Are Republicans Really Breaking with Grover Norquist?

slate.com — This is too easy, which means that it’s wrong. Republicans have mostly mastered the buzzwords of fiscal policy in general and the fiscal cliff specifically. Reporters, for all of the obvious reasons, crank up the headlines and “Breaking News “chyrons, when they hear those buzzwords. But the Republicans now denouncing Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge don’t represent a critical mass of tax-hike votes. If you were a cynic, you might think that the great GOP moderates were using the pledge to play the press. And if they were doing that, how would they pull it off? Why, they’d use the sorts of words that imply a separation from GOP tax dogma, but in a way that doesn’t actually worry Norquist. I asked Norquist to thumb through the key buzzwords and buzz-phrases and explain why they don’t spook him.

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