Rick “Oops” Perry called Donald J. Trump a “cancer on conservatism.”
He said his one-time Republican presidential campaign foe was devoid of “principles.”
The former Texas governor once pledged to get rid of the Energy Department, except he couldn’t remember it at the time he made the pledge.
Now the man he condemned with such harsh rhetoric has asked him to lead the department he wanted to eliminate.
Go … figure.
Gov. Perry’s nomination to be energy secretary suggests two important things to me.
One is that politicians’ views of other politicians always are subject to change when the moment presents itself. Perry’s remarks about the president-elect happened to be accurate, in my view. They didn’t stick. So now, if he’s confirmed, Perry will lead a Cabinet agency that he seems to know little about and will work at the pleasure of a man he once described in extremely harsh terms.
The other is that energy development isn’t just about drilling for fossil fuels. Perry, as Texas governor, knows that. We generate a good bit of wind energy in Texas, especially out here on the High Plains.
Trump, though, has expressed next to zero knowledge of, or interest in, alternative energy production. He keeps talking about grabbing the oil fields of the Islamic State and other terrorists and capturing the fuel for our own needs. Is the energy secretary going to assist in that endeavor or will he proceed with promoting a comprehensive energy policy that includes the myriad forms of alternative energy sources available to us?
Gov. Perry is another one of those questionable nominees with whom Trump is surrounding himself.
I am now shaking my head.
