Arkansas Blog

Somebody passed along to me today an e-mail from Tim Griffin, the infamous Republican political research man and former U.S. attorney. It's on the jump. He's still dabbling in political issues, even if he isn't currently working for the RNC on this year's presidential campaign.

As a "favor" to friends, he told me, he's agreed to hold an organizational meeting for a state "center-right coalition," a group that would have a kinship, if not a formal relationship, to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform.

Griffin said he didn't have time to head such a group himself, but was willing to see if others were willing to take that role. He's sent out e-mails to his list of contacts and others. Republicans, social conservatives, business executives and others are on the invite list. It's not a partisan group, he said. Democrats are welcome, but tax-and-spenders like myself undoubtedly wouldn't feel very much at home. Griffin said there's no specific motivation in the form of a single pressing issue for formation of the group at this time. If it is formed, he said, it would be with a view toward a permanent presence, not just for this election year.

He said he'd been told 45 states have such groups sympathetic to or loosely affiliated with Norquist's national group. He said he didn't yet have an idea of what the initial response would be. He said he expected perhaps 10 people at the meeting next week.