Tag Archives: Rick Perry

political news

Cliché went missing this morning

This morning began like most Sunday mornings for my wife and me.

We awoke. Got cleaned up. Had some breakfast.

Then I turned on the TV to watch a news-talk show, ABC’s “This Week.”

The discussion was quite lively. George Stephanopoulos interviewed Donald Trump, Rick Perry and Mike Huckabee — all of whom are running for the Republican Party presidential nomination.

Then he went to the roundtable discussion, which included the usual eclectic blend of pundits on the left and the right. They all weighed in with their views of the week’s political news, which of course was dominated by the Republican joint appearance Thursday night and Trump’s rather ghastly reference to one of the moderators and the question she asked about Trump’s views regarding women.

But as the discussions ended after an hour on the air, I was struck by something I didn’t hear.

It was the sound of the world’s most annoying clichĂ©: “At the end of the day … ”

It’s become the clichĂ© du jour of talking heads and politicians.

My theory about the phrase is this: Public officials, usually politicians, like to say the phrase to set up what they think is the most profound statement they can deliver on a given subject.

“At the end of the day, George … the world is going to spin off its axis and is going to crash into the sun.”

But over the past few years — and it hasn’t been that many years since someone introduced it into our contemporary political vernacular — it’s become overused in the extreme. I’ve heard pols use it multiple times in a single run-on sentence.

This morning, though, the phrase was MIA.

May it never be found.

political news

Perry misses out on GOP main debate event

It was just four years ago, but it seems like a dozen lifetimes.

Rick Perry was the high-flying Texas governor seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. He entered the primary field and rocketed to the top of the heap as an early front runner for the chance to run against President Barack Obama.

Then came the “oops” moment when he couldn’t name the third federal agency he’d eliminate if he was elected president.

Perry dropped out.

Four years later, Perry is no longer Texas governor, but he boned up on the issues. He got plenty of rest. His bad back is healed. He’s running for the GOP nomination once again.

Then he gets punched in the gut. Fox News, which is playing host to the first televised GOP debate this Thursday, relegated TEA Party favorite Rick Perry to what’s been called the “kids’ table.” He’ll be one of seven candidates participating in an earlier debate, but he didn’t make the cut for the main event.

The top 10 GOP hopefuls are there, including fellow Texan, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/04/perry-doesnt-make-cut-first-gop-presidential-debat/

Fox said only the top candidates in the polls would be on the prime-time event. CNN, which is sponsoring the second debate, laid down the same ground rules.

This is not the way to run a presidential debate series. I’m sure that’s what Perry and his team believe.

I’m still pulling for him to make the grade in subsequent debates.

All he has to do — in this media and political climate — is say something so outrageous that he gets everyone talking about him.

legal news, State news

Texas garners another dubious ‘honor’

First, it was a sitting Texas governor who got indicted by a grand jury.

The governor, Rick Perry, has since left office and is now pursuing the Republican presidential nomination.

Now we have a sitting attorney general who’s been indicted by another grand jury.

Welcome to The Club, Ken Paxton.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/03/paxton-set-surrender-securities-fraud-indictment/

Are they similar? Not by a long shot.

Perry’s indictment occurred in Travis County, where a grand jury has accused him of abuse of power and coercion of a public servant in connection with his veto of funds for the Public Integrity Unit. Perry and his allies have argued that the Travis County indictment was politically motivated; Travis County remains a Democratic bastion, while Perry is a Republican. Get it? Pure politics.

Not so with Paxton. He was indicted by a grand jury in his home county, which is Collin County. Paxton is a Republican attorney general; prior to that he represented Collin County in the Texas House of Representatives. I’m thinking it’s a real good bet that some — perhaps most — of the grand jurors voted for him when he ran for AG in 2014.

Paxton is indicted on two felony counts of securities fraud and another count of failing to register as an investment counselor.

This is serious stuff. Paxton is the state’s top law enforcer. He’s supposed to be clear of this kind of thing. He’s actually admitted to the investment advice matter.

Good grief! Can’t we do better than this in Texas?

OK, should he quit? No. He is still innocent until — or if — a court proves his guilt. Paxton plans to plead not guilty and will seek a trial by jury. Fine. That’s his right.

These indictments, though, of leading Texas politicians is getting worrisome.

legal news, State news

Texas AG faces big legal fight

Well, isn’t this just like a punch in the chops?

A Collin County grand jury reportedly has indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on securities fraud charges … which Paxton actually admitted to while he was running for the statewide office he now holds.

The indictment will be unsealed in McKinney, Texas, the Collin County seat.

The indictment involves an allegation — if you can even call it that, given Paxton’s admission — that he rustled up some investment clients for a friend without filing the proper paperwork with the state; that’s a third-degree felony. But it gets even more hairy. Reports have surfaced that the grand jury also will indict him on a first-degree felony accusation of securities fraud involving a company with which Paxton was involved, and which has been investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/texas-attorney-general-indicted-on-felony-charges-sources-say/ar-BBljQAB

“The (Texas) Rangers went out to investigate one thing, and they came back with information on something else,” special prosecutor Kent Schaffer. “It’s turned into something different than when they started.”

The Texas Rangers are the elite investigative arm of the Texas Department of Public Safety. In other words, thee folks are good at what they do.

I feel the need to point out a couple of key political points, given that I’m quite sure someone is going to label it a “political witch hunt.”

One, the Collin County district attorney recused himself from the case; so a special prosecutor was brought in.

Two, a judge from Tarrant County, about 40 miles east of McKinney, is going to hear the case.

Officials have made a concerted effort to remove any taint of bias from this investigation, given that Paxton represented Collin County in the Texas Legislature before he was elected to the state’s top law enforcement office.

Oh, and what about the grand jury itself? Is it populated with folks who have an axe to grind against Paxton? Remember when the Travis County grand jury indicted then-Gov. Rick Perry? The governor accused the panel impaneled in heavily Democratic Travis County of playing politics, given that Perry is a Republican and the person he was accused of bullying is a Democratic district attorney.

Is Collin County a Democratic bastion that could find grand jurors ready to send the Republican AG up the river?

Consider this little item: Collin County voted nearly 2-to-1 for GOP nominee Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential race. It’s fair to presume, therefore, that the grand jury pool likely leans more toward the attorney general’s party than in the other direction. If it doesn’t, I’m quite sure we’ll hear about it.

This is possibly shaping up as a difficult time for the Texas attorney general.

national news, political news

Pulling for Gov. Perry to make the debate stage

Go, Rick, go!

I want to see former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on the Fox News Channel Republican presidential debate stage next week.

His poll numbers are pretty anemic. Fox says only the Top 10 contenders will take part in the joint appearance.

Perry is on the bubble.

C’mon, Rick. Say something really provocative to boost those poll numbers!

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/30/perry-scrambles-earn-berth-first-debate/

In truth, my desire is to see if Perry can redeem himself from the 2012 debate debacle in which he said “Oops” upon forgetting the third of three federal agencies he’d cut if he were elected president. The moment produced arguably the most talked-about sound bite of the 2012 GOP primary campaign.

Everyone says Perry is better prepared this time. He’s gotten plenty of rest. He’s boned up on the issues. He’s healthy.

But the GOP faithful doesn’t seem to love him as much as it did four years ago.

It’s not that I actually support Gov. Perry. It’s just that I believe in redemption.

He’s got the chance to redeem himself — but he’s got to show up on that debate stage in Cleveland.

political news

Perry unleashes barrage on The Donald

Perry skips the ed board

Someone might need to take my temperature.

I’m about to say something complimentary about former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

It is that Gov. Perry unleashed a barrage of criticism at none other than Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The depth, breadth and intensity of Perry’s criticism of Trump was stunning. That’s the only way to describe it.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/22/rick-perry-donald-trump-dc/

He spoke today at a Washington hotel, invoking the memory of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., who in the 1950s launched a witch hunt for communists. Sen. Joseph Welch was then forced to ask McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency?” Perry today asked the same question of Trump.

He called Trump a “sower of discord,” and a “carnival barker.”

There was much more, as noted in the link attached to this post.

Perry seemed to save his harshest tone for Trump’s belittling of Sen. John McCain’s valiant service as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. He noted Trump’s multiple deferments during the war and said he couldn’t begin to withstand the torture and utter hell that McCain endured for more than five years as a captive in Hanoi. “Donald Trump was born into privilege. He received deferments to avoid service in Vietnam,” Perry said. “He breathes the free air thousands of heroes died protecting. And he couldn’t have endured for five minutes what John McCain endured for five and a half years.”

Trump also had noted he hadn’t ever sought God’s forgiveness, to which Perry replied: “A man too arrogant, too self-absorbed to seek God’s forgiveness is precisely the type of leader John Adams prayed would never occupy the White House.”

Gov. Perry’s attack on Trump was on point at virtually every level.

The good news, though, is that Trump stands zero chance of being nominated by his party, let alone elected president.

The bad news, however, is that Trump won’t heed a single word of what Gov. Perry said about him. He is without shame.

national news, political news

Most entertaining campaign in history is on tap

So help me, I didn’t think it was possible for any campaign to be more entertaining than the 2012 campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

Thank you, Donald Trump, for smashing my expectations for the 2016 campaign.

The Donald has managed to do what I thought was impossible: He’s managed to make the likes of Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain look and sound almost reasonable, rational and mainstream.

He’s shot off his mouth about Mexican immigrants who come here illegally, stereotyping them as murderers, rapists, drug dealers — along with “some good people.” He’s called Mitt Romney a “loser” because he got beat in a campaign that he should have won; he’s challenged whether Ted Cruz of Texas is a legitimate candidate for the presidency, given that he was born in Canada.

And now he’s said John McCain isn’t really a war hero, even though he was held prisoner by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, while saying in the next breath that he likes “those who weren’t captured.”

Other Republicans have condemned Trump’s buffoonery. So have Democratic candidates.

It’s been an amazing campaign to date and we’re still months away from those Iowa caucuses and the lead-off New Hampshire primary.

Trump has managed to suck all the air out of every room he enters. The other candidates? They can’t be heard above all the ruckus created by Trump’s amazing ability to call attention to himself.

Four years ago, Bachmann and Cain — along with Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and even Rick Santorum — tried to raise a stink about this and/or that. They all were “frontrunners” for a time. Then came Romney, with all of his money and political connections, to win the GOP nomination.

Now we have Trump, who reportedly has much more wealth than Romney — and who brags about his portfolio incessantly — making a lot of racket.

But here’s the deal. He won’t be nominated. He’s going out with his guns blazing (figuratively, of course). Someone else will be nominated. If I had to bet on the next GOP nominee, I’d put my money today on either former Florida Gov. John Ellis (Jeb) Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. But they’re so boring.

Trump has turned this campaign into a circus.

Way to go, Donald. You’ve made the preceding cast of GOP contenders/pretenders look like statespersons.

media news, political news

Yes, John McCain is a hero

I think I’ve officially heard all there is to hear.

Of all the things that have poured out of Donald Trump’s mouth, he finally said more than most Americans can handle.

He actually said that U.S. Sen. John McCain does not qualify as a war hero. He really and truly denigrated the service McCain performed for his country.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-attack-on-john-mccain-war-record-is-new-low-in-us-politics/ar-AAdbgjc

Is there anything that Trump will not declare off limits? Has this political buffoon said enough?

I am not a political fan of Sen. McCain. I do not like his world view. I didn’t vote for him when he ran for president in 2008. But as God himself is my witness, I truly admire this man’s service. I consider him to be a heroic figure.

And for Trump to ignite the firestorm that he’s ignited through utterly careless musings about someone who — in what passes for his political judgment — criticized him for earlier statements, well, that goes so far beyond the pale it defies Americans’ ability to express their rage in harsh enough terms.

Not only that … yes, there’s more, Trump did not serve in our nation’s military. He obtained student deferments during the Vietnam War. By my standard, Trump qualifies as a “chicken hawk,” who has zero standing to comment on someone who did serve — and did so with remarkable valor and, oh yeah, heroism.

McCain never has leaned on his service during the Vietnam War to promote a political cause. He was shot down over Hanoi in 1967; he suffered serious injuries as he parachuted into a lake in the middle of the city. He was taken captive, thrown into a cell, beaten nearly to death, suffered other forms of torture. He was placed into solitary confinement, brought out, beaten and tortured some more and then returned to solitary.

He was given a chance for an early release as a POW; the North Vietnamese thought they could get political mileage out of releasing young McCain early, as his father was a senior naval officer who helped shape U.S. war policy in Vietnam. McCain declined to be released. His payback for refusal? More torture.

That doesn’t qualify him as a hero?

Donald Trump has lost his marbles.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another GOP presidential candidate and an Air Force veteran, said Trump’s attack on McCain is a “new low in American politics” and demanded that Trump “immediately withdraw from the race for president.”

Aww, heck. Trump ought to stay in the race — and keep shooting off his mouth.

legal news, State news

Can politics drive a no-bill?

Let’s play out a possible drama that’s developing down yonder in Collin County.

The state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, is being investigated for securities fraud. He admitted to doing something illegal while he was running for AG. He got elected anyway. Paxton has acknowledged that he steered investment clients to a friend without reporting it to the state. There could be a felony indictment in Paxton’s future … or perhaps not.

A special prosecutor has been named and he is likely going to seek an indictment from a grand jury in Collin County, which Paxton represented in the Texas House of Representatives before being elected to the statewide office. Paxton says, not surprisingly, that “politics” is driving this investigation.

So, would “politics” result in the grand jury deciding against an indictment of the Republican AG, given that Collin County also is a heavily GOP county?

I ask only because of the furor that erupted when a Travis County grand jury indicted then-Gov. Rick Perry last year on abuse of power and coercion charges. Travis County is a reliably Democratic part of the state; Perry, of course, is a Republican. The governor accused the grand jury — and the special prosecutor, who also is a Republican, by the way — of political motivation.

Does this politicization allegation work in reverse?

I’m just askin’.

legal news, State news

AG Paxton faces possible felony indictment

Do you ever wonder why people vote for political candidates who actually admit to doing something that could get them into serious legal trouble?

How did Texans, therefore, manage to elect a state attorney general — Ken Paxton of McKinney — who had acknowledged he solicited investment clients for a friend without giving the state proper notification?

It’s called “securities fraud.” It’s a serious deal. A Collin County grand jury is going to decide — maybe soon — whether to indict the state’s top lawyer on charges that he committed a felony.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/01/potential-case-against-paxton-appears-grow-serious/

Now, before you get your underwear all knotted up, let’s understand a couple of things.

Paxton is a Republican. Collin County is a heavily Republican county north of Dallas. A special prosecutor — ostensibly an independent-thinking individual — has been brought in to present the case against Paxton, a former state representative from McKinney.

This really and truly isn’t the partisan witch hunt that’s been alleged in Travis County, where another grand jury indicted then-Gov. Rick Perry of abuse of power and coercion of a public official.

No. This case ought to smell differently to those critics.

The most damaging element of this probe would seem to be Paxton’s own acknowledgment that he did something wrong.

And on top of all of that, he’s hired a high-powered former federal judge, Joe Kendall of Dallas, to represent him.

I don’t know what that tells you, but it tells me that Paxton thinks there might be something upon which the grand jury would indict him. He’s going to need the best legal help he can get.

Getting back to my initial question, given that all this was known prior to the election this past November: How in the world did Texans elect this guy?