Perry Breaks With a Fellow Texan: Bush

AUSTIN, Tex. — Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican contemplating a presidential run, shares many attributes with the last man who ran for president from here, his predecessor and onetime patron, George W. Bush. He has the same straight-legged Texas swagger; the down-home, clipped speaking style; the desert-baked conservatism.

But in recent years, Mr. Perry has broken politically with Mr. Bush, questioning his credentials as a fiscal conservative, accusing him of going on “a big government binge” and playing down some of Mr. Bush’s accomplishments in Texas in light of his own.

Mr. Perry’s public statements exposed a long-simmering rivalry that had been little known outside of the political fraternity here but underscores the rightward drift of the Republican Party since Mr. Bush was president. More acutely, Mr. Perry’s criticism holds potential peril and benefit for him should he decide to mount a presidential campaign, allowing him to establish an identity distinct from Mr. Bush but risking a guerrilla campaign against him by the former president’s inner circle.

Mr. Perry, whose aides say will make a decision within weeks, has been meeting around the country with potential fund-raisers, and last week went to Colorado for a gathering of prominent conservative rainmakers held by members of the Koch family, which helped finance the Tea Party movement.....

On government spending, immigration and education, Mr. Perry’s criticisms of Mr. Bush have given him cachet with conservatives, especially with Tea Party voters who blame the former president for allowing spending and the reach of government to grow rapidly.

Those criticisms have burnished the Perry image as less prone to ideological compromise or a fuzzy “compassionate” brand of conservatism, an appealing trait to those Republican primary voters seeking purity in their nominee....

What class.

Class? I suppose you have never met Barbara or Neil. Those two are pieces of work. They will stick their hands in the public pocket at the blink of an eye. The same can be said of the entire Bush family. They see the federal, state and local governments as their pipeline to the public tit. Babs and Neil have been gaming the local school for Neil's company for year. Babs expects things and she will get them.

I was a big "W" fan way back. But he was not much different. The Texas stadium deal and his involvement with the Texans would never have happened if not for the Bush family connections. Easy money out of the public pocket for doing little or nothing.

"W" turned out to be another person in office that could care less about being prudent with a dollar that was not his. He spent like a druken town full of sailors. In that respect Perry is correct. But it is just words from Perry. Like a lot of stuff he spews. Sounds good but Perry is just going with the direction of the political winds. That is what he does. He is a banal and somewhat dull person. Real nice hair though.

At this level these people are pretty much interchangable. They are in iot for the power and money. Even still, I'd take any of them above Obama. He is the same way plus he wants to kill the country.

To heck with all of them. Bunch of parasites.

It had been my impression that Perry was weak on border enforcement and the issue of illegal immigration.

I’m not quite as sure of that today. I looked around a bit, and didn’t find as much proof of that as I had expected to.

Perry's biggest donor is a home builder, another major donor is a grocer, and both helped killed the sanctuary cities bill in the Texas legislature last week. The same bill that Perry said was such an emergency that a special session needed to be called to pass it, but not so much of an emergency that Perry couldn't jet off to California to shake hands while it was dying. Between 2001-2010, Perry gave plenty of speeches and wrote editorials talking about open borders, "guest worker" programs, how Arizona-style legislation wouldn't work in Texas, bashing Congress for restricting Mexican trucks, and plenty of other things showing he was doing the bidding of his biggest donor.

Karl Rove might not be affiliated with Perry, but Bob Perry, Rick Perry's biggest donor, isn't going to be left behind in Texas. I think Rick Perry was soft on illegal immigration and spoke of open borders and guest workers between 2001-2010 precisely because his biggest donors included one of the wealthiest home builders in the nation, along with one of the wealthiest grocers in Texas.

As another FReepr said, when Rick Perry is bought, he stays bought, and he was incredibly consistent between 2001-2010 when it came to being soft on illegal immigration.

And don't forget that Perry is good buddies with Rudy Giuliani - Perry supported Giuliani for President, and Giuliani tried to help Perry get his corridor built, and you can bet that Rudy is not going to be left behind if Perry heads to Washington.

I sometimes leave little ques on the forum hoping someone will swoop in and refresh my memory. You did that nicely, and I appreciate it.

Your recitation of the “weak on border issues dynamic” and particularly the “corridor” support is enough to convince me this guy is radioactive.

There are unseen dynamics behind that corridor plan. I believe it was part and parcel of the NAU. Any hint of that, and I’m going nowhere near the guy.

I’ll check that out, but if he was involved in support for that corridor, he’s politically dead to me.

Thank you for reminding me of his involvement in that. It’s quite a pivotal issue for me.

There are unseen dynamics behind that corridor plan. I believe it was part and parcel of the NAU. Any hint of that, and I’m going nowhere near the guy.

Perry was the driving force behind the Trans-Texas Corridor, which was the first major part of the American segment of the North American Super Corridor. Rudy Giuliani's lawfirm worked with Cintra (a European company picked by Perry) and the state of Texas to try and get it built. Perry was discussing the idea back in 2001, and announced it in 2002. The Governor's office in Texas is seen as weak, but Perry was hell-bent on proving that wrong with the TTC.

You can go through the Governor's archives of his speeches and find everything from support for open borders and healthcare for both Texans and Mexicans to praising LULAC and guest worker programs. Here's what's always struck me about Perry though - I don't think he was doing the whole NAU thing out of some kind of new world order thing, because everything he does, whether it's being soft on illegal immigration, or the HPV vaccine, tended to benefit one or more friends and associates of his. That's not to say that he doesn't have friends who support the NAU.

The corridor thing though, honestly, a lot of his friends, and not just Rudy Giuliani, stood to make a lot of money off of it, but it's a lot harder to track who all would profit from it. With things like the Merck/HPV deal or the Convergence Life Sciences scandal from a few weeks ago, you can easily find Perry friends or Perry donors to point fingers at. Perry was pushing the corridor idea back in 2001 and it's a lot harder to figure out the who. Dan Shelley, Rudy Giuliani, and others benefited, but there could have been more going on because of how massive it was.

I don't think we'll ever have a good grasp of who all would benefit. You're talking about the confiscation of 500,000 acres of land from Texans, you're talking about a foreign company controlling it, and you're talking about a project that could cost over $150 billion and take 50+ years to finish. There's a lot going on there.

I really don't think Perry has kind of evil NAU-related plans, I think he's just a typical Texas politician who helps his friends and donors out any way he can.

Thanks for the comments and the resources. I can understand you not thinking Perry was a big NAU supporter. I do however think certain efforts inevitably lead to enough harmonization that they naturally wind up facilitating unintended consequences.

I believe the push for the NAU would have been strengthened by the corridor implementation.

There is a working committee with U.S. and Mexican counterparts that meet once yearly to get the NAU on track. I believe the current emphasis is a common security game plan that would see shared border enforcements de-emphasised while exterior borders of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico would be enhanced. I’m not sure what deficiencies there are now, but that’s the big sell.

I’m not buying.

Thanks for the response.

Thanks for the information.

Most of it was complimentary to Perry. I appreciate the materials.

Immigration and racial dynamics related to it are very high on my radar.

Phrases like “outreach to Hispanics” and “..hispanics needed to build, or having helped build our infrastructure...” trouble me.

These are indications of a particular mindset.

I don’t believe in racial outreach. I believe in political events where everyone of any heritage are welcome, where sound policies beneficial to all citizens are presented. I do not believe in focused attention to Hispanic or strictly black back venues. I wouldn’t attend a group describing itself ‘strictly white’ either. No thanks...

I think this exemplifies a major problem in the RP. It tries to appeal to folks based on race, not their patriotism and shared values, or goals. I see the later to be far more respectful, and conducive to a cohesive populace.

Perry appeals to all people. In post # 176 he didn't cater to Karl Rove's request in the Lt. Gov election.

Did you hear his speech to the boy scouts?

When a speaker talks to a group he touches on something personal with that group. It's public speaking.

I imagine we'll be hearing more speeches like this:

Governor Rick Perry's Speech at Red State Conference in 2010 (Video and Notes)

In Speech Perry:

Reads the 10th Amendment – What a beautiful succinct, simple statement – words penned for a time such as this…… (nice list of rights being taken away and by whom).

Perry notes: Republicans lost because you couldn’t tell the difference between a Republican and a Democrat… (expands)

Growing mood in the country – passion across the state and when I look at Glenn Beck’s event in Washington D.C. and other events, it warms the cockles of my heart……”

Texas has led but it’s been a hell of a struggle against Washington D.C. – they must trust the people, they don’t trust the people.

Governing isn’t that hard…

First – Don’t spend all the money!

TX legislature meets 140 days every OTHER year!

TARP – Stimulus – great concern in Texas, country, world --- small businesses don’t know what shoe will fall next – what regulations – costs – job loss. Health care bill – cost – loss of access to health care…..

Second: Fair and predictable tax and regulatory policy…..

Third: Legal system that does not allow for over suing. Sweeping tort reform 2003 in TX has paid HUGE dividends. Went from Jack-pot Justice (legal hell hole) to 60% more doctors practicing in Texas from 7 years ago (expands more on this) – about access to health care.

Last step: Loser Pays tells them, you better have a case. If frivolous – fishing for settlement – they’ll foot the bill! (since this speech, Perry signed it into law)

Haley Barbour told him, If "Loser Pays" passes you can put turnstiles on the TX border and charge people to come into your state!”

THAT’S IT! Put those 4 principles into place and tell government to get the hell out of the way. – Rick Perry

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