Listening to the conservative activist Grover Norquist talk about the no-new-taxes pledge that he has made his life’s work can be like listening to a die-hard “Lord of the Rings” fan explain the back story to how the age of elves is ending and the age of men is beginning. It’s all about arcane rites and rules that are impossible to follow, and it’s treated like religion.

Appearing on CNN today, Mr. Norquist was asked about the growing number of Republicans who are saying that maybe Congress will, in fact, have to raise taxes in order to avoid a fiscal cliff now and cut the budget deficit later.

Mr. Norquist followed the old Washington maxim: he admitted nothing, denied everything and made counter charges.

He said there was no real Republican fallout against the tax pledge, just “some people discussing impure thoughts on national television.” His interviewer laughed, but Mr. Norquist didn’t. And the rest of his comments made it pretty clear that he views the no-taxes pledge as a thing of awesome majesty, an act of pure faith, something that cannot be laughed at —– even though it no longer enjoys the support it once had in Congress.

Mr. Norquist rejected New York Representative Peter King’s argument that the tax pledge, which Republicans are coerced into signing when they run for Congress, is only valid for that term and does not apply to an entire career. “Peter King knows full well that the pledge he signed is for while you’re in Congress,” Mr. Norquist said.

He declared piously that, after all, the pledge is not to him (which, of course, it is) but rather to voters (which, of course, it is not) even though his group, Americans for Tax Reform, spent $16 million in this last election cycle to promote its no-taxes position in Congressional races.

Mr. Norquist further noted that Ohio Representative Steven LaTourette’s argument, upon his retirement, that the pledge was a one-term commitment didn’t “pass the laugh test.”

But Mr. Norquist’s entire tax crusade fails to pass the laugh test as serious – or even unserious — economic policy. It has mired the United States in economic turmoil. And yet it endures, because Republicans are afraid they will be made to pay for their transgressions in the next election.