Mingle Until Departure

Brought to our attention by loyal reader EJL, an article in today's LATimes has on-the-record quotes from the major intellectual authors of the Real Republican Agenda that are damn near shocking. Not shocking in what they're saying - if you've been paying attention, I've been pointing out what these people are actually up to for some time - but in that they're out in the open proclaiming their evil, cynical agenda for what it is. The headline says it pretty well - "Dominance on GOP Agenda," but I'll also let messrs. Norquist, Moore, etc., say it for themselves:

President Bush's agenda for the next four years, much of which he will highlight in his State of the Union address tonight, includes many proposals that would not only change public policy but, the GOP hopes, achieve an ambitious political goal: Stripping money and voters from the Democratic Party and cementing Republican dominance for years after he leaves office.
...
"If we could succeed in getting some form of tort reform passed — medical malpractice reform or any of part of that — it would go a long ways toward … taking away the muscle, the financial muscle that they have," said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who ousted Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle last fall despite a heavy flood of trial lawyer money backing the Democrat.
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Bush's plan to alter Social Security, for example, would allow younger workers to divert some of their payroll taxes into privately owned retirement accounts. GOP strategists hope it would also foster a new "investor class" that would vote Republican.

Republican support for free trade undermines labor unions which, like trial lawyers, are a bedrock of the Democratic Party, strategists say.

The president's faith-based initiative, which encourages government funding for religious social service agencies, and his opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage are popular with socially conservative African Americans, who have for decades leaned Democratic but are increasingly viewed as potential GOP voters.
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"Are we doing it because it creates more Republicans? Or are we doing it because it's the right thing to do, and by the way, it also happens to create more Republicans?" asked Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and a frequent advisor to Karl Rove, Bush's chief political advisor. "It's both."

And with the money shot, none other than the Club for Growth's Stephen Moore:

"Every one of the ideas for the most part has merits on its own, so … they're defensible," said Stephen Moore, a conservative activist who plans to raise $10 million this year to advertise on behalf of Bush's Social Security plans. "But I think, altogether, this was devised as a Karl Rove grand plan to cement in place a Republican governing coalition that could last for a generation or more."

"Defensible...but...a Karl Rove grand plan."
Stephen Moore, a thoroughly detestable piece of slime, at least does us the courtesy of saying out loud what their real thinking is - namely, they're dressing up blatantly partisan political lawmaking in the guise of responsible policy. But make no mistake - there's one goal, and one goal alone, in all of these proposals, and it ain't the well-being of the American people.
Read the whole article - if you weren't already thoroughly aware of just how evil these guys are, you will be (also look for the great quote by our ol' buddy Newt).

I'll say it again - it's clear that these people are without honor or shame.