Posted on 08/19/2014 4:12:03 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Perry, an expected presidential candidate in 2016, is accused of "abuse of official capacity" and "coercion of [a] public servant" by publicly threatening to zero out a state prosecutor's funding and then actually doing it. Several pundits, including former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod, Clinton and Obama administration alum Jonathan Prince, Vox's Matt Yglesias, and New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait, wrote on Twitter they couldn't see what the big deal was.
"Unless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason," Axelrod argued, "Perry indictment seems pretty sketchy."
"Have to say Perry indictment seems nuts. Gov has constitutional power to veto. Gov uses power. Grand jury indicts bc they don't like reason?" Prince asked.
"Hard for me to imagine these Rick Perry charges sticking," Yglesias wrote, adding, "Does anyone think this Perry indictment makes sense?"
"My *very* preliminary reaction to the Rick Perry news: I don't understand what law he broke," Chait opined.
ThinkProgress, the liberal-oriented news site, reported that Perry's own attorneys "may have a point" when they argued his veto of the prosecutor funding "was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution."
"The Texas Constitution gives the governor discretion to decide when to sign and when to veto a bill, as well as discretion to veto individual line-items in an appropriation bill. Though the state legislature probably could limit this veto power in extreme cases — if a state governor literally sold his veto to wealthy interest groups, for example, the legislature could almost certainly make that a crime — a law that cuts too deep into the governor’s veto power raises serious separation of powers concerns," ThinkProgress wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I don’t even like Rick Perry and agree that the charges are bullshit. What would the Left say if Andrew Cuomo were charged over his interfering with a state investigation in New York?
This is the same technique that got Obama his senate seat in Illinois.
Weak. How about non existent.
Yep! The Chicago Way strikes again.
My take is the Dems are hedging the bets; they see Texas as serious battleground territory over the next decade. Rosemary is finding out that being a hack means you’re one of the first to get tossed under the bus.
It’s a little more complicated than what I have been reading on FR. Here in Texas, the commentaries are that two other DA’s were caught intoxicated, but Perry didn’t threaten them or asked for their resignation (Republican DA’s). They are implying double standard. The other issue is that the drunk DA in this instance was about to investigate an organization that had several ties to Rick Perry and some of his friends. When she got caught with DWI, they say Perry took advantage of this situation to defund her office and roles to reduce/stop the investigation. May be hard to connect the dots for a conviction, but in essence, that is the Liberal’s reasoning for Perry trying to get rid of her and why they are trying to prosecute Perry.
I suspect something. Let me translate: “This may not turn out like we planned it.”
weak translates to absurdly corrupt
Big so-what. It's politics -- it's unfair. You favor your own team, you diss the other team. As long as you don't break the law, let 'em scream.
If Perry was a Dem, and did the equivalent thing, we'd all be screaming it was unfair, but unless a law is broken, "fair" doesn't need to apply to politics.
It's nice when it does, but nobody expects it to always be nice.
“If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
— Obi Wan Kenobi
Perhaps a shot across the bow that any attempted impeachment of Obama will be met by such actions. It also takes down another possible challenger to Hillary.
What Axelrod understands is this-if the indictment of Perry ends up in conviction, it sets a president that no doubt will be aimed directly at Obama. It will be used to reverse his executive orders and hound him from office.
...but would love to see the intended purpose of the indictment.
IMHO
Rats are also harassing Walker and Christie with BS charges. It has nothing to do with Obama (his impeachment is a fantasy) but may have something to do Hillary, in Christie’s case especially. WI rats are desperate to beat Walker who is running for reelection.
In Perry’s case I think that’s just the Austin way, Austin DA’s have a history of this, scumbags.
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