Whether the governor of Texas actually serves any jail time if he’s convicted of anything illegal remains an open question.
I doubt he’ll be eating jail food. I’m not even sure he’ll be convicted.
Rick Perry’s indictment for allegedly abusing the power of his office, however, does bring into question whether he’ll be able to challenge for the White House in 2016. Why, he’s not even the most popular Texas conservative thinking about running for the presidency.
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/08/16/while-flirting-2016-perry-cruz-woo-same-groups/
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is the darling of the conservative movement these days, although Perry’s been making inroads with the Republican Party base. He deployed 1,000 National Guard troops to protect us against those children fleeing repression in Central America, which of course has the GOP faithful all fired up.
Texas GOP voters, though, seem to like Cruz’s fiery rhetoric. “As the Texas Tribune reports: Even before his recent legal troubles, Perry was already operating in Cruz’s shadow, as most conservative activists in attendance made clear they would rather see the freshman senator vie for the White House in two years than the three-term governor.”
The indictment issued in Travis County is resonating far beyond the Texas capital city. It gives the governor one more potential embarrassment that he must put behind him. His brief run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination ended badly in a series of missteps, misstatements, forgetfulness and downright weird behavior.
Now this.
Say this, though, for Cruz. He’s coming to his friend’s defense, issuing this statement: “Unfortunately, there has been a sad history of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office engaging in politically-motivated prosecutions, and this latest indictment of the governor is extremely questionable. Rick Perry is a friend, he’s a man of integrity – I am proud to stand with Rick Perry. The Texas Constitution gives the governor the power to veto legislation, and a criminal indictment predicated on the exercise of his constitutional authority is, on its face, highly suspect.”
That statement isn’t likely to improve Perry’s possible presidential campaign chances. Look for Cruz to ramp up the conservative rhetoric, hitting every GOP base hot button he can find, even at his “friend’s” expense.
I have a little first hand experience observing Rick Perry. I was a freshman at Texas A&M in the fall of 1971 and the spring of 1972. Rick Perry was a yell leader during this time frame. He sported a flat top. His ambitious nature was on full display at every yell practice and sporting event. He seemed to revel in the attention paid him. He appears to have never gotten over it.
I was in the Corps of Cadets as was Mr. Perry. The Corps is rife with traditions and rituals. One of these is a practices is known as “whippin’ out”. As a fish (freshman) it is required that, if one needs to pass an upperclassman on the sidewalk, he must approach on the right hand side of the upperclassman, get in step while pulling even, whip out his right hand while looking in the upperclassman’s eyes, and declare in a firm voice “Howdy! Fish So-and-So is my name, SIR!”
I had the experience of whippin’ out to Rick Perry. I saw him ahead of me, performing a lazy ambulation that required every fish on the sidewalk to whip out to him. I had to get to class so I performed the ritual. At the time, it seemed to me that he was really enjoying all this. Not, it seemed, because he was meeting new people, but because he was able to demonstrate his superiority. That was just my feeling.
I also shook hands with another Texas politician during this time. I was sitting in the Student Union by myself, having a particularly bad day. It must have been pretty obvious since I was looking down at the floor. Suddenly, a pair of brown wing-tips came into my view. I looked up to see who they were attached to, and found myself looking at a tall blond man in a suit. He said, “Having a bad day, son? Where are you from. I’m Ben Barnes.” He didn’t announce that he was the lieutenant governor nor did he have a squad of bodyguards with him. Different times. But he shook my hand, sat down, and proceeded to cheer me up. This lasted about five minutes until someone recognized who I was talking to. Soon there were about twenty or so cadets gathered. Mr. Barnes did not talk politics. He just asked where we were from and what we were studying. He seemed to enjoy meeting us.
In thinking about these two experiences, it has become apparent that these two men that I met were two different animals. Ben Barnes would have made a great president if he hadn’t suffered from the collateral damage of the Sharpstown Bank scandal. Rick Perry seems to have some self-inflicted scandals to deal with. What a relief!
That is a great memory. Thanks for sharing it. My own thought about Perry is this: When he was a “lowly” agriculture commissioner, he actually had a personality and exhibited it frequently. He could be engaging and rather clever. Once he became lt. gov and then governor, he changed. I saw it in his demeanor when we spoke after he succeeded GW Bush as governor. He was, um, somewhat “officious” with more than a mere touch of, shall we say, self-importance.