Politicians & Pundits: Grover Norquist

Even Republicans Blame Republicans For The Shutdown

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As we look back on this week, four days into the government shutdown, an unlikely bipartisan consensus has emerged in Washington: Extreme Tea Party Republicans are to blame for putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work and depriving millions of services they depend on.

It is clear to objective observers that while Democrats have already compromised by swallowing  post-sequester funding levels they despise, intransigent Tea Party Republicans refuse to budge from their position. The Republicans’ so-called leaders are unwilling to allow a vote to fund the government at current levels, which would pass, unless they can strip funding away from the Affordable Care Act – funding that has already been appropriated by Congress and is unrelated to the bills currently being debated.

Conservatives’ irrational and unreasonable approach to governing has resulted in a circular firing squad within the GOP. Whether publicly on television, or behind the closed doors of the Senate’s Mansfield Room, nervous Republicans are blaming their own for the current mess in Washington.

Read more after the jump.

Gaffney: ATR’s Norquist Is “Working For A Bunch Of Islamists” And “Fragging His Own Team”

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On the August 15 edition of his radio show, Center for Security Policy founder and president Frank Gaffney made the following comments about Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist’s support for cuts to defense spending:

And Grover, obviously, is less concerned about the national security, shall we say. I believe that he’s been working for a bunch of Islamists for a long time, which may further explain what he’s doing here. But at the very minimum he’s got his eye exclusively on the taxes issue. And Jim, I guess what I’m really worried about is, to the extent you have somebody in Republican circles fragging his own team, as Grover Norquist is doing, it can only benefit the opponents and the people who are trying to bring about this train wreck. And maybe that, again, is in the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood – I certainly don’t think it’s in the interests of the United States.