Abandon no-new-tax pledge? Some in GOP consider the unthinkable.

Exit polls showed that the GOP is seen as favoring the wealthy over the middle class. That may be leading some to reconsider the party's devotion to the no-new-tax pledge ? at least for the rich.

By Liz Marlantes,?Correspondent / November 16, 2012

Haley Barbour, former Republican governor of Mississippi and chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaks at a General Electric conference on 'American Competitiveness: What Works' in Washington earlier this year. He has said the GOP should consider tax increases on the wealthy as part of a broader fiscal reform package.

Joshua Roberts/REUTERS/File

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As the Republican Party continues its post-election ?proctology exam? (as the always colorful former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour ? a Republican ? put it), analyzing what went wrong and how to restore the party brand, we?re starting to hear hints at a prescription that just two years ago would have been unheard of: Maybe it?s time to throw Grover Norquist under the bus.

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Mr. Norquist, of course, is the president of Americans for Tax Reform, and the author of the famous ?no new taxes? pledge taken by most GOP members of Congress. In years past, if politicians violated ? or even threatened to violate ? the pledge, Norquist at times responded by running attack ads against them and even supporting primary challengers.

But as the parties begin negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" ? the automatic spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to hit at the end of the year ? there are signs that Norquist may be losing some sway. For one thing, as The Hill's Russell Berman recently noted, in the next session the number of members who have taken the pledge will go down to fewer than half overall. This is in part because of GOP losses, but also because roughly a dozen newly elected Republicans did not sign it, and a handful of returning Republicans have now explicitly rejected it.?

And notably, Republicans are not only making conciliatory comments about new tax "revenue" in general ? but some are also explicitly saying they'd accept higher tax rates on the wealthy.

Of course, no one is suggesting that the party should abandon its overall commitment to low taxes. But there is clearly a growing realization among many Republicans that the party?s current image as favoring the wealthy at the expense of the middle class has become politically toxic ? as has the perception that the party puts ideological purity before practicality. As Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) wrote in an opinion piece for CNN: "We must not be the party that simply protects the well off so they can keep their toys."?

Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol kicked off the "let's consider higher tax rates for the rich" conversation last weekend, when he said on Fox News Sunday: ?It won?t kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires. It really won?t.? He then asked rhetorically: ?Really? The Republican Party is going to fall on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires, half of whom voted Democratic, and half of whom live in Hollywood and are hostile to Republicans??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/HeycCknfLb0/Abandon-no-new-tax-pledge-Some-in-GOP-consider-the-unthinkable

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