Friday, January 27, 2006

Strange bedfellows

Along with all the Democrats who object to the president's warrantless wiretaps, you will find Grover Norquist, Mr. Rich-Americans-Should-Never-Pay-Any-Tax, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, the "managing director of the hard core right" (as the Nation magazine called him). In fact, Mr. Norquist has teamed up with Larry Diamond, a Democrat from the Hoover Institution (isn't that an oxymoron?), who is also a solid supporter of the war on terror (whatever that is), to object to what they both see as a major violation of American civil liberties.

Mr. Norquist's point is that only the president's supporters have the credibility to challenge him when he goes off the rails on civil liberties (or, presumably, anything else). I'm afraid he's correct; the president and his advisers simply don't listen to anybody outside the charmed circle, which has bothered me about them from day one and it gets worse as the world outside diverges farther and farther from the reality they seem to accept. So on this subject only, I'll wish Mr. Norquist good luck. We need all the help we can get.

This was all written up yesterday by a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer (for all my complaints about that newspaper, an amazing amount of good investigative reporting gets printed there); the full article is very interesting and I recommend it.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:25 PM

    I get to go first this time...

    This is an excellent article. Thanks for the link.

    David

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  2. I'll second that--thanks for the link. I saw rumblings of this a few days ago, but it was so hard for me to believe that Grover Norquist would place any value above "drowning the government", that I waited until it had been repeated several times to issue a quiet "Yay!".

    A few days ago I ran across the "dead kitten" survey. I guess we've finally found the limits of GWB's cheering section.

    http://www.xoverboard.com/deadkittensurvey/

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  3. Anonymous6:13 PM

    starstuff,

    Serious thanks for the dead kitten survey link. What a great question.

    I even went to the thing about the CYRs "Finish the Job" rally. I sent an e-mail to Frist asking him if he was going to urge CYRs to enlist. I kept the tone as respectful as possible. I was serious. I did not intend it as a joke.

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  4. I had to read it twice myself, starstuff. We should not need support from "the other side" to vindicate opinions that we know are right! On the other hand, when we find ourselves in agreement with the likes of Grover Norquist on a civil liberties question, we know we have a serious problem.

    I, too, enjoyed the dead kitten survey. I missed the CYR stuff - what are CYRs??

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  5. Anonymous7:50 AM

    hedera,

    College Young Republicans. It was the item regarding Frist addressing the CYR "Finish the Job" rally in support of the occupation of Iraq. Question to Frist: Will you urge the College Young Republicans at the rally to enlist?

    David

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  6. Thanks, David, I missed that article. Did Mr. Frist ever respond to your email?? Or do we just assume an implied "no"?

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  7. Anonymous9:25 PM

    hedera,

    Correct assumption. I imagine they have someone who just scans the e-mails and hits delete when one like mine pops up, even though I was very tactful about the way I worded it. No attacks, just a question honestly asked.

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