Vote Perry for Governor in the GOP Primary

I was startled recently to hear that the Texas Primary is coming up March 2nd. Early voting begins February 16th! The big event in the GOP Primary, where the party’s lunatic fringe picks the biggest nuts off the tree to cram down the rest of ours throats, is the contest for governor, where the once-slightly-moderate Kay Bailey is challenging the evil incumbent Rick Perry.

For me, Perry can’t be gone soon enough. I only wish he could be led off in irons. He hides his crony capitalism behind a crock of phony baloney ideology that still sells somehow with a large minority of voters. He’s riding the wave of Astroturf activists conjured up by Roger Ailes and David Koch : Dick Armey and Sarah Palin are their minions; and Chuck Norris and Ted Nugent the sideshow.

Perry has been in office forever, since Geo. W. Bush used the office as a stepping-stone in his quest to ruin the country, so his list of crimes against Texas is lengthy. To list a few:

He has done his best to unravel the societal safety net, in the 48th least generous state in the nation, even in the throes of the worst downturn since the great depression, declining federal funds for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Foodstamps, Unemployment Insurance, and Race To the Top Education Grants.

He has presided over and defended one of the most regressive tax systems in the country, while funneling tax money through his slush fund, the Texas Enterprise Fund, to such dubious recipients as WalMart and sub-prime giant Countrywide Financial. Texas Republicans say they hate welfare, but they love them some corporate welfare.

His office has been a revolving door for staffers who later become high-paid lobbyists, returning to pitch dubious schemes like privatization of state services, turning state highways into toll roads to be leased to foreign interests, requiring certain HPV vaccines for schoolgirls statewide, leasing out the state lottery, and taking out “dead peasant” life insurance policies on schoolteachers.

-Enough of all that, hopefully Senator Hutchison will spend millions telling Texans these stories. From what I hear, Perry is the preferred opponent at the Bill White for Governor campaign. I will enjoy watching Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina sully the governor but I hope that Texas Republicans choose Rick Perry as their candidate in an expensive and bloody run-off election.