Left 'playing for larger stakes' than business
Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief
A panel of political experts warned Republican members of the National Federation of Independent Business to not be overconfident about electoral success this November, despite polls showing a strong lead for GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush.
"The left is playing for larger stakes than we are," says Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
If Republicans win both the presidency and Congress, tort reform legislation would be enacted that would cost trial lawyers billions of dollars and labor unions would have to get their members' permission before using their union dues for political contributions, Norquist says. These changes "would be the end of the organized left as presently structured," he says.
To avoid that possibility, trial lawyers, labor and big-city political machines "will do everything they can" to see that Democrats are not shut of power, Norquist told NFIB members attending the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
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