Gingrich, Perry honor MLK legacy
Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, listens to speakers at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration breakfast, Jan. 16, 2012 at the Canal Street Recreation Center in Myrtle Beach.
/ AP Photo/The Sun News, Steve JessmoreThis story was written with Sarah Huisenga.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Taking a break from wooing Republican voters, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry on Monday spent time honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. at a breakfast here while also noting their own efforts to advance African-Americans.
Gingrich told the audience of about 250 people, that the first bill he co-sponsored was legislation to designate King's birthday as a legal holiday. The bill ultimately failed but contributed to momentum that helped the holiday come into being in 1983.
"As a Georgian, I felt a particular obligation to stand up and say this was the right thing to do," he said.
Perry, who spoke second, recalled appointing the first black justice to the Texas Supreme Court, Wallace Jefferson. He later named Jefferson the court's chief justice.
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Perry files appeal to get onto Va. ballot
Texas Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry speaks at a campaign stop, at the Beacon Drive-In January 8, 2012 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
/ Rainier Ehrhardt/Getty ImagesThe appeal argues it would have been impossible for Perry to sue for ballot access any sooner than he did, two business days after he was notified that he did not submit the required 10,000 signatures to have his name on the ballot.
"Another illogical result of the District Court's reasoning is that it would require [Perry], or any candidate for the Presidency, to pre-emptively apply for injunctive relief while there remains a possibility that they may collect the requisite number of signatures to appear on the primary ballot. This is absurd. Candidates for the presidency are focused on running for president, not on fighting legal battles to pre-emptively hold state election laws unconstitutional," the appeal says.
Rick Perry compares himself to Moses
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry smiles during a campaign stop at Lizard's Thicket, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, in Blythewood, S.C.
/ AP Photo/Matt RourkeMYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Rick Perry's no stranger to gaffes, but he has tried to turn it into an asset, making self-deprecating jokes about it on the campaign trail.
On Sunday, he found an ally in speech challenges that drew laughs from the audience of the South Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition prayer breakfast: Moses.
"Moses, he tried to talk god out of making him go lead the people," Perry told the crowd of about 300. "He wasn't a good speaker. Now, from time to time I can relate to that."
Perry's speech, which got a standing ovation from the crowd, urged the members in the audience to vote their values and reject the media narrative about which candidate was best prepared to beat President Obama (a thinly veiled reference to front-runner Mitt Romney.
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GOP candidates lose Virginia ballot challenge
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Updated 11:20 p.m. Eastern Time
A federal judge on Friday ruled against a lawsuit brought by Texas Gov. Rick Perry that challenged Virginia's ballot access laws. If the ruling stands, it will be a two-way race between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for Virginia's delegates.
Judge John Gibney of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said that Perry, as well as Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum may not appear
Gibney wrote that the candidates simply waited too long to request an injunction.
"The Commonwealth is far along in the electoral process," he wrote. "The primary election is so close that the plaintiffs cannot gather the requisite signatures to get on the ballot."
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Perry unwinds at the shooting range
RIDGELAND, S.C. - Running for president is a grueling business. There are early alarms for morning TV shows, late night fundraising calls and a full day of events in between. Candidates need an outlet for relaxation to help keep them focused.
For Rick Perry, that outlet could be found at the Palmetto State Armory here, where he made a late-morning stop to fire off a few (extremely accurate) rounds at a target.
After spending about 15 minutes in the range, Perry showed off his target to reporters with the holes closely clustered in the head and chest. He fired two guns, a 9-mm Ruger SR-9 and an AR-15 manufactured by the Palmetto State Armory.
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Another oops? Perry has another agency to cut
Rick Perry greets supporters during a campaign stop at the Beacon Drive-In January 8, 2012 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
/ Getty Images/Rainier EhrhardtUpdated 2:20 p.m. ET
BLUFFTON, S.C. -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry's enthusiasm for cutting the federal government expanded to include the Interior Department in a radio interview Friday, although he seemed to forget to include Education, a favorite for the chopping block, when asked which federal departments he would cut.
Perry was doing an interview with WTKS 1290, a talk-radio station in Savannah, Ga. When the host asked him which government departments he would cut, he said "Three right off the bat; you know, Commerce, Interior, and Energy are three that you think of."
Perry notoriously forgot one of the three departments during a Nov. 9 debate in Michigan, leading him to quip, "Oops." He later recalled that the three he'd like to cut are Education, Energy, and Commerce.
Continue » Perry urges Congress not to raise debt ceiling
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry smiles during a campaign stop at Lizard's Thicket, Jan. 12, 2012, in Blythewood, S.C.
/ AP Photo/Matt RourkeWALTERBORO, S.C. - Texas Gov. Rick Perry urged members of Congress on Thursday to reject an increase in the debt ceiling requested by President Obama, telling a small audience here that it meant the government would print more money and devalue existing currency.
Continue » Bain attacks backfire on Perry
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry
/ Getty Images/Rainier EhrhardtThe full-throated attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital by his rivals for the GOP nomination may be backfiring. Texas Gov. Rick Perry discovered that the hard way on Thursday when a former fundraiser and key supporter said the attacks crossed the line and switched to the Romney camp.
"I think his attacks on Bain are just inappropriate and not part of what the Republican Party should be standing for," said Barry Wynn, a former Republican state chairman in South Carolina and an investment fund executive who had been helping Perry.
"If you throw hatchets, you're going to get some in the back occasionally," Wynn said in an interview with National Journal/CBS News.
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Perry: "Don't quit on my campaign"
Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at Lizard's Thicket restaurant, Jan. 11, 2012, in Lexington, S.C.
/ AP Photo/David GoldmanAs he traveled the western part of South Carolina on Wednesday, Perry urged voters not to give up on his candidacy as he fights to eke out a win in the state's Jan. 21 primary after his disappointing last-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
"Over the next 11 days, I'm gonna challenge you not to quit," Perry told a group of about 150 people at a town hall meeting in Aiken. "Don't quit on our country, don't quit on my campaign. We'll do whatever we have to do to go share with as many people in South Carolina as we can a story about a great future for this country, that there's somebody that not only has done it, somebody that doesn't just talk about it, but that has got the record of job creation."
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Perry's plan for winning South Carolina
Rick Perry speaks at Kinch's restaurant, Jan. 10, 2012, in Rock Hill, S.C.
/ AP Photo/David GoldmanWith his rivals duking it out in New Hampshire, the Texas governor campaigned in the Palmetto State, lambasting front-runner Mitt Romney for his work at Bain Capital and rival Rick Santorum for his support of earmarks.
At his second stop of the day, in Fort Mill, Perry unleashed the battle cry he hopes will prove true as he fights to save his struggling presidential campaign: "This isn't our Alamo. This is our San Jacinto," Perry said, envisioning a decisive victory that proves he is a viable candidate for the GOP nomination.
Perry's fate in South Carolina may ultimately rest with one man - his own Santa Anna - and that is Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania who finished fourth or fifth in New Hampshire Tuesday after surging to a second-place victory in Iowa a week earlier. Santorum's falter gives Perry a shot at consolidating social conservatives and tea party activists who have a heavy presence in South Carolina.
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Perry labels Romney, Bain Capital as "vultures"
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at the Sun City Lake House, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, in Fort Mill, S.C.
/ AP Photo/David Goldman
"They're vultures that sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick and then they swoop in, they eat the carcass," Perry told a group of about 200 voters here during a town hall here. "They leave with that and they leave the skeleton."
Talking to reporters after the event, the Texas governor suggested that Romney's record hasn't been assessed in the race, though other candidates recently have been joining that line of attack. He has talked about businesses in South Carolina that were restructured or shut down by Bain Capital, costing people jobs.
He fended off criticism of his own his attacks by people who say Bain Capital is just an example of the free market at work - a concept Perry champions in his stump speech, especially when talking about the energy industry. He disagreed with the premise of the criticism, saying that "greedy people" on Wall Street have been taking advantage of Americans.
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Perry attacks Romney for "pink slip" comments
Texas Gov. Rick Perry
/ AP PhotoANDERSON, S.C. - Joining a growing chorus of criticism of Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, rival Rick Perry said Monday that the former Massachusetts governor insulted potential voters by suggesting he understood their pain.
"If you are the victim of Bain Capital's downsizing, it is the ultimate insult for Mitt Romney to come to South Carolina and tell you he feels your pain," the Texas governor told a crowd of about 100 people at Mama Penn's restaurant. "He caused it."
Perry was responding to a comment Romney made in New Hampshire on Sunday saying that he understood the fear of getting pink slips.
"I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips - whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out," Perry said. "Because his company, Bain Capital, all the jobs that he killed, I'm sure he was worried he would run out of pink slips."
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Santorum tells S.C. voters: Pick a conservative
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum answers a question during a Republican presidential candidate debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012.
/ Elise AmendolaGREENVILLE, S.C. - The literal and figurative cold of New Hampshire melted away for Rick Santorum here on Sunday during a one-day campaign swing through South Carolina, where he was hailed by both supporters and conservative leader Gary Bauer as the heir of Ronald Reagan.
The comparison by Bauer, a 2000 presidential hopeful himself who endorsed Santorum over the weekend, is helpful for the narrative the former Pennsylvania senator hopes to create in South Carolina. Santorum is angling for a repeat of the 1980 Republican primary, where Reagan recovered from a narrow loss in the Iowa caucus to trounce the more moderate George H.W. Bush in the first Southern primary.
Accordingly, Santorum warned the more than 100 voters at a Greenville Republican Party fundraiser that they are wholly responsible for delivering a conservative candidate to the party. The moderate to his conservative offering, unsurprisingly, is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is expected to enjoy a double-digit victory in New Hampshire and is also leading polls in South Carolina.
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Perry focuses on faith, Obama in return to S.C.
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry pauses on caucus night Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012, in West Des Moines, Iowa.
/ AP Photo/Evan VucciSPARTANBURG, S.C. -- A feisty Rick Perry returned to South Carolina on Sunday in a last-ditch effort to save his campaign from ending after a disappointing fifth-place finish in Iowa that led him to reassess his candidacy. The Texas governor insisted to voters here that he is not a quitter - and certainly not when the country's future is at stake.
"If anybody wonders about why I'm in this race, that's why," Perry said, as he recalled the national debt and the millions of people looking for work. "I have never quit a day in my life. I have never quit in the face of adversity, and I'm not just about to quit on the future of America. I am going to stay in this race and stay in this fight because our children and our country are worth the fight."
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Joe Arpaio will chair Perry's Arizona campaign
Rick Perry listens as he gets the endorsement of Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Nov. 29, 2011, during a campaign stop at Joey's Diner in Amherst, N.H.
/ AP Photo/Jim ColeAlthough admired by conservatives for his get-tough approach to controlling illegal immigration in his Southern Arizona county, Arpaio is facing allegations by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division on a wide range of issues, including claims of practicing a pattern of racial profiling and discrimination and carrying out heavy-handed immigration patrols based on racially charged citizen complaints.
Arpaio endorsed Perry in the Republican primary before the federal investigation surfaced, and he campaigned for Perry in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
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