Wilson (aka “Mr. Wilson):
McCain should have let the muslanimals come over here and take you.
You typify the greedy takers in society who don’t want any money spent on self-defense. Rather, you want it spent on social programs directed mainly to you. If you’d like to live in Iran, you can probably get a flight there tonight. Or France if you’re a little timid.
Libs seldom even acknowledge that we haven’t had a second successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. When they do acknowledge it, most act as though they don’t like it.
By Will Jones
December 1, 2007 2:43 PM | Link to this
9/11 was done by Bush and Cheney. If you need the inarguable proof before you’re willing to believe the indisputable truth read “The New Pearl Harbor” by PhD David Ray Griffin. Until then you’re just a fascists’ tool or an evil con-artist like the traitors who killed John Kennedy and fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin Hoax to send us to die for their lies (RC CIA/Nixon/Bush41). McCain knows better but he’s a Mobbed-up Roman Catholic (who threw his jet away over NVN) serving the Anti-Christ, of which America’s Founder warned us.
By Wackolibhack
December 1, 2007 3:52 PM | Link to this
It is Bush’s fault that Will Jones is the only one who knows the truth.
By Chris Stevens
December 1, 2007 6:49 PM | Link to this
Most Startling Admission in the CNN YouTube Presidential Debates
30 seconds says it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mALpnSTGAQs
By Unaffiliated Voter
December 3, 2007 7:34 AM | Link to this
Are we to assume that Ron Paul DOES favor, and cosponsors the FAIRTAX proposal?
www.Fairtax.org