Grover Norquist...

Got profiled in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine today, with due diligence rendered up to his power and scope in Washington and his No Taxes Pledge.
It occured to me though, that if your goal was to keep the Federal Government's deficit very high indeed the best policy to pursue is to impose a pledge on conservative legistlators to never ever raise taxes under any circumstances.
If you are truly worried about spending (and I submit that much of the concern about the deficit is political and situational) then the last thing you want to do is tie the hands of your negotiator when it comes time to talk turkey over the budget.
You may think these pledges are preventing tax increases, in fact they just demonstrate a lack of seriousness and an inability to manuever.
Who wants to negotiate with partners that are all "pledged out"?
Keep in mind, legistlators have no problem passing the deficit buck forward onto succeeding generations, they pass ever more diresome problems to our progeny every day. In fact it is rare for a legislature to eschew such measures...I can't think of one quite frankly.
So lets be honest, lacking any substantive bargaining with real pain on both sides the deficit is gonna be with us for a long time to come.
No, the pledge is nice sharp rhetorical weapon designed to hamstring authentic progress and perhaps bring such pleasing chaos on the Republic as can be blamed on the liberals.
Because sheer eliminationism, is never too far from the thoughts of Modern Movement Conservatism and that is what I think is at the core of the No New Taxes Pledge.
It is childish and a little crazy, but it is what Grover wants.

As long as we are teetering on the brink of economic disaster

then someone, more technically oriented than Humble Elias ought to sit down and create a spreadsheet detailing ALL various pledges that the current GOP candidates have signed during campaign 2012. Pledges to oppose gay marriage, never ever ever to raise taxes, lock up the homos or get the kids off my lawn...The list goes on and on (Since these mooks seem to sign them with a flourish on a daily basis) and ought to be rendered simple and visual via spreadsheet.
After all, the main reason the nation teeters on the brink of default today is because the GOP majority in the House all made signed pledges to a twitchy dork named Grover Norquist that they'd never ever ever raise taxes cross their hearts and hope to die.
Might be a useful document going forward.

On the eve of his announcement for President

Mitt Romney is still clarifying his views on abortion and answering critics by pushing his views ever farther to the right.
The charge of craveness has been leveled against the former Viceroy of Massachusetts, that may weight heavily on him as the GOP primary process unfolds.
On the other hand it has been my observation that the right wing will make a deal with almost any useful halfwit or no talent geek in order to retain power.
And being essentially a political mollusk, Romney will happily say yes to almost any insane wingnut proposal if it'll keep the sordid likes of Grover Norquist and falangists like William Donohue on his side.
Mind you, that does not mean Mitt will actually follow thru with any of those promises, not if it occasions a serious threat to his popularity or political manueverability. We here in Massachusetts have seen him walk away from a dozen or so trivial to difficult fights these past four years...trust me if it is one thing Mitt is good at it is the art of bluster driven empty threats.
Ah but all that is for the future, right now Mitt's plan looks good on paper, raise a lot of money, wait for Guiliani and McCain to get into some savage death struggle and then hand-job the radical right into backing Romney.
Yup...looks tres formidable, except that it didn't work for John Connolly in 1980 or Pierre DuPont in 1988 or Steve Forbes in 1992, and it may not work for the Former Viceroy either.