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Grover Norquist: I’ll get out of politics — after Dems take pledge not to raise taxes

November 28, 2012 | 1:58 pm
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Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a Democratic bogeyman, promised that he would get out of politics — but only after the Democratic Party adopts a no-new-taxes position.

“I want pro-taxpayer candidates to survive and thrive,” Norquist corrected when Politico’s Mike Allen said that he wanted Republicans to win. “Right now that’s the modern Republican Party. My goal is to have the Democrats also all take the pledge; then, I retire.”

Norquist was referring to ATR’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which most Republicans have adopted as a promise not to raise taxes.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the incoming Senate Budget Committee chair, wrote a speech attacking Norquist this morning.

“We are hearing encouraging words from some of my Republican colleagues who have indicated a willingness to put revenue on the table and to break the stranglehold that D.C. lobbyist Grover Norquist has on the modern Republican Party,” she wrote, per an early look at the speech from the Politico Huddle. “He is used to blind allegiance from the Republican Party, and he is not going to take this lying down. But I am hopeful that more and more Republicans will break away from Grover Norquist, and that they will actually follow up on their new rhetoric with a genuine willingness to call on the wealthy to pay their fair share.”

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