I Pledge a Grievance to the Flag and the United States of America

From THE HILL:

Congressional leaders have until Aug. 16 to name the 12 members of the newly created “supercommittee” to deal with reducing the deficit, but special interest groups are wasting no time in pushing their choices for the panel.

The debt-ceiling-increase legislation enacted Tuesday created a bicameral, joint committee of 12 legislators charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts by Nov. 23.

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Failure to come up with a plan will result in deep automatic defense and Medicare cuts.

One wrong pick, lobbyists on the right and left said Wednesday, could swing the panel toward a terrible compromise. So they are not taking chances.

These sources are already urging leaders to pick top lieutenants who will stick to party positions — no entitlement cuts for Democrats and no tax increases for Republicans.

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These sources are already urging leaders to pick top lieutenants who will stick to party positions — no entitlement cuts for Democrats and no tax increases for Republicans.

They said the supercommittee likely will resemble the group of debt negotiators led by Vice President Biden, with committee chairs or deputy leaders who can pass a loyalty “litmus test.”

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Lobbyists and congressional aides said the greatest uncertainty surrounds the picks of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who is under pressure from centrist Democrats to name one or more Gang of Six members.

An aide to a centrist Senate Democrat said it looks increasingly unlikely that such Gang members as Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) will be appointed.

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Pressure from Senate centrists has liberals nervous about Reid opening the door to entitlement cuts.

Lobbyists from the right and left alike predicted House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is very likely to pick liberal members of her caucus similar to those chosen for the president’s fiscal commission: Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), or such loyalists to leadership as Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who served in the Biden talks.

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist agreed that Reid has the tougher choice because 10 centrist Democrats up for reelection in 2012 are so vulnerable.

Norquist said he has already been assured by “the right people” that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will not choose anyone willing to give ground on raising taxes, and he is confident enough to leave town on Wednesday for August vacation.

Norquist said he would like Boehner to name House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

He said he would be “fine” with leadership using the opportunity to give a conservative freshman the chance to shine, mentioning  Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.).

Similarly, with respect to the Senate, Norquist can see McConnell appointing a young gun like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to the panel to give him a bigger platform. He said he would like to see Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) appointed.

Norquist does not want to see former Gang of Six Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) or Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) on board because they made “troubling” statements in support of revenue increases during the deficit negotiations this spring. He said that if Gang of Six Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) made stronger commitments to oppose taxes, he could be OK with that appointment.

National Taxpayers Union lobbyist Andrew Moylan said his group is pushing for Coburn, Crapo and Chambliss to be excluded from the panel, but is not yet floating other suggestions. He said NTU does not want to take the chance that a compromise including revenue-raisers gets put before the House, even though Boehner has said the House would vote such a plan down.

Some people, and yes, even Republicans, are not happy about the cheerleading for the demise of the United States just so Grover Norquist is happy.  From MEDIAITE:

As far as political personalities who hold no public office or have a job at a media association go, none seems to have skyrocketed to newfound popularity the way ’90s staple and Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist has during the debt crisis debate. With only thirteen Republicans refusing to sign his anti-tax pledge during this round of budget debate, former Sen. Alan Simpson told Lawrence O’Donnell tonight that it’s time to “peel all the layers of the onion” and figure out just why people seem to listen to intently to Norquist.

In an interview on The Last Word tonight, Simpson noted that Norquist had challenged Republican Sen. Tom Coburn on a $6 billion cut on ethanol subsidies he had called “tax increases,” which incensed Simpson greatly. “Grover and his happy band of warriors are trying to call that a tax increase– that’s a damn lie and he knows it,” he told O’Donnell. “And if he can get away with that, elect him President.”

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He also told O’Donnell several times that “if Grover Norquist is more powerful than the President of the United States and the Congress, he should run for President,” leaving open-ended the question of why he hadn’t pursued public office.

On that note, Simpson called for an investigation. “Grover Norquist should be examined into– where does he get his money?” In times where people amass so much power, he argues, it becomes necessary to “peel all the layers of the onion.” “Anytime anyone gets this powerful,” he argued, “you want to dig in… who is he slave to?”

He clarified that he did not mean “salacious stuff and his personal life,” but how Americans for Tax Reform operated and why so many people in Congress feared him, because based only on his status as leader of an anti-tax group, “you must be chicken if you fall for that crap.”

Of course, Norquist could never run for President, because he’s married to a Muslim.

(Video available at MEDIAITE link)