Perry to Drop Out, Endorse Gingrich

"Welcome back, Newt... I kept the couch warm for you..."

Stacy Takes Manhattan!

Village Voice discovers Rick Santorum and Stacy McCain!

NEW RICK PERRY BILLBOARD SIGHTED IN AUSTIN...

Robert Stacy McCain reports on turmoil in the Perry Campaign from somewhere in Iowa...

Why I'm not supporting Rick Perry (yet)...

When they wanted to show Ronald Reagan as a working man, a man of the people, they went and got pictures of the man working, the way he always worked...

When they wanted to show us George W. Bush as a working man, a man of the people, they went and shot pictures of him working, the way he always worked....

When they wanted to show us Rick Perry as a working man, a man of the people, they fired up the backlights and the smoke machine and the movie set and the props and the pristine chaps that frankly looked to me like they'd never spent a day in the chaparral...

Look, maybe Rick Perry is a rough tough working buckaroo.  I certainly respect his military service. But back when he was running against Perry for the Governorship, Kinky Friedman laid a serious rap on Perry as an empty suit, a tailor's dummy for the Machine to manipulate.

Handing us a glorified Marlboro Man ad is no way to lay that concern to rest.  And to a lesser extent that's a problem with the rest of his ads, as well.  His denim shirts are always crisp and brand-new, his "work" jackets uncreased and unscarred.  Working folks get dirty, they get wrinkled, and they won't hold against a man who shows up to talk about jobs in a jacket that looks like it's been worked in.

Now I know Kinky has at least come around to the extent of acknowledging that Perry has presided over  some outstanding economic performance by the state of Texas.  But presiding over other people's hard work by itself is not a sign that you can do the work yourself.

And yes, Perry had some brain freezes in those jumped-up reality shows we called debates.  But the thing is, it seems to me, a man with deeply held convictions and intentions could expand on those even if he blocked on a certain specific buzzword or platform point.  Perry needs to show me he can do that yet.

Understand, I could bring myself to vote for Perry regardless, where I don't think I could for Romney or Gingrich.  But I'd be a lot happier if he showed me there was some 'there' there.

Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and a Cast of Thousands...

Presidential hopefuls tend to take credit for the efforts of their coworkers... When Newt Gingrich assumed the Speakership of the House, he was entering an environment where Congressional Republicans, including Rick Santorum and John Boehner (yeah, once upon a time) had already exposed the Democratic Culture of Corruption with their prosecution of the House Bank and Post Office scandals.  Their actions laid the groundwork for the expulsion of Democrat Speaker Jim Wright and the ascension of Newt Gingrich and his Contract with America.  Not to hear him tell it, of course, but...

Rick Perry boasts of the million jobs created during his tenure as Governor.  But the governorship of Texas is actually an office of fairly limited power, as critics of GW Bush liked to remind us.  The actual work of legislating in Texas is in the hands of the Legislature and Lt. Governor.  Perry can rightly take credit for providing leadership and a conscience to the government of Texas, but the state's financial strength has many fathers outside the Governor's mansion.

The point is not that either man is too fond of grabbing undeserved credit.  The point is that we the voters should not be looking for a man on a white horse (or big shiny moon rocket in Newt's case, maybe) to save us single-handedly.  No president we elect can success unless we the voter provide them with a legislative body that will cooperate in the execution of the public's will, as opposed to killing our hopes.  Without that, the greatest leader can rear his white horse and wave his sword all he wants on the path to futility,  With that, even a flawed president can create a legacy that will endure.

It's not on them.  It's on us.

Hey Cowboy, Stop Treating the Border Like a "Border State Thing..."*

"If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they have been brought there by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart." — Rick Perry


And if you think you were elected governor so you could feel good about yourself and better than us, I don't think you have a head, Governor.


Tuition support for indocumentados — illegal immigrants, Governor, you keep forgetting that first word, is a magnet, one of the things that draws them across the border to Texas (and now California, God help us, like they need more encouragement.) 


You may not know this — and I suspect that will become a recurring theme of this piece — but the young people of your state are already being badly served by your state university system.  Your state colleges are already passing over native students of all races with their in-state tuition discounts in favor of actively recruiting more profitable out of state students. Now you decide to add another favored class, financially subsidizing a privileged group that, let's face it, most liberal college leaderships will feel ideologically challenged to give preference to in any case.


College admission is a zero-sum game, Governor.  There are only so many seats. And anything you do that adds difficulty for the legally-resident kids of your state, regardless of race, creed or color, is simply wrong.  I understand you were handed a fait accompli by the Texas State Legislature, but that doesn't mean you have to like it, defend it or insult the people who disagree with you.


Illegal Immigration, Governor, in case you weren't aware of this, is a complication that metastizes across every other issue you claim to be addressing effectively.


Has your crack campaign staff told you that 40% — nearly half if you can't do that math with your custom Lucchese boots on — of the jobs you boast of Texas having created have gone to illegal immigrants?  Sure, those are the crappy, low-end jobs, most likely.  But do you know who that hurts?  The legally-resident children of Texas, Governor, black, white, brown and yellow.


Do you know what those crappy, low-end jobs are Governor?  They're the first jobs, the starter jobs, the jobs that introduce the kids of your state to working for a living,to dealing with bosses, coworkers and customers,  to taking home a paycheck, to spending and saving and making budgets and paying your salary.  They're crummy jobs, by and large, the kinds the kids take — used to take — on summer vacations, between semesters, over the holidays.  Delivering pizza, working the McD's counter, working for their uncle's gardening firm, low-end, low-pay, vitally important jobs at that stage of the kids' lives.


Only now when they go to apply for those jobs, they're being done by — guess who? — middle-aged indocumentados who ain't moving on, up or out to make room for a new generation of workers.  What does that tell the kids about how much Texas and you value their futures and well-being, governor?


You know who really hates this, Governor?  Hispanics.  You know why? Because it's their kids being affected the most.  Indocumentados don't really threaten my job; not too many folks scoot under the fence down in San Ysidro to annotate Restoration comedies.  But Hispanic parents hate illegals — and they do — because they see their kids' jobs being handed over to these intruders.  It's their kids' futures being cut short.  You could have an Hispanic kid whose family has been in Texas since Seguin and Los Tejanos fought at the Alamo, and he will not be able to get a job if an employer can get away with hiring an indocumentado who will work for less, under worse conditions and take more crap because he has to.


Healthcare?  Have you been to any city emergency room in Texas, governor?  The indocumentados place a huge load on emergency services for basic health care... health care that in too many cases they do not pay for.


Respect for law?  Tell me how sanctuary cities encourage respect for law.  Tell me how you condemning Arizona for trying to uphold the law encourages respect for the law.

Actually crime?  How many Houston PD officers were wounded or killed by indocumentados since 2006, Governor?  How many statewide?


And finally, Governor, stop treating the border like a "border state thing" because we're behind your border and the indocumentados move on to our states as well.  If they were just setting down and squatting in CA, AZ and TX, maybe you'd be justified in embracing your inner Huckabee and doing what feels good no matter how many cops it kills, but they don't and you're not.  Act like a national political figure or get out of the race.




*Props to Dave in Texas over at Ace of Spades for the inspiration...

Rick Perry's Immigration Policy... It's a Killer!

Six Houston police officers have been killed or injured since 2006 by illegal immigrants.

Officer Kevin Will

Officer Rodney Johnson

Officer Richard Salter

Officer Gary Gryder

Officer Henry Canales

Officer Nash Patel

Rick Perry refuses to endorse Arizona's AB 1070 immigration enforcement act, describing it as "inappropriate for Texas," while flashily demanding the US send troops to the border.  Is he willing to enforce the law or not?

While in Mexico in 2007, Perry called for "... free flow of individuals between these two countries who want to work and want to be an asset to our country and to Mexico.” while at the same time condemning sanctuary cities in the US.

In the meantime, cops and private citizens in Texas are dying at the hands of criminal indocumentados while Governor Perry straddles the fence.

Which is it, Governor?  One of the things that ended Huckabee's campaign run was his coddling of criminals that led to the deaths of four policemen.  What makes you different?

Does Rick Perry really believe that illegal immigration and the load it puts on our social services and employment is not a factor in our economic woes?  Has he ever visited a big-city emergency room?

Rick Perry's Immigration Policy...

"A day after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law giving thousands of illegal immigrant college students access to private scholarship funds, immigrant advocates said they are aiming for a far bigger prize: California public grants." (LA Times)

"When he first took office as governor in 2001, Perry went to Mexico and bragged about his law that granted “the children of undocumented workers” special in-state tuition at Texas colleges, the first state in the nation to do so.

“The message is simple,” Perry concluded, “educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.” Education is the future, and (echoing Cesar Chavez’s slogan) yes we can." (Politico)
Rick Perry's pander to indocumentados appears to come from a sentimental heart (“to punish these young Texans for their parents’ actions is not what America has always been about.”), but the damage it does as the same as Brown's cold and calculating sell-out.  A bad idea doesn't get better because you mean well, Governor.

Happy birthday, Chuck Norris!

Action hero and American law enforcement icon Chuck Norris turned 71 on Thursday.

In a surprise ceremony Governor Rick Perry today presented him with

a very special present issued to only a select few...

A Genuine Texas Ranger's Walker...