Norquist Spreads Conservative/Corporate Agenda

[Dover]

Conservative insider expands reach far outside Washington
Grover Norquist's anti-tax group considered one of the most influential GOP organizations

By Julia Malone

WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Grover Norquist has neither a public office nor a famous name. Yet few people in the nation's capital wield more influence in Republican circles.

Every Wednesday morning, Norquist directs a standing-room-only meeting of more than 120 top conservative and business leaders and party activists to swap information and set strategy. They are served bagels and coffee and the inside skinny from White House staffers and senior aides from the House and Senate leadership.

Seated in the middle of it all is the bearded and bespectacled and sometimes bemused Norquist. He directs the crisp order of the rapid-fire discussion, as speakers hold forth on such issues as President Bush's re-election poll numbers, the controversial CBS docudrama on former President Reagan and the alleged "group sex" imagery in Abercrombie & Fitch's Christmas catalog.

The meetings, which started a decade ago to mobilize opponents of the Clinton administration's health care proposal, have landed the 46-year-old Norquist in a crucial role as unifier for the right.

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Norquist's other outline for the future, which he has carefully charted on a timeline, includes a plan to reduce the size of government by half in relation to the national economy in the next 25 years.

His aim is to do that by cutting taxes, privatizing Social Security and other government pension programs, selling off public lands, privatizing the postal service and giving universal vouchers for schools....MORE >>


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