He didn't blink because he had Tom DeLay breathing down his throat and the RNC letting him know that there would be hell to pay if he caved.
And for the irony of ironies: guess who gave a $5,000 endorsement to Paul Green, Perry's candidate for supreme court. That's right - the lead attorney for the Chicken D's in New Mexico!
Reagan said not to speak ill of other Republicans but Rick Perry is no true Republican. He's a petty, vindictive, power peddling moderate who guts our party of its most conservative officeholders in the primary and then turns around to demand that we support him in the general.
That's the point. How much influence would DeLay have had over Ma Richards? You might be able to get a RINO to submit to a spine implant. You have no influence over a Rat. If he runs for re-election, I'm going to support someone else in the primaries, and I hope that someone else is a Libertarian-Republican. But if Perry wins the primaries, well, to quote FDR, "He may be a son of a b!tch, but he's our son of a b!tch". BTW, I work the primaries pretty heavily, and tend to be quite the contrarian there. When the primaries are over, I'm ready to go Rat huntin!