It’s a bummer. Perry has been very effective in KILLING the more conservative stuff before it gets to his desk, by using surrogates in the state legislature. In fact, he allowed a liberal to run the State House, even though we have a greater-than two to one majority over there...he could have pressed for a more representative leader...but didn’t seem to be interested.
Give the Republican majority in our State House and Senate, we should have turned this state into a right-wing utopia by now...but a certain governor did not really have that as an objective - rather he more wanted to sign a few token token pieces of legislation and be able to say the big stuff (like Arizona-type immigration laws, taking on the unions, taking on Big Education, for example) never made it to his desk...just conveniently died in the legislature...
Thanks for your comments. I saw Governor Perry on Greta the other night and did like what he said. However, I want to learn more about Governor Perry. I heard Rush seems to favor him, and Rush made the comment that the GOP elite “inside the beltway” Republicans don't like Perry. That just made me want to hear more from Texas Freepers about how they feel about Rick Perry running for President.
Doing a Texas Freeper Ping to see more comments from Texans.
As always, if you wish to be off my Texas Freeper ping list, just let me know through FreepMail. Thanks!
Perry is a fair weather RINO at best. Each time he’s proved he’s liberal for three years and then about 6 months before the election he suddenly turns conservative.
He was the Texas chairman for Algore’s campaign.
He panders to illegals.
He supported the Dream Act.
He’s all talk and no action on securing the border.
He’s done nothing about sanctuary cities.
His pet project is the Trans-Texas Corridor (toll road) which is nothing but a straight shot from Mexico to points north.
He was the Texas chairman for Algore’s campaign.
Then there was the partnership with his Gardasil friend where he came very close to passing a bill for girls to get the shot. While that bill was shot down by parents, he did get a program where they can get the vaccine administered by the school nurse for free. Gardasil is still getting taxpayer $$$ from that.
He loves, loves, loves his veto power.
He was the Texas chairman for Algore’s campaign.
Then he pandered to too big for their pants UT when they whined about the Top 10% rule (which was their fault in the first place - a few years ago white students won a discriminatory suit against UT so all state universities must admit the top 10% of high school graduates). Two years ago, UT president actually said with a straight face they would have to shut down the football program (oh, the hugh manatee!!!) if they had to follow the 10% rule. Oooh, aren’t they special. To appease the big money UT Exes and to save the Longhorns, UT is the only school who has an 8% rule.
And there’s the problem with him using tax dollars to pay for countless personal expenses.
He claims to have held down taxes and reformed the property tax but I’d like him to explain why when we bought our house, the taxes equaled two weeks of our take home pay but for the last few years we’ve struggled with property taxes equalling two MONTHS of our take home pay.
He created an Obama style stimulus which resulted in millions of taxpayer dollars lost in his Texas Enterprise program.
Then there’s the continuing problems from the lottery monies never finding their way to the schools as well as not correcting the many years old ridiculous Robin Hood Plan which takes taxes paid from one school district and gives it to another district.
Oh, yeah, and did I mention he was the Texas chairman for Algore’s campaign?
We do indeed have a two-third majority in the House and a liberal Speaker. Unfortunately he had the unanimous support of the Democratic minority and enough Republicans to be re-elected as Speaker. Efforts to get a party caucus to choose a canadidate ala the US House failed, and Strauss was able to use the usual lobbying methods to prevent this. To blame Perry for this is disingenueous. Furthermore the Lt. Governor has far more power in this state than the Governor, whose office has mor influence than constitutional powers.
A lot of us in Texas who are conservatives will tell you the same thing, and would tell you Perry would NOT be a good Presidential candidate. And that he would not be the right ‘fit’ for it.
Perry talks a good talk, but is a politician through and through, and has his warts.
Tough on the border rhetorically but he and other texas leaders are wimps when it comes to getting tough on immigration. He was quite two-faced on it, calling for getting tough on border during an election then afterwards saying we didnt need a border fence.
His problem is the cheap-labor homebuilders who pay the Texas GOP bills are against real immigration enforcement, and the Texas GOP is afraid to go against LULAC and the hispanic ‘lobby’ for fear of the hispanic vote. it was thrilling to see hispanic GOP State Reps vote yes on Voter ID, but non-thrilling to see that even a watered-down anti-sanctuary city bill cant get passed and even a GOP-dominated Texas statehouse will keep in in-state tuition and freebies for illegal immigrants.
Great on lawsuit reform. Good on taxes. Bad on actually advancing conservative agenda elsewhere.
Take on Big Education? ROFLMAO. Another area where Perry = RINO Straus = Bush = ZERO progress. Teachers unions have great power in Texas and there is no progress on vouchers.
Perry’s not our biggest problem, its with the RINOs who gave us Speaker Straus and so we dont have any conservative leadership in the Texas House. Its pathetic.
There are enough former Democrats who talk prolife progun and anti-tax and think thats the sum of being conservative, allowing the liberal institutions to grow stronger. They are the problem.
Some call Perry a RINO. I wont. He’s good enough on life (passing many life bills), Tea Partied enough and talked up the 10th amendment enough to prove himself at least awake on the issue of state sovereignty. I dont know where the policy ends and posturing starts with him is my issue with him. But that’s the flipside of being a good politician.
Plus, Perry is an Aggie, which to liberals means “as dumb as Sarah Palin”. Well, Perry is a slick and good-looking enough they call him gov Goodhair, but dumb he aint.
I think a Palin/Perry ticket would could cardiac arrest in DC, and that elites would go bonkers. I’d pay money to see that but the risk is that the ticket goes down in flames as the northeast and suburbanites outside the deep south reject those cultural ‘vibes’.
If you are a Texan, you realize that the governor has very little power to get anything done. The Rail Road Commish is the one with the power. Personally, I like Perry...of course I live in Aggieland (Bryan/College Station) where we are a conservative bunch. And Perry is a Former Aggie.
I’m not a huge Perry fan either, BUT the last couple of years he’s done quite well. At this point I’d support him. I guess I have to anyway...I have a sibling who works for him...lol.
IMO, and it’s ONLY my opinion, most Texas FReepers are lukewarm to Perry, at best. I like a lot of the things he says, especially to and about Obama, but I’m not sure he’s good POTUS material. Perry tends to be more RINO than conservative. But, he TALKS a good story.
Like any politician, it isn’t the WORDS, it’s the ACTIONS that speak the loudest. If you’re thinking about supporting Gov. Goodhair, do your research and make up your own mind. Don’t let the DBM pick your candidate for you.
That said, when is everyone going to realize there's only one political party yet many different political philosophies. The Elites will choose the person who best fills their needs.
Rick Perry loves him some Rick Perry.
I am a Republican from Orange County Texas. We prefer Rick Perry to his Dem,ocrat opposition but that’s not saying much. One of the biggest issues where he angers a large amount of the Texas Republican base is his support for the “Trans-Texas Corridor”. The proposal as I understand it would be to take by eminent domain a swath of property from Mexico to Oklahoma and a private company would build a toll road on it. The private company has been alleged to be Spanish. He doesn’t go around campaigning for this dog, but he is known to be supporting it behind the scenes as has been alleged regarding the house speaker and killing conservative legislation.
He’s got nice hair.