Perry calling Iowa activists as potential donors convene

Politico ^ | JONATHAN MARTIN & MAGGIE HABERMAN

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Rick Perry has started calling Iowa Republicans and a former RNC finance chairman is helping to convene a meeting of national donors later this month in Austin to discuss financing a potential 2012 campaign — signs that the Texas governor and his allies are stepping up their exploratory efforts.

The developments come as Perry is being watched by a string of donors, early-state voters and elites who say they're disenchanted, and in search of a stronger candidate. Continue Reading

Republican activist Joni Scotter told POLITICO she got a surprise phone call this afternoon from Perry, asking about the political landscape as it relates to him.

"It was just a surprise," said Scotter, of Marion, who's well-known for her frequent appearances at Iowa Republican events and a coveted worker bee on presidential campaigns. She said she didn't know how Perry got her number.

"He sounded great and just asked if he should run," she said. "And I said, of course." She said he said he hadn't made up his mind.

Scotter declined to reveal more about the roughly 20-minute conversation, saying, "I feel like I am violating a trust...it is an honor that he even considered calling. It was a wonderful conversation."

Dave Carney, Perry’s top strategist, confirmed that the governor had been reaching out to Republican caucus-goers.

“He is calling some folks, returning some calls and listening to what folks have to say,” said Carney.

Asked if it was activists or elected officials, he described the calls as going to “a mix of folks.”

At the same time, Peter Terpulek, a top bundler who President Bush appointed as ambassador to Luxembourg, has begun planning a gathering of some of the party’s top uncommitted donors for later this month in the Texas capital.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Photo by Nellie Doneva/Reporter-News- Amelia Perry(right), mother of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, shows her quilts at a meeting of the Buffalo Gap Republican Woman's Club at Perini Ranch Steakhouse Friday. Perry called this quilt her "Scarlet O'Hara" quilt, because she made it out of a curtain during a time she was getting cancer treatments and spending most of her time at home.

Momma Perry knows quilts, not politics, doesn't know if son is running for president "You might think that Gov. Rick Perry's mother would tell one of her family's best friends whether her son was going to run for the presidency of the United States.

But Amelia Perry told a meeting of the newly founded Buffalo Gap Republican Woman's Club that she doesn't talk politics and doesn't know if her son plans to cast his hat into the ring for the nation's highest office.

The discussion came up during the club's meeting Friday at Perini Ranch Steakhouse in Buffalo Gap.

In Perry's opening remarks, she noted that when she arrived at the restaurant, Tom Perini came over to say hello and told Perry he wanted to ask her a question.

"I said, 'Tom, I don't know if he's running,'" she said.

The crowd of about 25 women, and a couple of Republican men, laughed warmly.

Perry mostly talked about her passion for quilting, showing off a number of beautiful quilts she has made over the years."I don't sell my quilts, but I will give them away to special people," she said. Perry said that when her children were growing up, she made all of their clothing. "They didn't have store-bought clothes — I made them," she said................"

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

At the same time, Peter Terpulek, a top bundler who President Bush appointed as ambassador to Luxembourg, has begun planning a gathering of some of the party’s top uncommitted donors for later this month in the Texas capital.

Of interest PING!

[Diogenesis]

Very impressive. Not.

Perry meets with Rove’s plants and asks if he “should run”.
Very courageous and decisive. Not.

RINO Perry, puppet of Merck and Rove, ought
just hand out free Gardasil samples.

[LA Woman3]

I'd take Perry in a heartbeat over another term of Obama!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Could Rick Perry Surprise in New Hampshire? ".......With Perry's history of straddling the establishment and tea party wings of the party, [Andrew] Hemingway [chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Liberty Caucus, told RCP] offered a bold prediction for the unique assets that the Texas governor could bring to the table in New Hampshire. "I think ultimately Rick Perry is a candidate who secures Haley Barbour's money with Sarah Palin's endorsement," he said."

[deport]

Did she indicate that one was in the making for the White House Presidential Suite?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Didn't say, but I bet she would!

July 5, 2011: Rick Perry Breaks Fundraising Record for Republican Governors Association "Though he has not announced whether he’ll run in 2012, Texas governor Rick Perry is breaking fundraising records, bringing in a record $22 million in the last quarter as part of his job as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. That’s getting the attention of the GOP, especially among those who questioned whether Perry could fund a presidential campaign...."

[GoCards]

As a Texan this whole Perry thing is weird. He is okay but President? Im just not sure. Would it be really out of the box for Palin to come out and announce Perry her running mate even prior to winning nomination? or is there some grand rule. That would be awesome. Perry isnt good for Pres. but VP i could do. If folks knew both P and VP before voting in primaries that would be cool and quite effective. thoughts?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

"I think ultimately Rick Perry is a candidate who secures Haley Barbour's money with Sarah Palin's endorsement," he said."

Problem is that even IF this bit of wishful thinking came true, the widespread support for Sarah is NOT automatically transferable to Perry. Most of us will either go third party or stay home. No more Texas RINOs out of the Bush mold.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Your info is about 20 years outdated Diogenesis. Rove worked on Perry's 1st campaign for Agriculture Commission.

Rove and Perry's political ally Carney don't have much in common.

********** ......"It's open for anybody," Perry's political guru, Dave Carney, who happens to be a New Hampshire resident, said of his home state. "If you're trying to convince people that you're the guy to compete against Obama, you have to play everywhere you can." Source

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....No more Texas RINOs out of the Bush mold.

Then you have nothing to complain about.

Rick Perry’s Tenth Commandment Speaking of presidents: Rick Perry has a complicated relationship with the Bushes, which is to say that he’s hesitant to criticize them and they hate his guts. W. stayed well away from Perry’s gubernatorial-primary melee against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose oatmeal-mushy Republicanism has a distinctly Bushian savor to it. But the mark of W. was all over the campaign against Perry. Former president George H. W. Bush endorsed Senator Hutchison, an unusual step for the habitually reserved retiree, who usually stays well removed from the dirty business of vote-grubbing, surveying the groundlings from the heights of his eminence. Bush père was joined in his support by former vice president Dick Cheney, who offered an endorsement and called Hutchison “the real deal.” Hutchison was further fortified by the Bush clan’s in-house Machiavelli, former secretary of state James Baker, who led the Florida recount fight in 2000 and remains their go-to fixer. W. mouthpiece Karen Hughes came out of the political woodwork to support the insurgency, along with W.’s secretary of education Margaret Spellings. Karl Rove advised Team Hutchison. The gang was all there: All this in a primary challenge to unseat an incumbent Republican governor with one of the most conservative — and most successful — records to be found: Que paso, Bushes?

Part of that was payback. Perry, generally circumlocutious on the subject of W., gave himself a little time off the leash during the 2008 Republican presidential primaries. Often caricatured as yet another snake-handling southern social conservative, Governor Perry backed thrice-married dress-wearing pro-choice lapsed Catholic Rudy Giuliani, on the theory that Rudy would be a badass commander-in-chief abroad and a reliable constitutionalist at home. Politics being politics, the Texan and the New Yorker met up in Iowa, where more than a few Hawkeye conservatives were already getting restive about out-of-control federal spending on the Republicans’ watch. Governor Perry let loose the observation that “George” — and the Bushies hate it when Perry calls him “George” in public — “has never been a fiscal conservative.” Never? “Wasn’t when he was in Texas . . . ’95, ’97, ’99, George Bush was spending money.” He also criticized Bush as being limp on immigration.

The truth hurts, but there’s more to the Bush-Perry friction than that. One longtime observer of Lone Star politics described the Bushes’ disdain of Perry as “visceral,” and it is not too terribly hard to see why. The guy that NPR executives and the New York Times and your average Subaru-driving Whole Foods shopper were afraid George W. Bush was? Rick Perry is that guy. George W. Bush was Midland by way of Kennebunkport. Rick Perry’s people are cotton farmers from Paint Creek, a West Texas town so tiny and remote that my Texan traveling-salesman father looked at me skeptically and suggested I had the name wrong when I asked him whether he knew where it was. (Governor Perry confesses that one of the politiciany things he’s done in office is insisting that the Texas highway atlas include Paint Creek, making him the hometown boy who literally put the town on the map.) Bush is a Yalie, Perry is an Aggie. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard, and Perry was a captain in the U.S. Air Force, flying C-130s in the Middle East. Bush has a gentleman’s ranch, Perry has the red meat. The irony is that Perry, a tea-party favorite, personifies the hawkish new fiscal conservatism that has allowed the GOP to find its way out from under George W. Bush’s shadow, but he himself remains in the shade of that politically poisonous penumbra...."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

July 8, 2011: Perry to address Falwell universityTexas Gov. Rick Perry, contemplating a run for the Republican presidential nomination, will speak at Liberty University in September, school Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said Friday.

The Virginia school, a traditional stop for GOP presidential hopefuls, also invited U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann to address students.

"Since Liberty is the world's largest Christian university, we think it is important to expose the students to as many candidates as possible," Falwell told the Lynchburg News & Advance. "How well they are received at Liberty will be a good indicator for how they will be received in Christian circles nationwide."

Perry will address a school convocation on Sept. 14, about five weeks after he plays host to the Response, a Christian prayer and praise meeting in Houston's 75,000-seat Reliant Stadium. Perry tapped the American Family Association, a conservative Christian advocacy group, to organize and pay for the Houston event.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said there is no concern that the two events would lead voters to pigeonhole Perry as a one-note candidate who appeals only to social and religious conservatives.

"The governor is a man of faith and doesn't shy away from talking about it," Miner said.

Perry, he added, "is not a candidate for any office at this time."....

[Cincinatus' Wife]

..Ann Hettinger, Concerned Women for America's state director of Texas, was instrumental in convincing Perry to change his proposal to an opt-in provision [vs opt-out]. When asked if Perry's original plans for the HPV vaccine would be an issue if he were to run for president, [Penny] Nance [CEO of Concerned Women for America] replied, “It would've been an issue IF HE HAD NOT FIXED IT.”

[Waywardson]

Agreed.

Anyone who says Perry isn’t a Rove puppet is either naive or lying. I’ve ran two different Congressional races in Texas, in two different parts of the state. And no one gets elected without the say so of Karl Rove. They know no one wants another Bush, they have known this since 2005. All this “there is friction” is nonsense. The only friction is the money changing hands. Perry is getting in, because none of the other RINOs have any chance. They must find someone to fool the ignorant and desperate conservatives.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The bottom line is that Perry is yet another creature of Rove, who has his tentacles everywhere and is pulling all the GOP-E levers right now.

Karl Rove says he and consultant David Weeks persuaded Rick Perry to switch parties and run for state agriculture commissioner

Rove says he expects Perry to run for president

Perry raffles lunch with Rove

And everything you see in GOP politics today MUST be taken in THIS context, especially when Rove is involved:

Next for GOP leaders: Stopping Sarah Palin

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Ever since the 2010 elections, the GOP-E has been desperately trying to find a way to separate Sarah Palin from her supporters and then funnel their collective energy and enthusiasm toward another candidate of its choosing. They panicked when Daniels' wife said 'NO,' Newt committeed political seppuku, Romney doubled-down on his Massachusetts mandate, and T-Paw wimped out in the SC debate.

With Perry, the GOP-E thinks that it has now found its man---someone who will play ball with the establishment yet become acceptable to the Conservative base as an alternative to Palin.

That's what's going on here.

[truthfreedom]

“Perry is being watched by ... elites”

Yeah those tea party elites.

Bilderberg globalist

[truthfreedom]

Karl in a Corner
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_scott_ho_080408_karl_in_a_corner.htm
Second, Rove’s opponents would regularly find that they had suddenly become the target
of a criminal investigation, and details concerning the investigation would be
aggressively fanned to the press. Rove mastered this technique in a contest
for the Texas Agriculture Commissioner’s post that he managed for now-Governor Rick Perry.

It Started in Texas: Karl Rove’s Political Prosecutions
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000569
1. Rove was hired to run the campaign of Rick Perry, the current governor,
for the powerful Texas office of Commissioner of Agriculture, then held by
Democrat Jim Hightower. Shortly thereafter, it was clear that a major
FBI investigation had been launched into the workings of the Texas Agriculture
Department (TDA), focusing on Hightower and his senior lieutenants, who had been
pursuing a populist, anti-corporate agriculture and pro-small-farmer agenda.

Jim Hightower talks about his new book, “Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and it’s Time to Take it Back”
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/08/21_hightower.html
HIGHTOWER: Rick Perry, back then (currently Texas Governor), was his client, so to speak,
and Perry had been recruited. He was sort of a nothing Texas legislator who had been brought
in — again as an affable fellow without any brain muscle. Perry was essentially sent to
wander around out in West Texas during the campaign so he would be out of the way,
while Rove worked this FBI agent and raised money from the chemical industry
and other corporate interests that opposed me. Rove had George Bush go on
television against me. Then Rove ran a series of television ads that
established a new low in negative advertising.

For example, they showed a long-haired guy setting a flag on fire,
and throwing it on the ground. And then my picture came up out of the fire, and said
“Hightower supports flag burning,” which, of course, I don t. But it doesn t matter,
you know. I had to go around answering: “Why do you support flag burning?”
Rove had another ad of me campaigning with Jesse Jackson, who I supported in 1988
in the Presidential campaign. And Rove ran this ad that essentially was a smear
on Jackson and then tying me to him. The ad so angered the Black Caucus in the State Legislature
that they convened their own press conferences in Houston and Dallas to assail it. But again it was too late.
All this was happening in the last three weeks of the election. So, I mean, that s just who the guy is.

[LA Woman3]

We lived in Missouri and Louisiana and as bad as RP has been on some issues, life is good in Texas! I also like SP as well. Anybody but Obama!