Just yesterday, the Washington Post noted the bizarre stranglehold that Grover Norquist and his anti-tax zealotry has over Republicans in Congress.

Today, during his weekly press conference, House Speaker John Boehner was asked by NBC’s Luke Russert what he thought about Norquist’s influence on Republicans, to which Boehner responded with a bizarre dismissal:

BOEHNER: Our focus here is on jobs. We’re doing everything I can to get our economy going, to get people back to work. It’s not often I’m asked about some random person. RUSSERT: To your conference, is Grover Norquist a random person? BOEHNER: Listen, our focus is on creating jobs, not talking about somebody’s personality.

Ummm …really? Because the last time we checked, it was rather uncommon for “some random person” to be seated right next to high-ranking GOP leaders like John Boehner: