TAKE YOUR PLEDGE AND SHOVE IT!

Grover Norquist is not only facing legal problems over his connection with the crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff, there's also a thinning in the ranks of the politicians who support him.


A Taxing Pledge Of Loyalty
By Dan Gilgoff
Sat Jun 11, 5:20 PM ET
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20050611/ts_usnews/ataxingpledgeofloyalty

This winter, Kentucky Republican State Rep. Stephen Nunn considered doing what would have been unthinkable a decade ago: supporting a tax hike. So, having signed antitax crusader Grover Norquist's "no new taxes" pledge during his 1996 race, Nunn wrote Norquist to rescind the pledge. He quickly discovered that it wouldn't be that easy. Norquist replied by outlining the arduous process for getting off the pledge list maintained by his group, Americans for Tax Reform. Nunn would have to hold a press conference with Norquist--and win re-election on a pro-tax platform. "I do not have the power to release you . . . ," Norquist wrote. "Only your voters can do that."

In his reply to Norquist, Nunn detailed half a billion dollars in tax cuts he'd supported, arguing that his record should permit him to back a tax increase now that the Bluegrass State was facing a budget shortfall. "I don't know if you concur . . .," Nunn wrote. "Quite frankly, I don't care. . . . You no longer have standing with me."

Nunn isn't alone. After signing up in the boom years of the late '90s, legislators in a handful of states say they want off Norquist's list. In Virginia last year, pledge signers were among a group of Republicans to break party ranks and support a $1.4 billion tax increase. In Colorado, Gov. Bill Owens, another pledge signer, is promoting a ballot initiative that would let the state keep more tax revenue. Norquist calls it a pledge violation. But a number of disgruntled signers are now complaining that they were never told their names would stay on until they left office and say it's all but impossible to get off the list. "[It's] the difference between the insulated D.C. world of theory . . . versus the world of budget practicality," says Preston Bryant, a Republican Virginia lawmaker.

"I don't care what Norquist says," says Jeff Espich, a Republican lawmaker in Indiana who hasn't sought to remove his name. "I'm off." David Wolkins, another Republican in the Indiana legislature, held a press conference this winter to rescind his pledge, but Norquist says he wasn't notified early enough to attend.