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Grover Norquist. Turns out to be working for the enemy, does he?

Always before, I had thought him to be operating in the interest of reduction of government intrusion in our lives. Taken to its logical conclusion, this could also mean resisting the Patriot Act. The reason for the Patriot Act being made part of the law in the first place, was to assure the tracking and weeding out of subversive elements that had taken advantage of the basic good nature of Americans and the relative leniency of our legal system. The Patriot Act is destined to be repealed, or expire, when the danger of subversion returns to acceptable (very low) probability.

The possibility exists that the powers in the Patriot Act may still be available in the event that a truly ruthless and merciless individual should succeed to the office of the Presidency. Considering the rather extreme difficulty of removing from office a venal or seriously corrupt official, this could bode great ill for country and Constitution. But we are already under threat of having what Constitutional protections we have eroded away, with or without the Patriot Act.

Consider the Patriot Act as TNT, a potent tool for removing obstacles to justice, or an equally potent weapon to destroy the structure of the national consensus.

Consider the Patriot Act as TNT, a potent tool for removing obstacles to justice, or an equally potent weapon to destroy the structure of the national consensus.

Consider Norquist's fetish for islamofascists to be even more dangerous than the Patriot Act. When people with the kind of prestige and access to the White House (i.e., Rove) that he has defend islamofascists, it makes it that much harder for us to stop them from insinuating themselves into the government and influencing our policymaking.

Until 9/11, I always thought of him as a self-impressed, self-aggrandizing gasbag. But since he had Bush surrounded by Hamas- and Hezbollah-loving islamofascists shortly after 9/11 -- to talk about Islam being a "Religion of Peace" -- I think he's a lot more dangerous than that.