Letters: Saying no to that no-new-taxes guy

Re “Grover Norquist’s tough year,” Opinion, Nov. 21

One thing to add to Doyle McManus’ excellent piece on Republicans in Congress finally turning away from the Grover Norquist pledge never to increase taxes: Norquist has been clear about his reason for demanding that promise. He’s on record advocating lowering tax revenue to, in his words, “reduce [government] to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

In 1949, 11 members of the American Communist Party were tried in New York City, not for a specific plan to overthrow the U.S. government by force but for a “philosophy” of violently overthrowing governments. They were found guilty and sentenced to jail terms.

If drowning our government in a bathtub isn’t a description of a planned violent overthrow of the U.S. government, I don’t know what is.

Lawrence Dietz

Santa Monica

I believe the most damning dismissal of Norquist comes straight from President George H.W. Bush. In a July interview with Parade magazine, he said: “The rigidity of those pledges is something I don’t like. The circumstances change and you can’t be wedded to some formula by Grover Norquist. It’s — who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?”

Sums it up perfectly.

Peter Isaacson

Whittier

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