During this weekend’s edition of “Saturday Night Live” cast member Fred Armisen resumed his role as President Obama, dejectedly explaining to Americans that he’s actually not the most powerful guy in Washington, not even close.
Faux Obama went through the top tier of power players, starting with Congress at No. 1 and ending with the Kia Gerbils at No. 13, with a bunch of political and pop culture figures in between. (The president came in at a measly 11). The second most powerful was Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist. “Who got 276 Republicans and three Democrats to sign a pledge that they will never raise taxes under any circumstances, wow,” Armisen’s Obama said. “I tried to get some Democrats to pledge to buy a box of girl scout cookies from my daughter Malia and all I got was one maybe from Nancy Pelosi — come on, the Thin Mints are very refreshing.”
The real Norquist missed the segment, but found out about it through a flurry of emails. “It was fun and it was cute because they explained the pledge to everybody, I’m not sure the ‘Saturday Night Live’ viewing audience is necessarily as informed about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge as one might hope, but now they are,” he told Yeas & Nays.
Norquist said he also liked the skit because it made for a good history lesson. “I thought the whole thesis was interesting, the president isn’t all powerful and it takes the president several years to figure this out and it also take the country some time to figure out that you elect Reagan that doesn’t mean that everything Reagan wants to gets done, so I liked it as good history and good public policy,” he continued.
This isn’t the first time that Norquist’s name was made into a pop culture moment either. He was referenced on the television show “Gilmore Girls” back in 2005. And he’s hoping it won’t be his last.”Well, the only thing better than being mentioned on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ would actually be to have somebody play you on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ but a headline in the Onion is my next target,” he said. He also knew exactly who he’d get to play him. “Lindsay Lohan,” he said. “You get more attention that way.”
