No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

Grover Norquist Tells who can lobby the Republican Leadership in Congress

This from Slate

Who Cares If DeLay Bullies Lobbyists?

It's better than the other way around.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Friday, July 11, 2003, at 4:02 PM PT


Every Tuesday morning, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., meets with a couple dozen Republican lobbyists. Here is how Nicholas Confessore describes the ritual in the July/August Washington Monthly:

[T]he lobbyists present pass around a list of the [lobbying] jobs available and discuss whom to support. Santorum's responsibility is to make sure each one is filled by a loyal Republican—a senator's chief of staff, for instance, or a top White House aide, or another lobbyist whose reliability has been demonstrated. After Santorum settles on a candidate, the lobbyists present make sure it is known whom the Republican leadership favors.

The procedure is even more unembarrassedly thuggish than Confessore—and, in a less-nuanced June 26 Washington Post story, Jim VandeHei and Juliet Eilperin—make it sound. For example, Grover Norquist, chairman of Americans for Tax Reform and a key Santorum ally in this effort, doesn't just maintain a database on the party affiliations and political contributions of Washington lobbyists. He puts his little lists online. (Click here for the law firms, here for the trade associations, and here for the corporations.)

The best-known heavy in the campaign to force lobby firms to displace Democrats with Republicans is House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. In 1999, DeLay had his wrist slapped by the House Ethics Committee for holding up an intellectual-property vote in order to pressure the Electronics Industries Alliance into hiring a Republican as its president. Although the ethics advisory memorandum didn't mention DeLay by name, it was widely observed that a member of the House leadership (DeLay was then majority whip) should not need reminding that "one of the fundamental rules of ethics for government service" is that "government officials … are prohibited from taking or withholding any official action on the basis of … partisan affiliation.

The effort to consolidate power into the Republican Party is in overdrive. None of the people involved are particularly nice, either.

posted by Richard at 11:20 AM