GROVER NORQUIST: Link to Lobbyist Brings Scrutiny to G.O.P. Figure

[steve2470]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/politics/23norquist.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=d8dd8e69ab424fc2&hp&ex=1116820800&partner=homepage&oref=login


By KATE ZERNIKE and ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: May 23, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 18 - In Republican Washington, Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist worked all the angles.

One was a $750-an-hour lobbyist, the other an antitax activist, and they helped drive the Republican takeover of the capital and cement the party's power. Both had a close ally in the House majority leader, Tom DeLay. And they shared a conservative ideology and a friendship going back to their days in college.


Grover Norquist has had a hand in conservative causes in Washington for nearly two decades.

Now, with widening Congressional and criminal inquiries in the capital into Mr. Abramoff's dealings, they are sharing trouble, too.

While Mr. Abramoff has been under scrutiny for more than a year, Mr. Norquist has attracted unwelcome attention in recent weeks. A Congressional committee investigating whether Mr. Abramoff defrauded Indian tribes has subpoenaed records from Mr. Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, after he refused for six months to turn them over voluntarily.

<snip>