[Sabertooth]

Several people have stated that Norquist has not disavowed the Muslims involved. This is not true. On the Hugh Hewitt show just a couple nights ago, he flatly disavowed them and said he was glad they were in jail. He also stated that the degree to which he was responsible for them gaining access has been greatly exaggerated.

Did you catch Hugh's show yesterday?

I didn't hear all of it, but the consensus among Hugh and all of the commentators I did hear was that Norquist's performance vs. Gaffney raised more questions than it answered. Hugh said that feeling was true among all of his Washington contacts as well.

Norquist may need a spanking, but to run him out of town on a rail would be unfair and hurt the conservative cause.

In the interests of full disclosure, can you briefly describe the Free Republic Network's connections to Grover Norquist?

[Nick Danger]

In the interests of full disclosure, can you briefly describe the Free Republic Network's connections to Grover Norquist?

Allow me to answer that. Grover Norquist is one of several people who informally advises FRN on a number of issues. By 'informally' I mean that none of these people has any authority over anything we do; they just give us ideas or advice when we ask for it.

As you may know, Norquist's office is host every Wednesday to a meeting that is attended by representives from practically every conservative organization on the planet. The White House, Senator Frist's office, and Speaker Hastert's office also send representatives, and they tell us about the legislative agenda or other policy topics. Conservative candidates from around the country come there to introduce themselves. Virtually any group that has something going on can get a minute or two on the agenda, and I have done so numerous times to promote things the FRN was doing, such as the "Rally for America" events we did back in March. This is also how I was able to arrange for Angelwood to attend a speech given by President Bush. It is how we met Jeff Gannon of Talon News, who now hosts a program on Radio FR. In short, Grover Norquist has been of enormous help to us in connecting us with other people and organizations that share our goals.

He can do that because he is widely respected in the conservative community in Washington. I wish that I could take a webcam into the Wednesday meeting with me so that I could flash it around and show our fellow Freepers just how seriously people in Washington are taking Mr. Gaffney's crusade. You are making this out to be some kind of big deal, when in fact it's just one Nut On A Mission who has managed to convince a few people that he has something. What he has is a list of scary-sounding Arab names and a gift for placing them in the same sentence with the words "Grover Norquist" and shouting Booga Booga!

If I ever see any guys in sheets with AK-47's in his office, I'll let you know. So far all I've seen in there is a veritable Who's Who of conservative politics.