He took credit then. He must take blame now.

He justifiably took credit for helping engineer the historic Republican takeover of the House of Representatives more than a decade ago.

But he milked that takeover for business-as-usual cash, bringing in his crooked crony Jack Abramoff and turning the US House into a whorehouse of scandal and greed.

He turned his Wednesday conservative activist group meetings into front operations for Abramoff's sleazy clients. He duped idealistic people and corrupted others to shill for the likes of Enron, Indian gambling empires, and Chinese sweatshop interests.

Most ominously, he teamed up with the Muslim Brotherhood's Abdurahman Alamoudi, who would one day plead guilty to federal terrorism charges, and Sami Al-Arian, a convicted leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He took money from Alamoudi and Wahhabi interests to undermine the War on Terror. He planted his Islamist friends in sensitive US government posts.

His name is Grover Norquist. In the coming days and weeks, when the pundits point to the GOP scandals surrounding Abramoff, keep in mind that Norquist was Abramoff's enabler, fixer and agent of influence. Norquist indeed helped the Republicans take over the House a half-generation ago. But he helped destroy their achievements in 2006.