Stayed up late last night reading the Aug. 1 New Yorker profile on Republican mastermind Grover Norquist. (Norquist’s no-new-taxes pledge was the precursor to 1994’s Contract w/ America, and Norquist, who runs an influential weekly Wednesday morning meeting for conservative activists, has been shaping the Republican agenda as director of Americans for Tax Reform ever since.) All Democrats must read this piece. It’s a scary story because it shows that a sassy, cosmopolitan, smart-ass (and not a Red-State Mullah nor a Texas operative) is truly running the show for the Rs. The article also highlights why Democrats who think the Republican coalition will unravel because of its internal contradictions (Christian Conservatives who want the government to regulate social mores vs. anti-tax conservatives who want smaller government) don’t get it. Norquist, whose brilliance has always been tying disparate agendas together under one compelling message, explained the Evangelical movement (which he personally seems to disdain) as a perfect fit: “The religious right is a parents-rights movement. They want the right to raise their kids in their own way.”
The one glimmer of hope is this: McCain and Norquist are bitter enemies. McCain’s chief of staff told the New Yorker, “I doubt the Senator is much troubled by Mr. Norquist’s opinion of him. On the contrary, he is pleased that he has never had an association with Mr. Norquist and prefers that it stays that way.” McCain seems to be the one wild card that Norquist can’t control. A McCain bid in 2008 may actually shatter the party if Norquist has anything to say about it. Which he will.