Tag Archives: Rick Perry

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Obama, Perry to meet after all

It appears saner heads are beginning to prevail in the Texas governor’s office and at the White House.

President Obama has asked Congress for $4 billion in emergency aid to help combat the flow of illegal immigrants into Texas and other border states.

And …

Gov. Rick Perry has accepted the president’s invitation to a private meeting between the men to discuss ways to solve the crisis on the border.

Is this a sign of progress? Could be.

Perry had refused to take part in an airport tarmac symbolic handshake when Obama arrives in Austin later this week. He wanted a private meeting and said so publicly. The White House agreed this morning.

A meeting between the president and the governor won’t solve the crisis by itself. It is good political symbolism, and provides good “optics” for both men. One more such positive optic would be for the president to visit the border to see up close what’s causing all the ruckus.

As for the 4 billion bucks the president is asking, the ball is now in Congress’s court.

Congressional Republicans — to no one’s surprise — have been bashing the White House over its response to the border crisis that has produced more than 50,000 illegal immigrants coming to Texas in recent weeks. They’re mostly unaccompanied children and young adults.

The president would use the money to beef up security on the border, which as I understand it, is what the GOP is demanding.

So here you go, GOP leaders of Congress. Will you approve the money or will you drag your feet to preserve the political talking points?

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Has Gov. Perry gone petulant?

Texas Gov. Rick Perry won’t be on hand to greet President Obama on Thursday when the president arrives in Austin for a Democratic Party fundraiser.

Imagine my surprise … not!

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/politics/article/Perry-will-shun-Obama-handshake-at-Texas-airport-5605592.php

Perry wants a “substantive” meeting with Obama to discuss the crisis along the Texas border with Mexico. Thousands of illegal immigrants have entered the state from Central America. Perry wants Obama to do something about it. The president says he’s weighing his options.

Meantime, the president is coming here to raise money for Democrats. Perry, the lame-duck Republican governor, will forgo the customary greeting at the airport when Obama arrives.

While I agree with Perry’s call for a meeting with Obama to talk about the border crisis, I disagree with his refusal to greet the elected leader of the country, the commander in chief and the leader of the Free World at the airport.

For his part, the president needs to rework his schedule to fit the governor in for a serious discussion about the border matter. He still has time and I hope he reconsiders his decision to skip the meeting.

However, common courtesy is common courtesy — even in a highly partisan atmosphere.

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More than a handshake, please, Mr. President

This is making my head hurt, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry is, umm, correct in asking for more than an airport tarmac handshake with Barack Obama when the president arrives in Austin this week.

Perry wants more than handshake with Obama during Texas visit

Perry wants to meet privately with Obama to discuss the border crisis, created by the influx of thousands of illegal immigrants — from Central America — into Texas. The immigrants are young people fleeing repression; they have become commodities of human traffickers and drug lords. It’s a disgraceful development.

I must agree wholeheartedly with the governor on his request for a substantive meeting with the president.

The president reportedly has no plans to visit the border region while he’s in Texas to raise money for Democratic candidates. He should change his mind on that one, too.

As for meeting with Perry, Obama would have to set aside the idiotic statements from the governor, who said over the weekend he believes the White House may have “wanted” the crisis to erupt on the border. To what end is anyone’s guess. Perry hasn’t yet described what possible motive the president and/or the White House would have in fomenting this crisis.

The two men are adults. They’re seasoned pols. They know how to talk “frankly” with each other. I would hope the president could find time to meet with the governor of a significant state that is under siege at the moment by illegal immigrants.

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Perry says Obama 'wanted' border crisis to occur

Politics is a cynical business.

It results in politicians saying some pretty outrageous things — often about themselves but usually about their opponents.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has added another chapter to the Book of Cynical Commentary.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/07/perry-obama-administration-inept-or-has-ulterior-motive-191578.html?hp=l10

He said over the weekend that President Barack Obama might have wanted the crisis along the Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California borders with Mexico to occur.

“I have to believe when you do not respond in any way, you are either inept or have some ulterior motive that you are functioning from,” the lame-duck Republican governor said on ABC’s “This Week.” Moderator Martha Raddatz had challenged him about earlier comments he made that implied the president might have helped Central American immigrants enter the United States illegally.

I’d go with the competence issue before I’d ever consider some kind of plot to create a crisis where none need exist. This kind of nonsense falls in line with the idiocy spouted recently by former Vice President Dick Cheney that the president is deliberately trying to weaken the United States.

We now have the Texas governor — another loose rhetorical cannon — suggesting the president might have wanted the young people to flood into this country to create a hideous border patrol nightmare. Why? For what purpose does the president of the United States of America deliberately allow such chaos?

I suppose one can chalk it up to another salvo in Perry’s increasingly likely run for the presidency. He’ll leave the Texas governor’s office in January; then he’ll probably start prepping for another run at the GOP nomination for the White House.

Gov. Perry will have to do better than what he demonstrated over the weekend.

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Time to pony up on border emergency

Republicans in Congress have been griping about Barack Obama’s so-called imperial presidency.

They want the president to consult more with them before acting.

OK, then. The president — and Congress — have a serious border emergency on their hands right here in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. It involves the mass migration of thousands of children and adults from Central America.

To help fight the problem believed to part of an international human trafficking ring, the president has asked Congress for more than $2 billion in emergency money to beef up detention facilities along the border and to bolster border security.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/29/obama-to-request-billions-to-deal-with-border-crisis/?hpt=hp_t1

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has asked the president to do more. So has Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another Republican.

The question of the day: Will GOP lawmakers consent to the request or will they continue to dig in their heels, contending that the United States can’t afford the money and, thus, keep sniping away at the administration for its “failure” to protect the border against illegal immigration?

CNN.com reports it this way: “A White House official told CNN the money will go to securing appropriate space for the detention of children but also stemming the tide of immigrants. The government hopes to increase its ability to investigate and dismantle smuggling organizations as well as quickly return children and adults to their home countries if they do not qualify for asylum.”

For his part, Obama is sending stern messages to governments south of Mexico. “Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they’ll get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it,” Obama said to ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Can he do more? Sure. First, though, he needs the resources, meaning the money, to pay for the stepped-up efforts to stop the illegal immigrant flow. The funds can come from Congress.

Will the legislative branch put it up?

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Yep, Perry 'stepped in it'

Let’s give credit where it’s due: Texas Gov. Rick Perry knows he messed up when he answered a question about whether homosexuality is a “disorder.”

Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Perry said this: “I got asked about an issue, and instead of saying, ‘You know what, we need to be a really respectful and tolerant country, and get back to talking about, whether you’re gay or straight you need to be having a job, and those are the focuses I want to be involved with,’ instead of getting — which I did, I readily admit, I stepped right in it.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/rick-perry-gay-comments-alcohol-108069.html?hp=r6

The problem the Texas governor is going to discover is that it will be next to impossible to shake “it” off his boots, if you get my drift.

That’s the trouble with considering whether to run for the highest public office in the land. When you make mistakes with careless speech, it comes back to haunt you because many Americans won’t let you forget it.

Perry compared gay sexual orientation with alcoholism in remarks to a political club in California, where he was attending a meeting to promote Texas business initiatives.

The comparison drew immediate and withering fire from critics — such as yours truly.

Alcoholism is a treatable disease; someone’s sexual orientation is part of one’s DNA — period.

I’ll give Perry credit, though, at least for recognizing aloud that he made a mistake.

It’s thought he’s considering a second presidential campaign in 2016. He says he’ll be better prepared than he was in 2012 when he fumbled, faltered and failed.

Gov. Perry needs more work to get ready for the next campaign.

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Sexual orientation is no disease

One more comment on Gov. Rick Perry’s foray into gay politics and then I’m done.

I just read Paul Burka’s blog post on the subject. Here it is:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/rick-perry-homosexuality

Burka’s fundamental point is a simple, but quite profound, one. Alcoholism is a treatable disease; homosexuality is not.

Perry was asked at a California political gathering if he thought being gay is a disorder. He liked it to alcoholism. “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that. And I look at the homosexual issue in the same way,” Perry said.

I’ve noted already, so I won’t belabor the point, but the two issues simply are not connected at any level.

And yet, the Texas Republican Party has adopted a platform plank that suggests that someone can be counseled out of being gay through what the GOP calls “reparative therapy.”

Whatever has become of the Texas Republican Party? The goofballs are in charge.

There. On this subject, I’m out.

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Here's lookin' at ya, Gov. Perry

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry has opened the can a little more widely as it regards homosexuality.

Oh, boy. Here we go again.

Perry went to San Francisco this week, where he attended the Commonwealth Club of California. He was asked: Is homosexuality a disorder?

His answer reportedly drew some gasps from the audience. He said that “whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that.”

He went on: “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.”

http://news.msn.com/us/perry-discusses-view-of-homosexuality#tscptme

As I read those comments, I am surmising that Perry believes someone’s sexual orientation is a “lifestyle choice.” He believes people choose to be intimate with others of the same sex.

Interesting, eh?

His comments came after the Texas Republican Party went around the bend by approving a platform plank that endorses “reparative therapy” for gay people, meaning they can be counseled into becoming straight.

Oh my.

Now the governor of a major U.S. state equates sexual orientation with alcoholism.

I don’t want to repeat myself here, as I’ve covered much of this already in a previous blog post.

Allow me to just say it once more, with feeling: I do not believe one makes a conscious choice on their sexual orientation. It is part of their DNA. They are born straight or gay. There is no correlation between one’s sexual orientation and one’s affliction with drinking too much.

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Shocker! Cruz wins Texas GOP poll

Boy, that’s a shocker … not!

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tea Party, won the Texas Republican Party’s presidential straw poll.

Stop the presses!

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/06/07/cruz-runs-away-straw-poll-gop-convention/

Cruz has become the poster boy for virtually all statewide GOP office seekers this election cycle. They want his endorsement, their pictures taken with him, sound bites with Cruz saying their name, pictures of him kissing their small children … you name it, Cruz is The Man if you’re a Texas Republican.

Perhaps the real surprise of the straw poll is that Gov. Rick Perry finished fourth. Perry is now thought widely to be considering another run for the presidency in 2016. He’s a lame duck governor and he’s not going out with a whimper. He’s going out with a whoop and a holler and veiled promise to keep himself available for speaking gigs, fundraisers and other things political.

The Texas GOP gathering is wrapping in Fort Worth. Republicans have good reason to be feeling giddy. They hold every elected statewide office available. One of them, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Larry Meyers, switched to the Democratic Party this past year and is running for the state Supreme Court as such — so he doesn’t really count as a Democratic statewide officeholder.

Our state Republican infatuation with Ted Cruz, though, is fascinating to watch. The young man has hit just about every Republican hot button there is to hit.

He kind of reminds of Perry in that regard.

And think, also, of the delightful contest if both Cruz and Perry decide to run for president in two years.

I can’t wait.

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No goodbye for Goodhair

Come on, y’all. You didn’t really think Gov. Rick Perry was going to say “farewell” at the Texas Republican Party convention in Fort Worth, did you?

Oh, no. The man dubbed by the late columnist/humorist Molly Ivins as Gov. Goodhair said, according to the Texas Tribune, said, in effect, “See y’all later.”

You know what that means. He wants to run for president of the United States in two years.

http://www.panhandlepbs.org/news/texas-tribune/gop-convention-perry-signs-without-goodbye/

Great! Just great!

Perry did a thorough job of embarrassing himself and the state he governs in 2011 while running briefly for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. He didn’t make it to the first contest, the Iowa caucus, before dropping out. He had that infamous “oops” moment when he couldn’t identify all the federal agencies he’d cut if he were elected president.

He performed badly in other GOP joint appearances with the other candidates.

Perry called it off, came back to Texas and resumed his day job, which he’s held longer than anyone else in Texas history.

He’s sought to rehabilitate himself, his image, his message, his demeanor … the whole thing.

Many Texans still know him — fondly and not-so-fondly — as Gov. Goodhair, thanks to Miss Molly’s timeless description.

I’ll just add this little anecdote, which I heard countless times from quite a few Texas Panhandle Republicans as Goodhair ran for president two years ago.

A lot of ’em told me they wanted Perry elected president — just so they could get him out of Texas.