Norquist’s consistent ideas cut across left and right

If there's one thing in politics there's far too much of, it's intellectual dishonesty.

Republicans who sat mute while the John Ensign scandal metastasized until it forced his resignation now leap to the microphones to call for Rep. Anthony Weiner to quit for lesser offenses.

Democrats who assailed President George W. Bush for making war on Iraq with no justification now sit silent as President Barack Obama laughably insists U.S. bombing missions aren't "hostilities" within the meaning of the War Powers Resolution.

That's why it's refreshing when somebody comes along with a consistent political philosophy, one that doesn't seek to accrue advantage to one party over the other as much as carry out a coherent viewpoint.

Meet Grover Norquist, the president of Americans For Tax Reform and the author of a new book, "Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives."

A poll-tested title? Undoubtedly. But as Norquist noted in a speech to the annual Conservative Leadership Conference at the M Resort on Saturday, it's a message that cuts both ways.

According to Norquist's book, there are two "coalitions": the left, which wants to take via taxes, and the right, which simply wants to be left alone. This latter coalition is made up of people who, Norquist writes, "do not want the government to give them something. Or take something from others. On the key issue that motivates their vote, they want one simple thing from government: They just want to be left alone."

And this coalition, he insists, is made up all kinds of people: Religious conservatives. Fiscal conservatives. Gun-rights conservatives. National-defense conservatives. They may each use their freedom differently, and they may part ways on what is good and moral and proper, but they agree on one thing: They want to be left alone.

Norquist told the conservative crowd Saturday that in the current system, Republicans and Democrats argue over tax money that's constantly thrown on the table by both parties perpetuating the system. "Our job is to stop throwing money into the center of the other team's table," he said.

Agree or disagree, you have to give Norquist this: He doesn't want to take over the reins of government to turn the mighty machinery toward ends he thinks are proper; he wants to take over the reins of government to make sure nobody can use the mighty machinery of government to do much of anything at all.

And while that is sure to bring howls of protest from the left, you should listen to hear some howls from the right, too. After all, the Norquist Doctrine -- if it's consistently applied -- would deny the GOP the chance to funnel big chunks of taxpayer dollars to oil companies in the form of tax breaks. It would deny corporations the chance to lobby for pernicious regulations that hamstring upstart competitors. It would stop Republicans (and Democrats) from steering military contracts to their home districts, especially when the military says it doesn't need that new airplane.

It's very definitely arguable whether Norquist is right -- a government small enough to be drowned in a bathtub, as he once phrased it, is too small to step in where rational and reasonable regulations make sense. But it's not arguable that Norquist is at least consistent, as well as intellectually honest.

In an age in which GOP presidential candidates can bounce from extolling the virtues of small government in one breath to waxing philosophical about foreign military adventurism or government regulations intruding into the most private areas of American life, a little intellectual honesty has to be a good thing.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist, and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/SteveSebelius or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@ reviewjournal.com.