Tax hawks cooling to Norquist

The Hill ^ | Alexander Bolton

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Tax hawks cooling to Norquist By Alexander Bolton

Influential conservatives from an array of anti-tax groups are publicly criticizing Grover Norquist, considered President Bush’s most prominent liaison to the conservative grassroots, for being too close to the White House.

While acknowledging Nor-quist’s contribution to the fight to cut the size of government as head of Americans for Tax Reform, they question whether he can continue as an effective leader of the conservative movement.

The critics cite his decision not to oppose the $395 billion Medicare bill Bush signed into law last year, the cost of which has since swelled to an estimated $521 billion.

They also point to Norquist’s past support of federal rules that would force telephone companies to share with competitors their access to homes, which nearly all free-market advocates oppose.

Conservatives also were outraged by the decision of Norquist’s group to give Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) a “Hero of the Taxpayer Award” in the midst of his fierce primary battle with conservative challenger, Rep. Pat Toomey.

“Everybody in the taxpayer movement read that and thought it was the stupidest thing they had ever seen,” said David Keating, executive director of the Club for Growth, one of the largest conservative political fundraising groups in the country. “It’s a real embarrassment for Americans for Tax Reform.”

The criticisms directed at Norquist indicate his ties to the conservative grassroots may be fraying in an election year when many conservatives have voiced anger over the explosion in federal spending during his watch. One prominent conservative, Paul Weyrich, has said many conservatives may not be motivated to vote in November.

Jonathan Collegio, communications director for Americans for Tax Reform, defended the award: “There shouldn’t be anything to complain about. The awards are based on 18 votes and whether the candidates supported the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Everybody on our scorecard is judged equally.” He also noted that Norquist has endorsed Toomey, who has received 100 percent ratings from Americans for Tax Reform over the past five years.

But Edward Crane, president of the Cato Institute, called the award “utterly inexcusable” and said it was ridiculous for the tax group not to take a position on the Medicare bill.

“It’s purely doing the bidding of the White House,” said Crane. “Anyone with any principles for limited government would say throwing a massive new entitlement on top of a bankrupt Medicare program is ridiculous.”

Those are harsh words for a man National Journal recently said was “arguably the most influential of a new generation of conservative activists” and a man “responsible, more than any other person outside government, for making tax-cutting a central theme of the [Republican] party.”

Collegio said: “Our goal at ATR is to build a competent movement where we’re growing and working together to build consensus. If someone has a misunderstanding, they can make a phone call or schedule a meeting and it can be worked out off-line.”

Norquist said his group did not lobby against the Medicare bill because it included tax-free health savings accounts, a key reform he and other conservatives have pushed for 10 years.

While Norquist presides over a weekly, invitation-only meeting of more than 100 conservative activists, he also highlights his close relations with top Bush advisers such as Ken Mehlman, manager of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, and Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser.

But those relationships have become, in part, a liability, as conservatives and the White House have split on issues ranging from Medicare and budget deficits to the race between Specter and Toomey.

For example, Rove made a surprise visit to Norquist’s off-the-record meeting of conservatives last week.

The next day, Bridgett Wagner, the director of coalitions relations at the Heritage Foundation, e-mailed a U.S. News report of Rove’s reception from the audience to a group of prominent conservatives.

“The Administration really has snuggled up close … interesting that the U.S. News reporter didn’t seem to run into any skepticism in the crowd,” she wrote in a message sent to John Bertoud, president of the National Taxpayers Union; Paul Beckner, president of Citizens for a Sound Economy; Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste; Cato’s Crane; and three other conservatives.

“He certainly could be a more effective advocate if he wasn’t as close to the White House,” said Donald Devine, vice chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU), one of the e-mail’s recipients. “The job of the conservative movement is to push policy in a conservative direction. Even with the best conservative presidents you need to do that, and George Bush certainly doesn’t fit in that category so we have to do more in pushing them in the right direction.”

Devine said Specter was at the bottom of the ACU’s economic ratings.

“I think my old friend Grover made a big mistake,” said Richard Rahn, an adjunct scholar at Cato and a conservative commentator. “I’ve been meaning to call Grover and talk to him about it. You don’t want to beat someone up for one or two things, but I’m concerned about Grover.”

Rahn raised Norquist’s support of proposed Federal Communications Commission rules that would have force the “Baby Bell” telephone companies to share their lines with competitors.

“Virtually all free-market organizations are on one side, and Grover is one on the other side,” Rahn said.

Norquist said that Rahn has misconstrued his position and asserted that there is no document or published Rahn can cite to back up his accusation.

But Norquist’s agnosticism on the Medicare bill may be the most troubling for conservatives.

Medicare was the president’s top domestic priority last year, and rebellious conservatives nearly derailed the legislation, which squeaked through the House after a three-hour vote last fall.

Since then, criticisms of the bill from conservatives have multiplied, especially in the wake of revelations that the bill would cost nearly a third more than its originally projected cost of $395 billion and that high-level administration officials ordered that key data on costs be withheld from Congress.

“Every group that cared about fiscal responsibility and limited government was opposed to the Medicare bill as it was drafted,” said the Club for Growth’s Keating. “It’s shocking that a taxpayer group could be neutral on the biggest expansion of government spending in decades.”