The skeletons in Rick Perry's closet
File,AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
The buzz around Perry isn't just driven by the polling. It's grounded in the fact that Perry could potentially bridge the divide between the Tea Party conservatives and the party establishment. To borrow a phrase from Perry's predecessor in the Texas governor's office, who went on to bigger things: Perry could be a uniter, not a divider, that the GOP is desperate to find.
Consider: Romney, like fellow Massachusetts politician John Kerry before him, cannot seem to escape the perception that he is ultimately an establishment figure - and is thus viewed with skepticism (or worse) by many in the Tea Party and social conservative circles. Rep. Michele Bachmann, by contrast, is beloved by many Tea Partiers and social conservatives, but she's largely dismissed inside the Beltway as a fringe figure with little in the way of legislative accomplishment or policy chops.
CBSNews.com special report: Election 2012
Perry can potentially bridge that divide: He aggressively embraced the Tea Party as it was getting off the ground, pushing a message of limited federal government (he's a strong critic of the federal health care overhaul). And his Texas swagger - the often cowboy boot-clad governor once shot a coyote that menaced his puppy during a jog - doesn't hurt. In a McClatchy-Marist poll last month, Perry was the most popular GOP presidential contender among Tea Party supporters.
And Perry is an evangelical Christian who knows how to win over social conservatives through both his policies - he signed into law a bill mandating that a woman seeking an abortion see a sonogram first - and his public acts. On August 6, he's hosting a much-publicized prayer and fasting event to heal "a nation that has not honored God in our successes or humbly called on Him in our struggles."
Yet Perry is also an establishment figure who is well-liked by top party figures. He runs the Republican Governor's Association, a post that affords him important contacts across the country and the ability to do favors that can eventually be called in, thanks in large part to the RGA's fundraising prowess. During Perry's long tenure in Austin, Texas has been one of the nation's few bright spots when it comes to job creation, affording Perry credibility in making the case to business leaders and average Americans that he be a better steward of the economy than President Obama. Perry would enter the race with an extensive donor network, a coterie of well-respected aides and the likely tacit support of a Republican establishment that sees Bachmann as a hopeless general election candidate and Romney as far from ideal.
But the enthusiasm over a possible Perry candidacy has thus far clouded one inconvenient truth: While the governor is currently the model of a Tea Party politician, his past includes plenty to give Tea Partiers and social conservatives pause if and when they decide to take a closer look.
That fact was highlighted last Thursday, when former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took a very pointed shot at Perry. "For all his new found commitment to hyper-conservatism," said the former GOP presidential candidate, "he'll get to explain why he supported pro-abortion, pro-same sex marriage Rudy Guiliani last time."
Perry's support for Giuliani - whose moderation on social issues alienated social conservatives and contributed to his dramatic flameout in the 2008 presidential race - isn't his only potentially problematic endorsement. He doesn't much like to talk about it these days, but Perry was actually a Democrat until 1989; the year before he converted to the GOP, he served as Texas chairman for then-presidential candidate (and current target of conservative disdain) Al Gore.
Then there are the issues, chief among them immigration. Perry, who presides over a state with a large and growing Hispanic population. has been criticized by Texas Tea Party groups for not pushing hard enough to pass a "sanctuary city" ban and other hard-line immigration legislation. In 2001, he signed the Texas version of the DREAM Act allowing children of illegal immigrants access to in-state college tuition. As Arizona Sen. John McCain's reelection campaign illustrated last year, any perceived softness on immigration issues can become a major headache in a Republican primary.
There are niche issues that could hurt Perry, like his support for the (never-created) Trans-Texas Corridor, a toll-road despised by small-government types that would have meant the appropriation of an estimated 81,000 acres of rural land. Or the executive order he signed in 2007 requiring that Texas sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer. (The order was ultimately blocked, but the order outraged many conservatives.)
And then there's the elephant in the room: Texas' debt problem. In the 2010 governor's race, Democrat Bill White pointed out that Texas' debt has doubled under Perry. Since 2001, according to the Star-Telegram's Mitchell Schnurman, Texas' debt has grown at a faster rate than that of the U.S. government. Perry assumed office in December 2000.
All this could lead Republican voters to the same conclusion about Perry that many have made about Romney, whose position on a number of issues has shifted over the years: That he is a political opportunist without core beliefs. Some conservative bloggers have already seized on a list of 14 reasons Perry "would be a really, really bad president." The list points to many of the issues mentioned above as well as tax increases. One blogger, citing the list, derides Perry as "a big-time globalist."
Perry's past breaks with Tea Party-orthodoxy could potentially stay below-the-radar if he enters the race. But Perry's rivals for the nomination are unlikely to ignore them, particularly if Perry is as strong a candidate as he looks. The question for Perry, if he runs, is whether he will be able to convince Tea Partiers and the rest of the GOP base that, occasional missteps notwithstanding, he is ultimately one of their own.
The narrowing GOP presidential field
Popular in Politics
- IRS' Lerner: "I have not done anything wrong" 413 Comments
- Officials on Benghazi: "We made mistakes, but without malice" 438 Comments
- Anthony Weiner comeback try begins: Running for NYC mayor 116 Comments
- Major immigration overhaul passes first big test
- Christie: Keep politics out of Oklahoma disaster relief
- Obama to view Oklahoma tornado damage Sunday
- Will tornado relief funding escape politics?
- Top IRS official to invoke 5th Amendment at congressional testimony 218 Comments
"It turns out a lot of the Texas job creation that readers will be hearing Gov. Rick Perry brag about came about from public hiring. The WSJ reports that 300,000 public sector jobs have been added in Texas in the last decade.
'Over the past decade, Texas has added more people than any other state and now accounts for 8.1% of the U.S. population, up from about 7.4% in 2000. And Texas has added more than one in five of the public-sector jobs nationwide, including those at the local, state and federal levels.'
And what does Mr. Perry have to say,
"Government doesn't create any jobs," he said last month on Glenn Beck's show on Fox News. "They can actually run jobs away."
Wow, that the man can say that with a straight face and not suffer near fatal embarrassment means that maybe he is Conservative Presidential material.
Of course, the job creation must be high paying jobs, right
Critics say many of the new jobs are low-wage and without benefits; according to federal data, the state is tied with Mississippi for the largest percentage of hourly workers who make minimum wage or less, at 9.5%.
So there it is, if you want a minimum wage job (or less, not sure how that happens) the road to Texas is wide open for you."
According to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede.
He is a traitor.
Whichever political side you lean to, you should read the above. It's Texas's current rankings as far as education, health, taxation, etc. See if you want the whole country that far into the dirt.
We're bottom of the barrel when it comes to education, teen pregnancy, various health issues.
We also have one of the highest cervical cancer rates in the country, so Perry may have been on track with the mandatory HPV vaccinations- but the fringe elements refuse to believe their kids have sex until they are married- which is why we have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates, and the highest REPEAT teen pregnancy rate. Perry takes more FEDERAL money than any other state for Abstinence Only sex ed, and when confronted with the stats that it's failed miserably only says "I know in my heart it works" (clearly he failed biology, as his heart has nothing to do with the reproductive process).
Oh, and he tried to sell our toll road system to Spain, very soon after it was built. No joke. (a toll rd. system that DID take out a number of small family owned farms & houses via Eminent Domain when built).
Read that link. It has our rankings for a few years back.
Slick Rick is a charismatic that goes with whichever party pays him the most and gives him the best path to power. He's a true narcissist that cares for nothing other than more power.
He just signed a budget in Texas that cuts $4 Billion dollars from education! Thousands of teachers will lose their jobs!
If you want your kids to be stupid - vote for Perry!
I would NEVER vote for Perry!
Thanks Huck for pointing out the we will be making the same mistake we did by electing G.W. if we elect this phony as well.
no tales of smoking crack during his early adult years ?? or sitting in a church pew listening to the gospel of someone like jeremiah wright for 20 years ?? no fund raising buddies like tony resko or bill ayers, no communist father to speak of ???