Cross-posted at Tall Tales
Grover Norquist today:
We didn't lose because we were too much for tax cuts. We didn't lose because we were against spending. We lost because we stepped out of and away from the Reagan vision. We have a winning vision, and that's Reagan's.
That's interesting, because I seem to remember Norquist spending most of the past eight years insisting that George W. Bush -- who made Norquist's tax cuts for the wealthy the centerpiece of his economic agenda -- was actually the second coming of Ronald Reagan.
Here's Norquist in 2004:
George W. Bush has governed as if it were the third term of Ronald Reagan's presidency.
Here's Norquist in 2005:
George W. Bush -- there was no daylight between him and Ronald Reagan's positions on anything....
Bush's positions, because they take some flak on the right, are seen as Bush standing up. They're just Bush standing next to Ronald Reagan on those issues.
And here's Norquist in 2007, still comparing Bush favorably to Reagan ("he reenergized the entire Reagan coalition"), while expressing confidence that the contrast between Bush's economic policies and the Democrats' economic policies would lead to a big win for Republicans in 2008:
Bush has promised vetoes that will define the two parties in useful ways. This year, congressional Democrats have followed the path of Democrats in 1993 and 1994 on taxes, spending, guns and social issues. Their presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, will now spend eight months proving that she is almost as far left as Barack Obama and John Edwards. It doesn't take a genius to manage the rest of this campaign.
Given that Bush delivered for Norquist on the vetoes (see here and here), and given that Democrats nominated a candidate Norquist dismissed as "far left," 2008 should have been a cakewalk for the Republicans.
Instead, it was a disaster, and Norquist is now left to argue that the very President he relentlessly praised for fulfilling Reagan's supply-side vision actually brought the Republicans to ruin by ignoring Reagan's supply-side vision.
To that, I have just two words:
Yeah, Right