“Jobs numbers a death knell for Dems?”  That is the question posed to Grover Norquist in Politico’s “The Arena.”  He responds: “Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress are turning a recession into a Depression… This was done once before by Hoover and Roosevelt who -- and does this ring any bells? -- raised marginal tax rates, spent vast sums of borrowed money to “stimulate” the economy, railed against evil businessmen who viewed the collapse of the rule of law a reason to avoid investing, the empowerment of labor union bosses at the expense of workers, the glorification of make-work government jobs and a focus on blaming others for the president’s mistakes.”

Luis Fortuno, the Chris Christie of the Caribbean! From National Review’s Battle10 blog: “Luis Fortuno, governor of Puerto Rico, was in Philadelphia today making his rounds on an endorsement circuit for Pat Toomey… Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, praised Fortuno and characterized his endorsement as significant for Toomey with 25 days remaining until Election Day… Fortuno’s endorsement is ‘very helpful,’ Norquist told Battle ’10… Norquist told Battle ‘10 Fortuno ‘has governed as a Reagan Republican’ on the island, and praised him as ‘the Chris Christie of Puerto Rico.’”

FactCheck.org highlights the continuing evolution of the Democrats' “blatantly false” attack on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge:  “Democrats and their allies can’t get enough of the Americans for Tax Reform tax pledge — which, as we’ve reported, they’ve falsely equated in a number of ads with ‘protecting tax loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas.’… We expected, as we said in April, that we would see this line of attack ‘against nearly any Republican House candidate, all but a few of whom have signed the anti-tax pledge in question.’ But we didn’t expect to see it against a candidate for governor.”

The Salem News and TheOtherMcCain.com both pile on the rebuttals to the Democrats’ attacks on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.  Barbara Anderson of The Salem News notes, “It's not surprising that Democrats don't know how the Taxpayer Protection Pledge works; none of them running here this year have taken it. It actually does allow loopholes to be closed if other taxes are cut at the same time, avoiding a net tax increase.” Not to be outdone, Robert Stacey McCain of TheOtherMcCain.com not only notes the involvement of Big Labor in the Democrats’ attacks this fall, but adds, “So if any Republican takes the Americans for Tax Reform pledge against new taxes, Democrats say this amounts to being in favor of shipping jobs to China — an absurd and outrageous lie that ignores the realities of both tax policy and trade policy.”

Posted by Will Upton on Monday, October 11, 2010 4:34 PM EDT

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