George Allen and Grover Norquist have something more in common than a handshake in a picture – they have both been heavily funded by the tobacco industry.  The tobacco industry has been a low tax advocate because it believes that legislators find “sin” taxes easier to sell to the public.  They were especially fearful when at the start of the Clinton Administration Hillary Clinton trumpeted plans for an elaborate revamping of the nation’s health care system, which they thought would be funded in part by cigarette taxes.

 

Norquist’s funding by big tobacco interest is well documented, in part because many documents tying Norquist to Big Tobacco came out during litigation brought by cancer victims against the tobacco industry.  A good summary is provided here: http://www.sourcewat... 

Some highlights:

Norquist's role as a major player on tax policy came at a time when the tobacco industry was floundering with its conventional lobbying. In an internal Philip Morris memo, in May 1989 Roy Marden outlined the company’s problem: “There is a consensus that we have lost the public opinion battle concerning excises. To attempt to regain the upper hand, we need to improve the argumentation with federal and state officials, create new ways to use current ideas, and devise new ideas, new research and new ways of communicating with policymakers”. [1] (http://legacy.librar...)
Ahead of the election of Bill Clinton as President of the US in late 1992, the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company developed an action plan to address what it described as the “health care excesses issue”. RJR was worried about the possibility that Clinton’s proposals for the introduction of a national health care might “possibly be financed in part by higher cigarette taxes”. [2] (http://tobaccodocume...)
One tactic considered as part of the plan was to consider “possible third-party coalition work” to get ‘credible, non-tobacco voice for hearings and for generating information on issue to media, op-eds, letters etc”. Likely coalition partners included “insurance companies, Americans for Tax Reform and Citizens Against Government Waste.”

Note the strong Republican connections in the campaign—Craig Fuller, mentioned here, was head of the Republican National Committee:

In a February 1994 roundup of Philip Morris lobbying activities, Craig Fuller outlined elements of the company’s efforts to defeat Clinton’s health care proposal. One element, he explained, involved “working with Americans for Tax Reform to develop details on the economic and criminal effects of the prohibitively high-cigarette excises in Canada, including late breaking coverage of the recent tax rollback”.

Sometimes people have a tendency to demonize their opponents.  Well, I’ll just let the reader decide whether Norquist deserves any demonization:

The following month, Norquist was on the road speaking out against increasing taxes on cigarettes at the request of RJR. “Grover Norquist of the Americans for Tax reform will appear in Augusta, Maine, next week to oppose cigarette tax increases. His appearance was requested by RJR”, an internal May 1997 memo reported.[28] (http://legacy.librar...)
In February 1998, Democrats in the U.S. Senate Democratic complained that Norquist had received improper funds from the Republican National Committee and violated ATR's tax-exempt status by engaging in political activities including a direct-mail and phone-bank campaign in 150 Congressional districts challenging Democratic criticism on the GOP's Medicare plan.
Norquist also sought to shore up support amongst wavering Republicans. “I am getting the uneasy feeling that the republicans are increasingly willing to stand aside and allow some sort of tobacco tax to pass during this session. … Clinton and Gore are developing the idea of “good taxes” on “bad things” or “bad people”. Cigarette taxes are first. Then beer. Then big cars. The ultimate target is to use the taxes to fund their own agenda, such as implementing the Kyoto treaty,” Norquist warned.

GEORGE ALLEN’S TIES TO THE INDUSTRY

George Allen may have thrown five interceptions in one game in college, and he may have led UVA to a 45-0 defeat against traditional “powerhouse” Wake Forest, but he’s #1 in one area: taking money from Big Tobacco.  According to Open Secrets http://www.opensecre...  here’s the ranking for this election cycle:

1.Allen, George (R-VA)  Senate $94,950
2.Burns, Conrad (R-MT) Senate $57,700
3.Cantor, Eric (R-VA) House $38,750
4.Lewis, Ron (R-KY)  House $36,750
5.Lott, Trent (R-MS)  Senate $32,800

Usually when one sees stories about “so-and-so politician gets money from slimeball industry” the story is unimpressive because the money involved is small potatoes.  This isn’t.  This is the whole field of potatoes.  Maybe this amount of money explains Allen’s votes on such matters as funding adequate health care for all Americans.  And isn’t it evilly ironic that the wedding of the Republican anti-tax advocates and Big Tobacco occurred because of the tobacco industry’s opposition to an attempt to provide better health care for all Americas?

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

This picture was taken at one of Grover Norquist’s weekly power meetings.  Who’s that over Grover’s left shoulder?  Why, none other than Jeff Gannon, the fake reporter employed by Dick Wadhams’ blogger campaign during the Thune-Daschle race.  You remember Jeff Gannon, the gay male prostitute who had a press pass and access to the White House at all hours?

Here's a pic of Gannon in his "straight" profession.
 

So let's play connect the dots: Gannon-Norquist-Allen-Wadhams -----

It's long enough, it's good enough, and doggone it, people like it! :)

I love it when Al Franken does his MN accent.  I think he will run, and will beat Norm Coleman.

is a tool.