Alexander Burns, writing in Politico.com, posits an interesting theory about Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

The end of his political career may be at hand, given the absence of who he calls the “political knife fighters” who helped him become Texas’s longest-serving governor.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/rick-perry-texas-governor-staff-consultants-89430.html?hp=t1_3

If only …

Perry’s spectacularly brief foray into national politics in late 2011 and early 2012 gave rise to a lot of questions about the product of Haskell County, Texas. Those questions centered on just how it is that he became such a political force in Texas while proving to be such a profound embarrassment beyond our state’s borders.

He entered the 2012 Republican primary contest and became an instant favorite to win his party’s nomination. But it all came crashing down in January 2012 when, after a series of amazing stumbles, gaffes and ghastly pronouncements, he dropped out of the contest.

Perry is now trying to decide whether run for an umpteenth term as governor and whether – and this one is beyond belief – whether he wants to make another run for president in 2016.

But as Burns points out, the hired hands who’ve been Perry’s brain trust have bailed on him. One of them, Burns reports, is former campaign manager Dave Carney, who reportedly has met with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who’s considering a run for governor himself in 2014. He might even challenge Perry in the primary if Gov. Goodhair (to borrow the late columnist Molly Ivins’s legendary label) decides to seek another term.

I’m so hoping that Perry has had enough. He’s been governor long enough, since December 2000, when he succeeded George W. Bush after Bush’s election to the presidency. That’s 13-plus years.

I keep remembering the comments I heard from many of my Republican friends when Perry entered the 2012 GOP presidential primary campaign. They told me they were pulling for him to win the presidency “if only to get him out of Texas.”

And this, mind you, came from those who live and work in the heart of Rick Perry’s Republican base.