Rep. Frank Wolf stood on the House floor earlier this month and publicly lambasted Grover Norquist — one of Washington’s most influential conservatives — as a cohort of terrorists and convicted felons. Wolf, a Virginia Republican, added in a television interview last week that Norquist lobbied on behalf of mortgage giant Fannie Mae and Internet gambling companies, including Full Tilt Poker, the online poker site recently shutdown for fraud.
But the normally low-key Wolf has chosen to confront Norquist at a time when the conservative anti-tax activist is near the peak of his power. Starting in the 1980s and propelled by his insider status in George W. Bush’s White House, the head of Americans for Tax Reform has pushed so hard to get Republican lawmakers and candidates to sign a no-tax pledge that only six current House Republicans, including Wolf, have refused to signed it.
The pledge puts Norquist in the position of defining exactly what a tax increase is and he has used that power to kill off deficit-reduction plans by warning lawmakers that closing tax loopholes is the same as raising taxes even though some Republican support eliminating such loopholes.
“I don’t think the pledge has anything to do with the closing of tax loopholes,” Wolf told The Washington Examiner. “I don’t think people that signed the pledge are opposed to closing tax loopholes. It’s just the interpreter of the pledge who’s a registered lobbyist” making that call.
A freshman class of conservatives bearing Norquist’s no-new-taxes message now stands in the way of Republicans who think everything should be on the table to decrease the national debt. And Tea Party groups are champing at the bit to put up candidates against Republicans willing to compromise. Karen Hurd, executive director of the Virginia Tea Party Alliance, said the organization is searching for conservatives to run against Wolf since his vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling in August.
That doesn’t faze Wolf, who said his intent is to warn new members of Congress about the questionable associations of the person behind the pledge, Norquist, even if that irks party conservatives.
“Whatever happens, happens. That would be a very small price to pay if I thought I could make a contribution to help get the deficit under control,” Wolf said.
Wolf alleges that Norquist uses the no-tax pledge to gain influence with Republican lawmakers then exploits those relationships to lobby on other issues, including the Islamic causes he champions. Norquist is co-founder of the Islamic Free Market Institute.
Norquist also has close ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and David Safavian, both convicted in a corruption scandal; imprisoned terrorist financier Abdurahman Alamoudi; and Sami Al-Arian, who plead guilty for conspiracy to help a specially designated terrorist, Wolf said.
Repeated attempts to reach Norquist were unsuccessful, but in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” the day after Wolf’s, Norquist shrugged off the assertions.
“I think if you have to argue that kind of thing you’re trying to distract people from reality,” Norquist said.
