Gov. Rick Perry-All Hat and No Cattle?

Tuesday, August 23nd, 2011
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

RUNNING FOR THE WHITE HOUSE-
IS IT “GOVERNOR IN CHIEF?”

How much more bleak can the mood of the country get? Several new polls out this week show that only 15% of likely voters in next year’s presidential election say the U.S. is heading in the right direction. According to the Rasmussen Reports national survey, that’s down 10 points from a month ago, and 20 points from just a year ago. You would assume Washington would be abuzz with a consuming congress and White House trying to find some way out of a hole that continues to deepen each month.

Yet the President seems a bit less than concerned, spending 10 days on Martha’s Vineyard with the rich and famous. Oh, he’s supposedly on a “working vacation,” and it may be “perception,” but it looks bad. In politics, perception quickly becomes reality. Congress, too, is on a break. With Democrats and Republicans in a stalemate, the urgency for a solution to the economic stagnation continues to grow as mindful action on the country’s financial health is nowhere to be found.

The Wall Street Journal, certainly a strong Republican mouthpiece, commented that Republicans are “desperate” for a candidate to emerge with practical economic solutions, and, according to the Journal’s editorial page, if “the current field isn’t up to that, perhaps someone still off the field will step in and run.” As E.J. Dionne wrote in a Washington Post column last week, “having the Journal’s editorial page criticize the Republican presidential crop is like having Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, fret over the quality of cardinals who want to be the next pope.”

Enter Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the new flavor of the month, and our neighbor next to my home state of Louisiana. Perry is the perfect fit for the Texas cowboy gunslinger who “shoots first” and delves into the details later. And give the guy credit. He says he shot a coyote that was attacking his dog as he was out for a morning jog. No photos of the coyote though, and some folks say it was really a rat. By the way, where do you carry you six gun when you are in jogging shorts?

Perry brags, with some justification, that 37% of all jobs created in the U.S. during the past 2 ½ years were created in Texas. But he’s fuzzy on the details of just what policies he had in place to create these new jobs.

A major source of the new jobs was the increase in the price of oil. Higher prices mean more jobs in production and distribution. Oil prices are five times higher today than when Perry first took office. But government has no say in the economics of this job source. A major increase in military spending throughout numerous military installations in Texas is another source of the new jobs that Perry claims for himself. From Lyndon Johnson to George Bush and Dick Cheney (remember Halliburton?), Texas has been treated quite well out of Washington, re military spending.

And how about drug money? Middle and upper class Mexicans, reports the New York Magazine, are flooding into Texas, bringing their savings and businesses with them. According to the DEA, the magazine reports, “drug traffickers are cleaning up their proceeds by buying businesses in South Texas. They also spend on guns, warehouses, security guards, luxury cars and houses. In San Antonio, a high-dollar drug trafficker can buy a $2 million or $3 million place and exist for a long time.” Lots of jobs coming to Texas this way?

Low taxes? Texas does not have a state income tax. But at what price? Texas has a less than a mediocre school system, and the lowest percentage of citizens who have health insurance in the nation. Many of the new jobs are for unskilled labor, and often, these jobs are merely diverted from another state. So this does little for higher national job growth. Texas is presently a little below the national average in unemployment, but Hispanic unemployment at 9.4% in Texas, is higher than the U.S figure of 9.2%. Texas, in fact, ties Mississippi for having the highest percentage of its population receiving minimum wages.

When it comes to injustice in the judicial system, don’t count on Gov. Rick to be a champion for the wrongly convicted. Texas is a hotbed for innocent citizens being falsely accused and convicted under Perry’s reign. One of the worst cases was that of Cameron Todd Willingham convicted of burning up his family. Following his conviction, mounting evidence surfaced that led any number of investigators to conclude that Willingham was in fact, innocent.

The Governor was unmoved and refused to halt his execution. Later, the Texas Forensic Science Commission hired investigators to review the case, who determined that "a finding of arson could not be sustained.” When the Commission agreed to reopen the Willingham case after the execution, Perry conveniently removed the Chairman and two other members to stop any further state investigation. The morbid joke around those closely following the case was that “it took nerve to execute an innocent man.”

Perry has spent his first week of his new campaign saying that “it’s time to get America back to work again. Great governor! But tell us how? What’s your plan? We are hoping that you are not all hat with no cattle.

So far, Perry seems to be running for Governor in Chief, not Commander in Chief. The nation is presently fighting three wars. Libya has drawn out to six months when it was supposed to be just weeks. There is no end in sight for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, although our primary foes there, Hussein and Bin Laden, are both long dead. Iran continues on a path of acquiring nuclear weapons, but not one word on these dangerous and volatile national defense issues.

The bottom line is this. The Governor of Texas is entitled to a little bit of time to lay out his plans for revitalizing the country. But whether he likes it or not, he will spend a great deal of time on the campaign trail answering for what he did, and what he failed to do as the state’s chief executive. And ole’ Ranger Rick has a lot of explaining to do.

*****
Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of clichés the first prize. ~Saul Bellow

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers and websites throughout the South. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

Republicans Let the Good Times Roll in New Orleans!

Thursday, June 23rd, 201
New Orleans, Louisiana

THE GOP DOG AND PONY SHOW
COMES TO NEW ORLEANS!

The circus comes to town quite often in New Orleans. It’s always Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, frolicking in the French Quarter, and weekly festivals where zany antics take place, few restrictions apply, and the good times continue to roll. So it was no surprise that republicans gathered in New Orleans last week to assess their chances in 2012. Sizing up the field of presidential wannabes that showed up, there were no real standouts. National polls indicate that half the republican voters nationally are still hoping a better candidate emerges. But don’t bet on it.

It was tea party tough talk as the eight announced candidates engaged in one-upsmanship in seeing who could be the bigger critic of the President, and who could offer the biggest slice of rhetorical red meat to the party’s base. Congressman Ron Paul told the crowd it was time to shut down any foreign military involvement unless the U.S. was directly threatened. When pizza king Herman Cain called for a continuing policy of support for Israel, the Paul crowd booed loudly. Cain also clarified an important issue in the coming campaign. He prefers deep dish pizza over thin crust.

Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota charmed the crowd with a big smile and tough talk. With Bachmann dressed in white from head to toe, one observer dubbed the candidates Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I interviewed Bachmann for my weekly radio show prior to her speech, and it’s easy to see why her popularity is growing. She grasps your hand, and looks you straight in the eye, ala Bill Clinton. She reminds you that she not only has 5 children, but 23 foster children. Hey, even I’m impressed.

Bachmann warmed up the strong Louisiana crowd by telling them: “You survived Katrina! You survived President Obama’s oil moratorium! There is nothing you can’t survive!” She is the warmest and most accessible candidate of the lot, followed closely by former Pennsylvania Senator, Rick Santorum. And Bachmann is no slouch on details of what she believes. No comparing her to another potential female candidate (You betcha!). Bachmann did get “glittered” by a gay activist, but she just kept smiling and waving to the adoring crowd.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich left most of those in attendance (and yours truly) cold when he went over the top saying that the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are a "secular-socialist machine" that "represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union." He gave the GOP loyalists an off the wall neocon lecture that seemed out of touch with present day foreign policy realities. Newt has become a political dinosaur whose days in the presidential ring, by his own missteps, are numbered.

Then to the podium came bigger than life Texas Governor, Rick Perry. With the swagger, the twist of the head, and the puzzling smile, was it Dubya reincarnated? As Comedian Andy Borowitz, a regular guest on my talk show, suggested, Perry’s campaign slogan could be: “What Harm Could a Governor from Texas Do?” Perry once suggested that Texas ought to secede from the union. Andy suggests Perry should propose that “The United States should secede from Planet Earth and pray for rapture.” The national press, however, seems to be taking the Texas Governor much more seriously. With the South having become completely red, and with no present southern candidate having emerged so far, a number of commentators look to Perry to fill the vacant role of a strong, conservative, tea party- leaning candidate to oppose the present front runner, Mitt Romney.

The most substantive, sensible speech of the convention received a polite but lukewarm response. It came from former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, who has been working for months to get more media attention, with limited success. Roemer has been crisscrossing early primary states in his campaign bus selling his message that what’s wrong with America is that it’s been largely sold to powerful corporate interests. Roemer puts it this way:

“I know when we’re being taken advantage of, and I know our own corporate giants have never been more profitable than they are right now because they keep sending these high-priced American jobs overseas. I will run successfully for President, accepting $100 maximum contributions, like I always do. No PAC money, full disclosure. I will attempt to beat the tyranny of the big check. If we don't do this, the change that's necessary to rebuild America will never happen.” Roemer is the best orator in the bunch, but he can’t get his message across because he has limited his resources.

So what was the highlight of the convention? My friend Andy would say it was when the Obama impersonator took the stage. Reggie Brown had the crowd standing and cheering raucously when he lit into the Democrats from disgraced ex-congressman Anthony Weiner to the President himself. Brown joked that Obama celebrates only half of African-American History Month. But then the crowd quieted down when Brown turned on Republican candidates. “Newt Gingrich’s supporters are dropping faster than Weiner’s pants.” He followed up by put downs on most of the other candidates, until convention organizers had had enough. Brown’s mike was cut off, and the music swelled.

The convention itself was organized and run in a first class manner. Kudos to the Louisiana Republican Party, and the convention CEO, Charlie Davis, who knows how to organize and put on a good show. And what better place to hold such a gathering than New Orleans? As Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour told the republican faithful: “If you can’t come down here and have a good time, it’s your own darn fault.”
Three contenders who, at least for now, have a good shot at the nomination, were not in attendance. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who presently leads in the polls, chose to “stay above the fray,” and skip New Orleans. His strategy seems to be to raise money and not get caught up in the interparty squabbling. Red state south is not fertile ground for the more moderate Romney, where polls show his Mormon faith is troubling to a number of voters.

Minnesota’s former Governor Tim Pawlenty also was a no show, choosing to give a paid speech in California instead. He has been under fire for breaking Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment of not criticizing other candidates in his recent attack on Romney’s Healthcare proposals. In a New Hampshire debate earlier in the week, Pawlenty seemed to wilt like a bodega tulip. Huntsmen, who like Romney is also a former Utah Governor and a Mormon, surprisingly won the straw poll in New Orleans, but called in sick for the New Orleans gathering.

Despite all the anti-Obama rhetoric, Republicans realize that this coming election will be no cake walk, and that the President is going to be hard to defeat. As former Governor, and once candidate, Mike Huckabee points out, “It's not Obama's performance, so much as his money and a possible lack of Republican unity.” New Orleans was a warm up. These candidates still have a long and rough road to travel before any of them emerge as the one to beat.

*****

“I'm not sure Lincoln would fare well if he were a presidential candidate today.”
David Herbert Donald

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers and websites throughout the South. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.