Norquist, Field Marshall of the Bush Plan

Norquist the conservative activist

He is one of the "Gang of Five" in Nina Easton's 2000 book by that name, giving the history of leaders of the modern conservative movement. He has been described as "a thumb-in-the-eye radical rightist" (The Nation), and "Tom Paine crossed with Lee Atwater plus just a soupcon of Madame Defarge" (P.J. O'Rourke).

Norquist is famous for his widely quoted comment that he wants to shrink government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Norquist largely rejects relativism and is comfortable assigning the labels of "good" and "bad". The pledge of "no new taxes" that so many Republican legislators signed was his project. He holds regular meetings for conservative leaders (http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1001nj1.htm) in which strategy is discussed. He once commented, "We play for keeps; they play for lunch."
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