What I want to know is this...  How did Grover Glenn Norquist, a Washington lobbyist with little to recommend him except his own inflated opinion of himself, manage to get 95% of all Republican Members of Congress and all but one of the 2012 Republican presidential nominees in the last election to sign a pledge of any kind at all.  The pledge document to which these representatives and wanna-be presidential candidates affixed their signatures was called, by Norquist, “The Taxpayer Protection Pledge.”  It’s time to take a close look at just who this guy is.  Norquist serves on the board of The National Rifle Association and the American Conservative Union.  Jack Abramoff wrote in his memoir that Norquist was one of his first major Republican party contacts and was someone on whom he could depend to move and shake Washington. Norquist was mentioned often in the Abramoff scandal, but he was never convicted of crimes as Abramoff was. Norquist was hired by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to come up with a plan to privatize the CalPERS system, a plan which Schwarzenegger didn’t have enough power finally to push through the California legislature. Norquist claims President Ronald Reagan asked him to found ATR, Americans for Tax Reform.  As unofficial liaison from Republican politicians to the conservative movement , particularly “the Tea Party,” he has influenced more than anyone else the rewriting of dogma for the modern Republican Party.  He has wielded uncommon power over many elected officials in state and national offices for more than two decades.

So, back to my question:  How did this guy manage to get 41 out of 47 Republican senators and 238 of 242 House Republicans to sign his pledge?  These people are elected to represent the people of their districts and their states, not do the will of a Washington Lobbyist. How is it possible that the political organization which likes to call itself “The Party of Lincoln” allows itself to be led like a collection of puppets by Grover Norquist. 

As our nation approaches the edge of the “fiscal cliff,”  my guess is that his days as unofficial leader of the Republican Party are numbered.  Many of the senators and representatives who signed his pledge will become more and more uncomfortable with their decision a while back to promise their allegiance to Grover Norquist.  If the party can’t shake off this guy, it will continue to lose credibility with the majority of the American people.  

He is finally being recognized as a stain on the Republican platform and a real danger to American democracy.