I wonder why Eric Holder doesn't bring a RICO suit against Grover, Turd Blossom, and the Koch brothers? After all, you could make a reasonable case for extortion: Grover tells Republican officials to vote his way, or he will drown them in a primary challenge. It doesn't seem like that's how democracy is supposed to work. Lee Fang for The Nation:

Grover Norquist’s iron grip over much of the Republican Party is somewhat puzzling. Why should Senators and other lawmakers listen to a guy caught laundering money for Jack Abramoff?

But consider Norquist’s tax pledge and political power another way: that he’s just a proxy for the powerful interest groups that finance him. In the nineties, it was big tobacco that used Norquist’s tax pledge as a cover to lobby lawmakers against cigarette taxes (Norquist still uses an e-mail system donated to him by Altria to send out Tea Party action alerts against tobacco taxes).

Now, big PhRMA and other industry groups provide grants to Norquist while his foundation endorses other giveaways, like protectionist support against importing cheaper drugs from Canada and the classification of tax subsidies to refineries as “tax cuts” that must not be cut.

I took a look at the last available budget numbers for Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist’s group. Though they do not reveal their donors, we can cobble together much of Norquist’s donors using foundations and other nonprofits that donate money to him.

The disclosures show that only two billionaire-backed groups have provided over 66 percent of Norquist’s funding:

• The Center to Protect Patients Rights donated $4,189,000 to Americans for Tax Reform in 2010, 34 percent of the group’s budget that year.

• Crossroads GPS donated $4,000,000 to Americans for Tax Reform in 2010, 32.46 percent of the group’s budget that year.

The Center to Protect Patients Rights is the foundation used by the billionaire clique led by the Koch brothers to distribute grants to allied groups. In 2010, wealthy moguls like Steve Bechtel of Bechtel Corporation and Steve Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group met behind closed doors to help lend money to these types of efforts.

Crossroads GPS is the undisclosed group run by Karl Rove. The only known donors are folks like Paul Singer, the “vulture” hedge fund king who benefits enormously from tax strategies like the carried interest loophole. Norquist’s pledge largely benefits billionaires like Singer and Schwarzman, who pay almost nothing in payroll taxes and likely pay a lower rate than their secretaries.

Isn't that nice. The single most influential man in Republican politics sits down with his minions, gives them their marching orders (which of course supersede their oath of office) and then says, "Gridlock? Who, me?" No, threatening anyone who deviates from your orders with a million-dollar primary challenge is just good government!

WASHINGTON — All but 13 of the 289 Republicans in the House and Senate have signed a pledge vowing to oppose tax increases. On Thursday, the author of that pledge met with some of them to help them understand exactly what it is they signed.

In the process, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist sparked a fresh barrage of criticism from Democrats who accuse him and his pledge of being one of the major impediments to a bipartisan debt-cutting deal. Norquist and Republicans defended the pledge, denied that he is hurting his party because he has become a political target, and said that Washington's gridlock on the issue is not his fault. ...

Thursday's session came at a time when some Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have been distancing themselves from Norquist's pledge, saying all options need to be available if the two parties are to concoct a debt-reduction agreement. It also comes during an election-year fight over whether to extend expiring tax cuts for the rich at the end of this year, as Republicans want and President Barack Obama and Democrats oppose, and whether to overhaul the entire tax code. ...

With some in Congress beginning to concentrate on how the two parties might reach a budget agreement later this year, some Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have expressed a willingness to eliminate tax breaks and use some of the money that would produce to reduce deficits. That would violate a tenet of Norquist's pledge, which says any money raised that way must be used to lower tax rates. ...

"They ought to be sitting down and working things out instead of holding court for him," said Rep. Sander Levin, top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, as he wandered past the committee hearing room where the meeting was being held. "Norquist is here to hold feet to the fire when what we need are open minds."

Grover Norquist makes a fool of himself in this November 2008 discussion about raising taxes to prevent a recession.

Dear Media Types and/or Journalists,
I know a lot of you read our little blog, so I want to ask you a question: Why won't you cover the story that an unelected Republican tax czar demands that Republicans sign an anti-tax pledge that supercedes their oath of office, enforces it through coercion, intimidation and threats, and has this country's political system and the very economy in a state of crisis? Why do you accept the idea that this is somehow perfectly normal, even okay?

Here's how Ed at Gin and Tacos put it:

Let's say that through a combination of fund-raising prowess, ideological militancy, and personal charisma, Jesse Jackson Sr. is able to assume a position of considerable behind-the-scenes power in the Democratic Party. His sway over elected Democrats is such that he manages to get 95% of the Democratic Congressional delegation, House and Senate, to sign an oath of personal loyalty to his policy goals. Specifically, they pledge that under no circumstances will they ever support cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other social welfare programs. Jackson believes that any such cuts will affect the poor and people of color disproportionately. Throughout the debate over the budget and debt ceiling, House and Senate Democrats refuse to even consider any proposal that touches any of those programs. It is a non-starter. Full stop. Because they swore an oath to Jesse Jackson that they wouldn't.

I'm sure you can see through this thin shoe-on-the-other-partisan-foot analogy to Grover Norquist's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" that currently holds sway over the GOP. I do think it's interesting to draw out the hypothetical scenario, though, to underscore a point: Can you even imagine the sheer violence of the pant-s****g that the GOP, Teatards, and Beltway media would be engaged in if the shoe really was on the other foot? If every Democrat had signed a personal oath to an interest group and private citizen that took precedence over their oath to the American people and Constitution?

You know, I think Ed makes a really good point. I don't think you guys can credibly defend yourself on that one.

Here's the oath of office each congress member and senator takes:

“I, Joe Blow, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Okay, let's start with this. They take an oath to "support and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." This is from the 14th Amendment:

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

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Grover, since you've always been such a kind and caring (translation: really creepy) American, I thought I'd help you out by further explaining your new talking points on health-care reform:

Over the August recess, Congressmen will be holding townhalls on health care. There’s likely to be a lot of spin and doubletalk from very nervous Democrat members. We’ve assembled a dictionary to help you wade through the rhetoric and understand the real impact of healthcare “reform.”

No discrimination for pre-existing conditions: \prē-ēx-sisting con-df-shun\

One can wait until one gets sick to sign up for coverage, and thereby game the system, costing the rest of us.

Also: n. trick, fraud, ploy

Also: v. cheat, dupe, fleece

Hey, hon, I know you know better than this. We all know the insurance companies have been using harmless conditions like teen acne as an excuse to deny coverage to a 50-year-old. Shame on you, Grover!

No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays: \per-sŭn-al ex-pen-sĕs\

You can’t have a health savings account (HSA) even if you

want to keep one. If you want to save money on your premium

by having a high deductible, the government won’t let you

Also: v. coerce, coercion, coerced

Grover, I know HSAs are an element of Republican faith (see Golden Rule) but believe it or not, we have actual studies (done by people who aren't employed by conservative think tanks, so they might be true!) showing people delay needed care because of high deductibles and co-pays - leading to more complicated, serious illness. Not that you care.

No cost-sharing for preventive care: \prē-ven-tĭv kâr\

An unelected and unaccountable government board of bureaucrats will decide what procedures must be first-dollar, even if you don’t value them

See: arbitrary price inflation

Oh Grover, I know that "bubble" elites like yourself just don't understand: Unelected and unaccountable INSURANCE bureaucrats are making those decisions right now - and people are dying as a result.

No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill:

\ ĭn-shûr-əns kŭv-ər-ĭj\

This only happens in Helen Hunt movies, but Congress will demagogue it anyway to scare us.

See: global warming hysteria, cap-and-trade

Really, Grover? It only happens in Helen Hunt movies? Are you calling a CIGNA VP a liar? Rescission is a well-known insurance industry practice. You know better.

No gender discrimination: \jen-der dee-scrim-in-a-shun\

You’ll be forced to have your tax dollars pay for abortion and other things you disagree with. You’ll also be forced to purchase a plan which covers abortion on demand for all nine months

See: conscience clause

First of all, Grover, for the past eight years, I've had to pay for all kinds of things I disagree with: A trumped-up war, torture, tax breaks for the top one percent... Normally, I'd say, hey, the other guy won and he gets to do what he wants, but I'm pretty sure your guy stole the election with help from the Supreme Court.

And the part about "abortion on demand"? That's an outright lie, and you know it. At this point, it looks like abortion won't be covered at all. But you just don't care, because you'll push any button that works to keep your corporate overlords from losing this fight.

No annual or lifetime caps on coverage: \kăps\

Congress will tell insurance companies how they have to price their coverage and determine risk

See: arbitrary price inflation

You're right on this one, Grover. No more people denied expensive, life-saving cancer treatment because they were also in a bad car accident 20 years earlier. Boo hoo.

Extended coverage for young adults: \əx-stən-dəd kŭv-ər-ĭj\

1.“Children” up to age 30 will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance at taxpayer expense

2. Inculcating the culture of entitlement and preening a generation of welfare-dependents

See: slackers, mom’s basement

Actually, Grover, you may not know this but there's a major unemployment crisis outside that privileged bubble in which you live. Many of these young adults are so desperate to find work and pay their school loans, they're taking minimum wage jobs with no benefits. It would be nice to know that if they get sick, they won't have to die to impress people like you.

Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid: \gâr-ŭn-tēd ĭn-shûr-əns\

Another red herring that Congress will use to scare people into adopting government medicine

Also: scare tactic

See above for "rescission."