Today at the Conservative bloggers briefing we were joined by Grover Norquist at the ATR offices on L Street NW (typically our weekly meetings are hosted @Heritage but we're moving around due to the construction at Heritage).

Grover was on hand to discuss his new book, Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives. I've now got a signed copy of the book which I plan on reading and I'd encourage you to pick one up at your favorite online retailer.

After Grover's discussion of the book (which I expect Joe will blog about shortly in this space), I asked him about his impact in the movement with regard to the technology + politics space. Specifically, I asked Grover about the Republican YouTube/CNN debate which used his submission.

After I showed the question to the group as a refresher, I asked Grover, "What kind of feedback have you heard from within the movement with regard to the movement online?"

His answer:

“A lot of people saw the video that night and after the debate. [By using YouTube and having our question asked, it] raised the visibility of the issue.

"I was one of the few Republicans that asked a question. Our team needs to get more comfortable with [communicating through mediums like YouTube]. We need to be on the production-side as well. Had we sent in more questions from the center-right, we would have had more of an impact. I’ve been recommending to others to put their material out there and it will get picked up."

With regard to embracing new technology to better deliver a message, Grover recalled how Newt would put new tools in to context of what Member's were already willing to do:

"I remember Newt Gingrich asking his fellow Members if they would travel to meet with his local Chamber of Commerce to give a speech. They all said they would. Then Newt asked then if they would take to the floor of the House of Representatives to deliver a five-minute floor speech where 200K people would see the message because it was being broadcast on C-SPAN."

His conclusion was important:

"In politics, everyone has access to the same technology, it’s a question of whether or not you use it or not. We need to teach the old dogs new tricks, and we also need to teach the new dogs new tricks because the new dogs will be around for 60 years.

"We’re getting there on it. These things are do-it-yourself. You have to do it to see the results for yourself. It was a good teaching moment and very cool.”

Grover's absolutely right. The Right needs to better embrace modern tools, like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I think our movement is better served having our prominent General's, like Grover, helping push that ball further down the field.

RESOURCES:
* Examiner profile on Grover Norquist.
* Americans for Tax Reform website.
* Grover's new book, "Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives."