Grover Norquist on the GOP candidates: All we need is someone who can 'handle a pen'

[Political Junky]

Norquist has the nerve to say this out loud, rather than in private. The GOP has gone off the deep end.

Daily Kos: Grover Norquist on the GOP candidates: All we need is someone who can 'handle a pen'

"All we have to do is replace Obama. ... We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don't need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate. [...]
Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared."

 

[Political Junky]

As the article suggests, does this mean that Romney would fit the bill? Or should it be Santorum?

 

[occupied]

God what a megalomaniac, It's high time republicans kicked him to the curb for their own good. To suggest that their president will be an obedient tool of the lobbyists is campaign gold for democrats.

 

[Oddball]

Why not?...Having an empty suit with a pen in his hand has worked so well for the socialists the last few years.

Turnabout is fair play and all that.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Did Gorver Norquist kill Whitney Houston?

 

[ClosedCaption]

Man of principal there

 

[ladyliberal]

Well, I'm sympathetic to the view expressed insofar as I'd prefer a Democratic president who did nothing except his strict constitutional duties (signing bills, commanding military, etc.) to any plausible Republican nominee. However, Norquist goes too far.

When he says

His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.

he describes a much narrower view of the president's role in legislation and domestic policy than prevailed even in George Washington's day. At best, his statement describes his vision of how elected representatives should behave: purely to vote for policies that other people have selected (the attributed author of Norquist's preferred budget is in fact a member of congress, but only one member).This compete rejection of Burkean representation would be disappointing from anyone, but it takes on a sinister, undemocratic meaning as it passes from Norquist's lips.

For if not the representative, who is making the policy? Doubtless, if asked Norquist would insist that the people themselves should make the policy. However, in practice Norquist's brand of interest-group influence, most prominently his anti-tax pledge, has the effect of shifting the power from elected representatives, even presidents, to unelected and unaccountable outside groups. To be fair, such pledges can also enforce accountability, but Norquist has taken things much too far.