We will leave it up to the reader to determine whether Grover Norquist has made serious errors in in judgment.  Grover has supported a Conservative Far Right Christian position especially when it comes to Church and State issues.  It is apparent from the data collected, that the first amendment may be in danger from his past and future actions as well as other constitutional sections.  He has supported deregulation of banks and the SEC causing the current economic Depression.

Grover Norquist's office stated that his position is that Certain Religions aren't   "Real" religions.  What is a real religion, Mr. Norquist?  What you have been practicing?  He says on the one hand that only certain Christian denominations are valid.  Read the following and remember: "By their Works may they be known."  This is a summary of information collected from several sources about Grover Norquist.

(Remember it is best to investigate on your own when looking at allegations about anyone.     Don't believe us, think for yourself and investigate for yourself!  And remember, the First Amendment Coalition and Religious Freedom Coalition of the South East do not represent any political party nor do we recommend any political candidate, nor are we involving ourselves in the political process.)

CHRISTIAN EXTREMIST REPUBLICANS ARE THE ENEMY AND TRAITORS TO AMERICA by R. Blackbird

Christian Extremist Republicans are selfish, power hungry, hateful of the poor, disloyal to the nation and its people, dishonest, avaricious, scornful of the nation's history, the dignity of its institutions, its standards of political morality, and its vision of advancement for all the people. The Christian Extremist Republicans love war as long as they and theirs do not have to put on helmets and carry guns into the fighting. They use lies to start wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocents and thousands of our own military service people. They love massive war-time profits, unavailable to their rich masters if war is absent.

Those Christian Extremist Republicans hate the rest of us, which they must, in order to pass away from themselves and onto us, the financial burdens and losses their crimes, schemes and thefts cause. They are prolific, incessant, and destructive liars. They are blasphemers for they insist that their hateful and destructive deeds are the work of God. They are apostates for they gleefully attack the poor, the immigrants, the old and the sick, of whom God has commanded all of us to be mindful.

There is no reasoning with them, for all their logic is built on false premises. There is no appealing to them for honor's sake for they have lost all sense of shame and have no honor, there is no appealing to them for the nation's sake for that it what they hate the most.

Christian Extremist Republicans are the enemy.

How Grover Norquist Hypnotized the GOP

Excerpt from an article in washingtonpost.com by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Published: June 30, 2011

At our 25th college reunion in 2003, Grover Norquist — the brain and able spokesman for the radical right — and I, along with other classmates who had been in public or political life, participated in a lively panel discussion about politics. During his presentation, Norquist explained why he believed that there would be a permanent Republican majority in America.

One person interrupted, as I recall, and said, “C’mon, Grover, surely one day a Democrat will win the White House.”

Norquist immediately replied: “We will make it so that a Democrat cannot govern as a Democrat.”

In a way, Republicans have accomplished that. This spring, in an effort to reduce the deficit, a Democratic president proposed to cut $2 trillion in spending, much of it from domestic programs Democrats have long championed. Last week, Republican leaders withdrew from talks with the vice president on a bipartisan plan to reduce the deficit because, as another part of the solution and like every bipartisan budget deal for decades, the president proposed to raise revenue. Specifically, he proposed to raise $1 in new revenue (through closing loopholes or ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans) for every $2 in spending cuts. In response to that modest proposal, Republican leaders walked out.

It is now clear that the Republican strategy is to drive America to the brink of fiscal ruin and then argue that the only way out is to cut spending for the powerless. Taxes — a dirty word thanks to Norquist’s “no new taxes” gimmick — are made to seem beyond the pale, even as the burden of paying for our society shifts disproportionately to the middle class and working poor. It is the height of fiscal folly. It is also not who we are as a country.

For nearly a decade, our federal government paid for two wars and a costly prescription drug benefit with borrowed money. Our government paid for the Bush tax cuts with borrowed money. Now, after exhausting the budget surplus left by the Clinton administration, the only spending Republicans are willing to discuss cutting is spending that helps the poor and vulnerable — meaning anything that does not touch the interests of large corporations and the very rich. Last December, Republican hard-liners held hostage benefits for people out of work in exchange for an agreement to extend the Bush tax cuts for those who make a million dollars or more a year. Last month, many of the same lawmakers rallied to protect special tax benefits for oil companies that have made record profits on high gas prices.

Meanwhile, some mom-and-pop stores and college students pay more in taxes than some of our largest corporations. Still, taxes are sin to the hard-liners, though they have difficulty demonstrating a correlation over the past decade between tax cuts and economic growth.

Everyone knows that we have to reduce the deficit. Everyone also knows that reducing government spending and addressing revenue shortfalls have to be a part of the plan. This isn’t partisan; it’s pragmatic. Some might even call it conservative. But Norquist and the rest of the radical right have so hypnotized the Republican leadership that they can’t come out and say it. For them, maintaining their rhetoric about spending cuts is more important than preserving the civic investments that make America stand out from the rest of the world.

That political calculus has consequences for the rest of us.

If the deficit is reduced by spending cuts alone and there is no deal to raise the debt ceiling, here’s a sampling of what happens: We stop paying our soldiers or supporting our veterans. We stop feeding the neediest children and families. We stop providing nursing-home care to seniors. We stop inoculating schoolchildren. We stop helping young people go to college. The unemployed are on their own. Roads and bridges continue to crumble. And we jeopardize the creditworthiness of our economy at one of the most fragile moments in history. All to protect the marginal benefits of the most fortunate and the political purity of the radical right.

I remember sitting in the Dunster House dining hall at Harvard with Norquist when we were sophomores or juniors in college, while he explained his view of government, or lack thereof. It sounded logical — the notion that we could live independently of each other, making our own decisions in our own self-interest. But then who puts out the fires? Who answers the calls to 911? Who educates poor children? Who helps people with disabilities?

I’d like to think that the most prosperous nation in human history can have both freedom and security. I think we have reached a point where my personal success is not threatened by a program to help our parents retire with dignity. Voters are smart enough to see that taxes are one of the ways we get those things. They are the price we pay for civilization.

The writer, a Democrat, is governor of Massachusetts.

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Why Grover Norquist Is the Most Powerful Republican in America

Excerpt from an article on huffingtonpost.com by Eric Parker March 8, 2011

He's more powerful than House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the Koch brothers, yet not many people have heard of Grover Norquist or his "Taxpayer Protection Pledge."

Mr. Norquist, founder and president of the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), is simply the single most influential Republican of the past 25 years.

Politicians may come and go, but since 1985, Mr. Norquist has been getting an increasing number of Republicans to sign his tax pledge to the point where he now has 237 members of the House and 41 in the Senate at his disposal.

When you have the majority of the House -- including House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and enough votes in the Senate to prevent legislation from coming up for a vote, that's real power.

When your organization's tax pledge is THE litmus test for Republicans running for office on the national level, you wield more power in your party than anyone in Congress.

Thanks to Mr. Norquist's growing influence over the past two-and-a-half decades, failure to pledge allegiance to the "no new taxes" mantra effectively dooms one's chances of getting the GOP nod for the House, Senate or White House.

To strengthen Mr. Norquist's hand, the GOP base is challenging Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) from the right -- because both refused to sign the tax pledge.

According to Mr. Norquist's tax pledge, politicians who sign it "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses," and "oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."

If we want to know the real story behind the $14 trillion federal debt and our annual $1.5 trillion deficits, we have to look at Mr. Norquist and his tax pledge.

If we want to know why the Republicans won the staring contest on extending the Bush tax cuts -- which are part of the "starve the beast" strategy -- the answer is Mr. Norquist and his tax pledge.

When we have successive stopgap funding bills because the GOP's only solution to the deficit is draconian cuts, blame Mr. Norquist and his tax pledge.

And when GOP leaders at both the national and state levels try to balance the budget by cutting programs that help seniors, students, the middle class and low-income families -- take a bow, Mr. Norquist.

Because of their allegiance to Mr. Norquist's tax pledge, Republicans dismiss out of hand "revenue enhancement" measures (as President Ronald Reagan called tax hikes) such as highly-popular and common-sense ideas of raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires, Wall Street bankers and the big oil companies.

That is why the GOP went on a cutting spree on the House floor when formulating their measure to fund the federal government through the end of 2012.

And that is why the debt commission's recommendation was dead on arrival.

As long as there's a House majority and at least 41 Senators who are signed onto the tax pledge, income and long-term capital gains tax rates will not return to pre-Bush levels and the estate tax (aka "the death tax") will not go back to where it was before 2002 -- because that would be raising taxes according to Mr. Norquist.

Remember, long-term capital gains -- which one pays on investment income such as stocks, bonds and real estate -- is how the Wall Street folks responsible for the Great Recession and the corporate CEOs make their millions. For three decades, they have seen their portfolios grow exponentially, while most American household incomes have stagnated.

Wall Street and corporate CEOs owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Norquist.

Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote in his March 2 piece in the Huffington Post that investment income should be treated the same as wage income. He's right, but doing so would mean raising taxes, and unless the tax-pledge crowd loses the House and drops below 41 Senators, it's not going to happen.

On the state level, guess who else has signed Mr. Norquist's tax pledge? Union-busting governors Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) and John Kasich (R-Ohio).

With his House majority, his filibustering Senators and his union-busting governors, Mr. Norquist has his hands in every big fiscal debate -- in Washington and in the states -- for more than two decades now.

And that is why Grover Norquist is the most powerful Republican in America.

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Powerful GOP Activist Sees His Influence Slip Over Abramoff Dealings

From an excerpt by  Jonathan Weisman on washingtonpost.com July 9, 2006

For more than a decade, Grover G. Norquist has been at the nexus of conservative activism in Washington, becoming a Bush administration insider whose weekly strategy sessions at his Americans for Tax Reform have drawn ever-larger crowds of lawmakers, lobbyists and even White House political adviser Karl Rove.

Over the past six years, Norquist has been a key cheerleader and strategist for successive White House tax cuts, extracting ironclad oaths from congressional Republicans not to even think about tax increases. And even before President Bush's election, he positioned himself as a gatekeeper for supplicants seeking access to Bush's inner circle.

But in the aftermath of reports that Norquist served as a cash conduit for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the irascible, combative activist is struggling to maintain his stature as some GOP lawmakers distance themselves and as enemies in the conservative movement seek to diminish his position.

"People were willing to cut him a lot of slack because he's done a lot of favors for a lot of people," said J. Michael Waller, a vice president of the right-leaning Center for Security Policy who for several years was an occasional participant at Norquist's Wednesday meetings. "But Grover's not that likable."

Norquist has lashed back at his critics, accusing them of dishonesty, personal vendettas and political gamesmanship. He has saved his choicest words for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whose Senate Indian Affairs Committee last month stated in a report that for a small cut, Americans for Tax Reform served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns.

"The idea that our friend John McCain yelling at me would hurt me misses McCain's position" among conservatives, Norquist said. "John McCain thinks he can't be president if I'm standing here saying he's got a problem with taxes."

Mark Salter, McCain's longtime aide, replied: "Obviously, Grover is not well. It would be cruel of us to respond in kind."

For now, Norquist's well-publicized financial links to Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges and is cooperating with prosecutors, have had little obvious impact on Norquist's prominence. Nor have they affected his signature event: the meeting every Wednesday morning at Americans for Tax Reform, where officials of conservative organizations, activists and lobbyists gather with Republican politicians to swap notes, make plans and coordinate messages. The June 28 meeting in downtown Washington was packed.

"I don't think he's lost one iota of influence in conservative circles," said Cesar Conda, a Republican lobbyist and a former top aide to Vice President Cheney.

But beneath the outward signs of normalcy, the infighting is taking a toll on Norquist's standing. Some social conservatives who have jousted with him over his more libertarian views on the regulation of television and its depictions of violence and depravity are exploiting his weakness to press their positions on Capitol Hill. Security-minded defense hawks who for years have questioned his ties to Muslim activists are resurrecting charges that Norquist has turned a blind eye to terrorist sympathizers.

Republican lawmakers who have chafed at his dogmatic position on taxes are also ready to shrug off his heavy hand. In recent interviews, a half-dozen conservative GOP lawmakers said they are consciously avoiding Norquist's meetings, and they have begun questioning the purity of an activist who has always portrayed himself as motivated by ideals, not money.

"For someone like Grover Norquist, his influence stems from the sense that he is not doing this for the money," said Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.). "To the extent that he may be seen playing both sides of an issue, that will give people pause."