Wednesday night on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter claimed that Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge “has helped to wreck the United States." The discussion centered around New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s decision to sign the pledge, and Jeb Bush’s refusal to do so. The Newsweek veteran declared the pledge was “about the worst kind of public policy for the reasons you just heard...[i]t’s terribly destructive.”
Grover Norquist
By Scott Whitlock | February 13, 2014 | 3:30 PM EST
It wouldn’t be MSNBC if one of the cable hosts didn’t smear a conservative as racist. On Wednesday, Ed Schultz hinted that Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, might be “race baiting” by placing ads warning about the impact of unionization.
Schultz was talking to Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen over possible unionization of a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cohen slammed signs put up by Norquist’s group, complaining, “The billboards are offensive, the whole idea of keeping people from earning decent wages.” Because the signs mention Barack Obama, The Ed Show anchor zeroed in: “You think Grover Norquist is race baiting? You think he knows the climate?” [See video below. MP3 audio here.] This was too much even for Cohen.
By Noel Sheppard | July 20, 2013 | 11:38 AM EDT
With Grover Norquist’s help, Bill Maher once again made a fool of himself Friday evening.
In the middle of an HBO Real Time discussion about ObamaCare, the host seemed shocked to hear that Bob Dole isn’t a real conservative leading Norquist to derisively comment to former Congressman Connie Mack (R-Fl.), “He doesn’t understand the difference between Reagan and Dole” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
By Tom Johnson | February 22, 2013 | 10:53 PM EST
Kossacks are rarely short of hostility and condescension for Republicans, but their blasts at the Grand Old Party and its members seemed especially abundant this past week.
As usual, each headline is preceded by the blogger's name or pseudonym.
By Matt Vespa | December 13, 2012 | 3:30 PM EST
Finally, Grover Norquist was the featured guest on the PBS NewsHour’s segment on the fiscal cliff. After previous editions of the program featured softball interviews with Paul Krugman and Max Richtman -- two members of the far left who oppose entitlement reform -- as well as moderate conservative Republican Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the NewsHour saw it fit to give time to the anti-tax activist who heads Americans for Tax Reform.
Of course the December 12 interview proved to be an occasion for liberal anchor Judy Woodruff to push back hard against Norquist on taxes, firing every possible liberal talking point at him she could. Norquist was adamant that the problem in Washington is spending, not taxation -- giving the president all the tax hikes he wants would generate about only two weeks worth of revenue, after all. But it didn’t take long for Woodruff to argue that the Clinton era tax cuts were the basis for strong economic growth. Norquist stood his ground and noted the role a conservative Republican Congress played in policies that helped fuel economic growth in the 1990s:
By NB Staff | December 7, 2012 | 11:12 AM EST
Cokie Roberts and other outspoken liberal journalists are "unelected lobbyists" in the very same sense that they charge Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist is. "From her perch at ABC News," as an ostensible journalist, Roberts is agitating for tax hikes, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell observed on the December 6 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity. Rather than reporting the news regarding the fiscal cliff proposals by both the president and the Republicans, Roberts and other liberal journalists are cheerleading for the president's tax-and-spend plan.
The founder and president of the Media Research Center, Mr. Bozell was on Hannity for the popular weekly "Media Mash" segment. You can watch it in the video embed below the page break:
MSNBC Online Interviews 'Grover Norquist' of the Immigration Debate: Portrays Numbers USA CEO Unfairly
By Ryan Robertson | December 5, 2012 | 4:10 PM EST Founded by Roy Beck in 1998, Numbers USA is a grassroots organization and an influential lobbyist group that concerns itself with immigration reform and the threat of mass amnesty. As the unemployment rate among the citizenry continues to grow, over one million permanent work authorizations are handed out each year to immigrants -- further saturating an already stagnant labor market.
Beck sat down for an interview with MSNBC.com's Jane C. Timm recently, only to find himself labeled as the "Grover Norquist of the immigration debate." With no intention of portraying him in a positive light, Timm argued that the 1.3 million grassroots members of Numbers USA will not allow Republican congressmen to moderate their stance on immigration reform. And rather than consider it an anti-amnesty organization, in predictable fashion she presented the group as "racist" in motivation.
By Julia A. Seymour | December 5, 2012 | 9:59 AM EST
Liberals can’t stand Grover Norquist. For years, they have lambasted and name-called Norquist, the president of American’s for Tax Reform: a staunch anti-tax hike group. But now the liberal media is also focused on him, in some cases rejoicing that he might lose his “stranglehold” over Republicans on the issue of taxes.
Left-wing websites like Daily Kos, Salon and The Huffington Post all exude vitriol with phrases like “idiot terrorist,” “anti-tax jihadist,” “enemy of the state” and “anti-tax fetishist.” HuffPo has been gleefully reporting about GOP tax “defectors” for over a year, long before it became the liberal media’s obsession.
By Scott Whitlock | December 4, 2012 | 12:49 PM EST
Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman apologized on Monday for his "inadvertent smear" against Grover Norquist. First reported on NewsBusters, Fineman appeared on the December 3 Hardball and slammed the President of Americans for Tax Reform. The journalist railed, "A long time before the Tea Party existed or had a name, Grover Norquist, the famous anti-tax lobbyist in Washington, was running around beginning to enforce, ayatollah-style, his edict about taxes."
Four hours after the comment, Fineman tweeted an apology, allowing, "Apologies to Grover Norquist and his Muslim wife for inadvertent slur on #MSNBC #Hardball, calling him 'Ayatollah' of GOP anti-tax movement."
By Kyle Drennen | December 4, 2012 | 10:46 AM EST
During the panel discussion on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer launched an assault against Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist for holding Republicans to a pledge not to raise taxes: "What this is about is avoiding a recession which is going to happen....You're going to sacrifice that on the cross of two percent. Is that what you want?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Norquist, a fellow panelist, shot back: "I'm supportive of the Republican position, which is we need to have economic growth, not higher taxes. If we grew at four percent a year instead of two percent a year, Reagan levels instead of Obama levels, for one decade we'd net five trillion in additional revenue. That would pay down the debt that Obama has run up with the Solyndra stimulus stuff."
By Brent Baker | December 2, 2012 | 12:30 PM EST
In a colorful demonstration of the Washington press corps’ disdain for Grover Norquist and his anti-tax pledge, on Sunday’s This Week, a flustered ABC News/NPR veteran Cokie Roberts blurted out: “It’s...politically smart to cut the knees out from under Grover Norquist. I mean this guy is, you know, who is he? He’s an unelected lobbyist.”
She soon urged that “a certain amount of saying ‘the emperor has no clothes’” about Norquist is helpful. “To say that, I think is very useful.”
By Matt Hadro | November 30, 2012 | 5:19 PM EST
CNN's Ali Velshi labeled anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist a "dangerous man" on Friday for blocking a fiscal cliff compromise between Democrats and Republicans.
"Hey, speaking of the fiscal cliff, there's been all this focus on one dangerous man who stands in the way of a deal that could avert it, Grover Norquist. He is neither elected, nor has he ever run for office, so why is Washington so scared of him?" Velshi introduced his segment on Norquist.