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Grover Glenn Norquist (born October 19 , 1956 ) is an American Conservative activist. He currently serves as president of anti- Tax Lobbying group Americans For Tax Reform . EARLY YEARS AND CAREER Norquist, who is of Swedish Descent , grew up in Weston , Massachusetts , where he learned politics at an early age when his father would liken each bite he took out of his Ice Cream cone to a different type of tax levied by the government. His political leanings were cemented at the age of eleven by reading anti-Communist tracts such as ''Masters of Deceit'' by J. Edgar Hoover and ''Witness'' by Whittaker Chambers .http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1571/n3_v14/20174381/p1/article.jhtml Norquist received a B.A. (economics) from Harvard College , which he attended from 1974 to 1978 , living in Winthrop House . He later received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School ( 1979 – 1981 ).http://watch.pair.com/database2.html After leaving professional school, Norquist became executive director of both the National Taxpayers Union and the national College Republicans organization, holding both positions until 1983. He was an Economist and chief speech writer for the U.S. Chamber Of Commerce from 1983 to 1984.http://www.mediatransparency.org/people/grover_norquist.htm Norquist founded Americans for Tax Reform in 1985, at the request of President arguments of the Cold War . "I was actually a foreign-policy conservative first," he told an interviewer in 1998. From 1985 to 1988, Norquist was also an economic advisor to as a foreign agent of Angola.http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fara/fara2nd97/COUNTRY/ANGOLA.HTM#5061 POLITICAL IMPORTANCE ON NATIONAL POLITICS Norquist is one of the so-called " of Madame Defarge " ( P.J. O'Rourke ). Norquist's page on the web site of Americans For Tax Reform includes a laudatory quote about him from former Speaker Of The House Newt Gingrich . Indeed, Norquist co-authored the 1994 Contract with America. In 1999, he was instrumental in securing early support for then Texas Governor George W. Bush , continuing a decades-long association with Karl Rove (" The Wall Street Journal 's John Fund dubbed him "the Grand Central Station" of conservatism and told '' The Nation '': "It's not disputable" that Norquist was the key to the Bush campaign's surprising level of support from movement conservatives in 2000") [http://www.slate.com/id/2085277/]. After Bush's election to the White House in 2000, Norquist was the prime architect behind the many Bush tax-cuts ("Grover Norquist: 'Field Marshal' of the Bush Plan") [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010514/dreyfuss]. Norquist is "adept at media appearances ... writes a monthly politics column for the '' American Spectator '' magazine, and frequently speaks at regional and state Think Tank s of the Conservative movement," according to the critical website MediaTransparency.Org. Wednesday Meetings Shortly after Bill Clinton was elected president of the United States in 1992, Norquist began hosting a weekly get-together of conservatives in his Washington office to coordinate activities and strategy. "We were sort of like the Menshevik s after the Russian Revolution," recalls Marshall Wittmann , who attended the first meeting as a representative of the Christian Coalition . In 1994 Norquist worked with Newt Gingrich and the Heritage Foundation to draft the Contract With America . The "Wednesday Meeting" of Norquist's Leave Us Alone Coalition has become an important hub of conservative political organizing. George W. Bush began sending a representative to the Wednesday Meeting even before he formally announced his candidacy for president in 1999. "Now a White House aide attends each week," reported '' USA Today '' in June 2001. "Vice President Cheney sends his own representative. So do GOP congressional leaders, right-leaning think tanks, conservative advocacy groups and some like-minded K Street lobbyists. The meeting has been valuable to the White House because it is the political equivalent of one-stop shopping. By making a single pitch, the administration can generate pressure on members of Congress , calls to radio talk shows, and political buzz from dozens of grassroots organizations. It also enables the White House to hear conservatives vent in private — and to respond — before complaints fester".http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2001-06-01-grover.htm In addition to heading Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist is currently on the board of directors of the and chairman emeritus of the Islamic Free Market Institute . He was the chair of the September 2005 convention of the National Federation Of Republican Assemblies .http://gopwing.com/modules.php?sid=963 INFLUENCE ON STATE AND LOCAL POLITICS Norquist's national strategy includes recruiting politicians at the state and local levels. In Virginia , Norquist was involved in the 2005 Republican primaries, trying to unseat a number of legislators who voted for higher taxes. Norquist has helped to set up regular meetings for conservatives in many states, meetings modelled on his Wednesday meetings in Washington. He wants to set up a nationwide network of conservative activists that he can call upon to support his causes, such as tax cuts and deregulation. There are now meetings in more than forty states.2 Connections to Jack Abramoff See Also: Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal Jack Abramoff pled guilty to conspiracy to corrupt public officials, mail fraud and tax evasion on January 3 , 2006 . According to an investigative report on Abramoff's lobbying released in June 2006 by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Americans For Tax Reform (ATR) served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns. A second group Norquist was involved with, the Council Of Republicans For Environmental Advocacy , received about $500,000 in Abramoff client funds. {Link without Title} Norquist has been close friends with Abramoff since college, when he ran Abramoff’s successful campaign to become national chairman of the College Republicans. In 1996, the Choctaw tribe, an Abramoff client, donated $60,000 to ATR to oppose a tax on Indian casinos. The funds continued; in 1999, Norquist moved $1.15 million in Abramoff client money to Ralph Reed 's for-profit political consulting company, Century Strategies, and to anti-gambling groups working to defeat a state lottery in Alabama. The money routing was deliberate: in one email reminder to himself, Abramoff wrote: "Call Ralph re Grover doing pass through." ATR kept a small percentage of the funds that passed though the organization. In May 1999, Norquist asked Abramoff "What is the status of the Choctaw stuff?", in an email. "I have a 75g hole in my budget from last year. ouch." Abramoff eventually grew annoyed at the amount that Norquist took off the top before sending the money on, e-mails show. "Grover kept another $25 k!" Abramoff wrote in a February 2000 note to himself. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/24/AR2006062401080_3.html On May 9, 2001, Chief Raul Garza of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas met with President Bush, with Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist in attendance. Days before the meeting, the tribe paid $25,000 to Grover Norquist's ATR at Abramoff's direction. According to the organization's communications director, John Kartch , the meeting was one of several gatherings with President Bush sponsored by ATR. On the same day, the chief of the Louisiana Coushattas also attended an ATR-sponsored gathering with President Bush. The Coushattas also gave $25,000 to ATR soon before the event. Emails released in an October 12, 2006 report by the US Senate Finance Committee investigation, show that Norquist exchanged support for cash donations to ATR. Abramoff asked Norquist, "I have sent over a $50K contribution from DH2 (the mutual fund client). Any sense as to where we are on the op-ed placement?" |
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