Just days after Karl Rove slimed liberals and others who opposed the iraq war as terrorist appeasers the Republican message machine emitted another major slime Friday night, but this time it was aimed into the GOP’s own ranks.
Addressing a session of a college-age Republicans convention, Norquist slammed Republican senators who did not toe the line on filibuster:
“He referred to them as “the two girls from Maine and the nut-job from Arizona” – Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and John McCain…”
But it was the broadside by Norquist – who is president of Americans for Tax Reform and ran the College Republicans when Abramoff was its chairman – that raised eyebrows among the students, particularly the reference to McCain.
McCain is chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which is investigating Abramoff’s lobbying on behalf of tribal casino interests. Tension between the two intensified last month, when the committee subpoenaed the financial records of Norquist’s nonprofit group, including the organization’s donor list. Testimony and records showed some tribal funds were directed to Norquist’s organization. But there has been no allegation of wrongdoing by Norquist.
McCain and Collins were unavailable for comment Friday. But a spokeswoman for Snowe said her “only constituency is the people of Maine.”
