(dave e)

another reason i ought not read newspapers

From today's Washington Post, a biographical piece on Grover Norquist and his current Republican strategy includes the following:

When Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) tried to pass a state tax increase, Norquist helped defeat it. "We're going to keep him on life support," he said. "We'll put him in a freezer, as an example." He gave the Alabama state party chairman an award for opposing the hike. Instead of a plaque, Norquist sent him a sword with a steel blade. Even presidents have felt his wrath. Norquist first organized the Wednesday meetings in 1993 to galvanize opposition to Bill Clinton's health care plan. He keeps a rubber stamp by his desk, "Find Him and Kill Him."

[...]

Democrats used to anger him, Norquist said. He's past angry now. "Do you get mad at cancer? We'll defeat and crush their institutions, and the trial lawyers will go sell pizza. We're not going to hang them. Most of the people on the left will be happy in Grover's world. I feel about the left the way [Donald H.] Rumsfeld felt about the Iraqis."

[aside: I wonder, does he mean these Iraqis?]

And after Norquist purges the United States, there is the rest of the world. He says this with the confidence of a man who uses a black laundry marker as a pen. He has helped start Wednesday meetings in Canada, New Zealand, England and Japan. He has learned to be patient: "I now understand you can't just explain to the idiots how to do it and to see it your way, because they're too foolish to see it."

No doubt Norquist makes himself something of a straw man, and the Post offers all the help it can. No doubt DemocratIC operatives could be spotted with blood dripping from teeth, as well (images of James Carville having a particularly bad Saturday night on Bourbon Street come to mind). The mix of homicidal fantasy and happy condescension above seems, well, menacing, though. It's as if the actors in the Club For Growth ad had gone looking for some medieval weaponry with which to chase the "liberal freakshow" back to Vermont.

And some (that's right, there's nuance on "both" "sides") conservatives are indicting DemocratIC politicians for "political hate speech"?

Posted by dave at January 12, 2004 5:32 PM | TrackBack