When Rick Perry became a movement conservative
This was the topic of a breakfast discussion yesterday, in which I participated. One of our group, a former legislator who served with Perry in the House, said it happened it 2002. Kay Bailey Hutchison was giving indications that she planned to run for governor against Perry, who had inherited the governorship when Bush became president. He was not at all popular at the time, and Hutchison was extremely popular. Always shrewd when it came to politics, Perry realized that his best, and perhaps only, chance to beat her was to move hard to the right. And that’s what he did. He won the support of the far right, Hutchison didn’t run, and the rest is history. That was the general trend of the discussion.
This does not fit my recollection of events. For one thing, the buzz about Hutchison taking on Perry never got past the talking stage. She lost her nerve. I think the transformation of Perry occurred much earlier, when he switched parties in 1989, ran for agriculture commissioner in 1990, and defeated Jim Hightower. The story I remember is that Phil Gramm told him that, as a party switcher, he had to move hard to the right and never budge. (Gramm, of course, had switched parties as well.) The point is that Perry moved right, not out of conviction, but out of political necessity. He followed Gramm’s advice to the letter.
Not a Fan says:
I agree with the legislator at your roundtable. In his short tenure as Lt. Governor (1999-2000), Perry did nothing to indicate he was far right. I really didn’t notice that he shifted until Tom DeLay & Tom Craddick took the reigns and began telling everyone what to do in 2003. Remember, even Perry said he wasn’t interested in mid-term redistricting. The uber-religious stuff came even after that.
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Kool-Aid Man says:
OH YEAH!!!!!
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Old Guy says:
Rick Perry was a strong conservative before he switched parties. He took on Jim Hightower’s runaway Ag Dept on the floor. The Perry amendment put a screen on certain regulatory powers such that the Health Dept. and the Texas Water Commission had input on the science because the Sunset Advisory Commission, in it’s report (from the staff) found some questionable abuse of discretionary authority. The staff recommended at least an advisory body. This was well before Perry even thought about running for Ag Commsr. I’ve always seen Rick Perry as a strong conservative from the time he set foot on the House floor.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 11:49 am
Perry was already a staunch conservative long before he jumped to the GOP and began winning statewide office.
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Brian says:
If memory serves, Gramm’s advice to party switchers was to be more Catholic than the Pope. Seems to me that Perry took that to heart twenty years ago.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Gramm was Episcopalian, so I’m not sure if that counted.
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Bodhisattva says:
I make a distinction between a “strong” or “staunch” conservative and a “movement” conservative, in that movement conservatives are more likely to be preoccupied with hot-button issues of the “God, guns and gays” variety. People like Jimmie Don Aycock and Drew Darby are strong conservatives; folks like Leo Berman and Debbie Riddle are movement conservatives.
I think Perry is a movement conservative now. Was he always? Was Perry the State Rep a movement conservative? The Ag Commissioner? When did he fully embrace movement conservatism?
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paulburka Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 2:01 pm
I think Bodhisattva is on the right track. There is a world of difference between a strong conservative and a movement conservative. Perry started out as a strong conservative and ended up as a movement conservative, though I think it is mainly for appearance’s sake.
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Alan Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Correct. That’s why the anecdote about Perry and Phil Gramm is an odd one. Gramm was never a social issues guy. He was a supply-side economist whose message as a Senator and a presidential candidate was cutting taxes and regulations. It wasn’t the “Faith, Family, Freedom” mantra that the populist wing of his party embraces.
Rick Perry is far more comfortable talking about making it harder to get an abortion and keeping gay kids out of Boy Scouts than he is in talking about tax reform or budgets. He embraces right-wing economic doctrine to the extent that it pleases his major donors, not out of philosophical conviction, as Gramm does.
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Admonkey Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 6:51 pm
It’s easier for Perry to be a populist conservative of the “Faith, Family, Freedom” variety because he simply doesn’t grasp the nuances of supply-side economics. Or the economics of any school, for that matter.
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Anonymous says:
Perry “discovers” whatever is going to do him good when the time comes — just like he discovered God (Evangelicals) in time to get their support for the GOP nomination. Too bad “God’s call” was to reveal him for the fraud he really is.
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Art Reply:
March 30th, 2012 at 10:13 am
Solid, this.
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Jerry Only says:
btw paul, speaking of political history, have you read Caro’s excerpt from his newest book in the New Yorker or gotten a hold of an advance copy of the book?
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Blue Dogs Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
Jerry, I think if there was a movie about Perry’s life, it would be Kyle Chandler who would portray our long-serving governor and maybe have Jennifer Garner portray Anita Perry, the Texas first lady.
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Art Reply:
March 30th, 2012 at 10:14 am
More like Kevin Bacon and Tina Fey.
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paulburka Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 2:02 pm
We have a copy of the book (just sheets of pages, unbound).
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Kool Aid Man Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
OH YEAH!!!!!
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Jerry Only Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
let us know thoughts on it when youve digested it. im finally about to start at page 1.
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Robert Morrow Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:51 am
Robert Caro is blowing it big time. The world’s greatest biographer is overlooking one unfortunate fact: the Lyndon Johnson’s “Passage to Power” was putting a bullet in the head of John Kennedy.
Caro is simply not incorporating the many decades of fine research that has gone into the study of the JFK assassination.
There are a lot historical canards that need to be corrected in that era:
1) LBJ blackmailed and strongarmed his way onto the 1960 Democratic ticket. See Sy Hersh “The Dark Side of Camelot” for that. LBJ was NOT pick to win electoral votes in the South. LBJ was picked because LBJ and Rayburn were using Hoover’s sexual dossier on JFK and they were telling him we will kill all your legislation and your presidential campaign.
2) LBJ and the Kennedys were having a sub rosa war for 3 1/2 years. And “war” is the right word. By fall 1963 Robert Kennedy was on the verge of politically executing Johnson with a LIFE magazine expose due out on 11/29/63 (dated Dec. 6th) and by feeding damaging info on LBJ to the Senate Rules Committee.
Johnson was faced with both political and personal destruction. To a guy LBJ, that is the equivalent of a death threat and he would respond accordingly.
Basically, LBJ and his Texas oil men used their CIA/elements of US military connections to murder John Kennedy. With LBJ and his good buddy and neighbor for 19 years Hoover to cover it up. And Allen Dulles – who I think was a plotter to kill JFK – to manipulate the Warren Commission farce.
3) Lyndon Johnson’s agenda was FAR different that JFK’s. That is another canard that needs to be destroyed – that LBJ was somehow “continuing” the policies of Kennedy. Civil rights was LBJ’s get out of jail card from the JFK assassination. He had to throw a bone to the liberals who were deeply and rightfully so, suspicious of him in the JFK assassination.
LBJ had a top priority of preserving the oil depreciation allowance for folks like HL Hunt and Clint Murchison. Hunt and Murchison were perps.
LBJ escalated Vietnam, lying about his hawkishness in the 1964 campaign. JFK was quite the dove despite his sometimes hawkish public personal early on in his Administration.
In 1964 LBJ gave Hoover a lifetime exemption from mandatory retirement at age 70 (1-1-65). That sure as HELL was not a policy of JFK who was itching to get rid of Hoover.
LBJ kept himself out of jail. That was not a policy of the Kennedys who hated Johnson. In the last year 1963, LBJ and JFK probably spent exactly ONE HOUR in personal time with no one else there.
When LBJ died, Secret Service agents at his house saw pictures of LBJ with historical and political figures all over the world and decked all over the inside of the LBJ Ranch. THERE WAS NOT ONE PHOTO OF LYNDON JOHNSON AND JOHN KENNDY ON THE WALLS OF THE LBJ RANCH. (source Ron Kessler, an author with good SS contacts).
One more thing, after LBJ was elected, the FBI wiretaps of the Chicago mafia were turned off. Prosecuting the mafia – not on LBJ’s agenda, unlike RFK’s.
Robert Caro has a lot to learn. Really his book is about the political and social pressures to not tell the truth or seek the truth. You would have to read the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” to understand the psycology involved.
I do think that there are people alive TODAY with criminal liability in the JFK assassination. Perhaps some anti-Castro Cuban shooters alive … perhaps George Herbert Walker Bush is someone with liability in the JFK assassination.
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Harold Reply:
March 29th, 2012 at 10:11 am
Wow. Just wow.
Stevie F. says:
After the Trans Texas Corridor fiasco it seemed like Perry labored endlessly to stay in favor with the far right.
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Cloak Room Jukebox says:
It was a shame to see Joe Allbaugh turn the Perry juggernaut into a no-message, no-fundraising, consultant-serving, infighting farce.
The longer the GOP presidential race has drawn out, the more clear it’s become that a well-run Perry campaign might have been the last one standing. “Oops” doesn’t help, but his old team might have been able to salvage a victory under the same cirumstances…
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Admonkey Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 6:54 pm
That’s a crap analysis. The root of the problem was with the candidate, not the team; Perry himself was the “Oops.”
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Robert Morrow Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:31 am
Perry was the problem. Over and over and over again.
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Bodhisattva says:
Cloak Room Jukebox, I think you give Joe Allbaugh too much credit, or, in this case, too much blame for the Perry 2012 implosion. Old team, new team — you cannot rescue a candidate from a lifetime of incuriosity, refusal to engage your opponents on an even playing field, and vicious retribution for disloyalty. Perry was not ready to play at a national level, and may never be.
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John Johnson Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Hear, hear!
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Blue Dogs Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Perry’s presidential campaign was a complete disaster.
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Tom says:
Perry has always spoken up for true conservatives. Just ask Al Gore.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
Rick Perry became a conservative when he understood what democrats had become, losers.
Now be honest who really wants to be associated with losers? yep right, only other losers.
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Jerry Only Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 4:08 pm
cause clinton lost to GHWB right after perrys switch….
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 8:32 pm
The impeached Clinton? Wasn’t he a winner?
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Jerry Only Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
twice elected president, and never removed from office. pretty good winning record.
JohnBernardBooks Reply:
March 29th, 2012 at 6:59 am
impeached is a winning record?
Art Reply:
March 30th, 2012 at 10:15 am
A winner like Bush?
Distinguished Gentleman says:
Someone mentioned today that Perry demoted Tom Pauken at the Texas Workforce Commission.
Does anybody on this blog have any “inside scoop” on that?
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Robert Morrow Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:31 am
Tom Pauken was warned the Rick Perry was using him by appointing him to TWC. Using him to cultivate support with grassroots conservatives.
Tom Pauken also pointedly did NOT support Perry for president this past year.
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Robert Morrow says:
I don’t know when Perry because a so-called “conservative,” but I do know when he became a full throated social conservative – after the 2004 year and all those rumors of his having a homosexual affair with Geoffrey Conner.
That is when Rick Perry became very anti-gay. In 2005, that was the big year of Prop 2, the anti-gay marriage amenment which Perry made a big show of supporting and it passed 76%-24%.
In the year 2000 Lt. Gov. Rick Perry was attending the a gay rights dinner at the Four Seasons; it was the “Salute to the 2 Bettys: Bettie Naylor and Betty DeGeneris, the mother of Ellen DeGeneris.
Rick Perry attended that, but he was not a speaker. I have source who sat at his table; she is a lesbian and a reporter by trade. She was surprised to see Perry there (without Anita) and she asked him “Why should I vote for you?” Rick Perry’s answer: “Because I am here.”
That is Rick Perry in year 2000 when no one is watching him.
After Perry’s near political death 4 years later in 2004- he had to call up Ken Herman and SWEAR it was just a bunch of lies – that is when Perry really adopted social conservatism and anti-gay policies/rhetoric.
In 2008, Perry wrote the book “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For” which was all about defending the Boy Scouts who don’t want – get this – a bunch of openly gay men taking teenage boys out in the woods. The horrors! The closeted ones are the ones you *really* have to watch out for.
Ever since 2004, the chameleon Perry has been cultivativing a gymnasium full of extremist preachers – the ones who want to put every homosexual in America in jail, close down every strip club, ban every porn page on the internet a la Rick Santorum.
“Santorum” … that word always seems to pop up on my Facebook page in relation to Rick Perry.
The Perry had the big presidential prayer rally in summer 2011. As he looked up into the sky and told the folks, “The only thing you love more than your country is the Living Christ!” to thunderous applause.
Then it was on to Leininger’s ranch where Rick and Anita told the crowd you have absolutely nothing – nothing to worry about in Rick’s personal life. Nothing there to embarrass you while we suck money out of you.
Then it was onto the mind boggling and hilarious blow up of the Perry so-called campaign. I was as stunned as everyone else and it was so delicious to see the religious right in Iowa and elsewhere give Rick Perry the pink slip.
Mark that down- Rick Perry abandoned by the religious right. That is exactly what Jesus would do!
Then it was on to December, 2011 and the publication of Glen Maxey’s book on Perry – “Head Figure Head” with some absolutely hilarious stories about Perry Craigslist adventures. I think I am gonna nominate that book for a Pulitzer Prize.
Remember, folks, Glen Maxey does not like me and we are not friends. We do not talk or email. Never have. The only thing Glen Maxey has ever said to me was “Assholes” when I was wearing my pro-normal marriage sticker at a hearing on DOMA in 2005.
But despite our differences, Glen Maxey have a lot in common politically.
And despite their political differences, Glen Maxey and Rick Perry have a lot in common, too.
Hey, when is the next presidential prayer rally?
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Blue Dogs Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Morrow, are you talking about the 2004 sex scandal rumors that almost derailed Perry’s political career in the 2006 elections ?
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Robert Morrow Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Rick Perry’s political career came very close to implosion. It was ALL in the hands of Anita. That is the same woman who pouted her way through the 2010 gubernatorial race and hardly went to events and never smiled.
And the same woman who was the head mascot/cheerleader/”egger on” for the 2012 debacle.
Ray Hill, Houston gay activist, had a source who worked at the Driskill when Anita moved out of the governor’s mansion and IN the Driskill for a brief period in early 2004.
This source said GWB and Laura Bush flew down to Austin and had a private lunch or dinner with Anita over in the corner of the dining room. My speculation is the Bushes told Anita do not get a lawyer (I’m sure she did), do not make a spectacle/scandal of this, this is an election year 2004, just don’t “go postal” on Rick and we will help to make things right for you.
I am not sure when Anita got her sinecure with the TAASA, but was probably around this time. Anita gets paid $65,000, does not show up for work not even once or twice a week, does not have an office their and rarely speaks at events for the organization.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
I have some good news for the losers posting here, in a brief visit with Anita this morning she assured me Rick was running for re-election.
After the terrible day yesterday with the activist judges shooting down hope and change that will give you one more thing to be unhappy about.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
John, Perry is NOT running in 2014 and I’m not buying the “Perry leaning towards running in ’14″ talk.
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
Anita SAID Rick was most definitely for Guv.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Well, Abbott is also likely to launch a primary challenge and WIN.
Anon says:
Hey CharlieJBB, the only visit with any “Anita” you have had is with Anita your cleaning lady in Missouri City.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
BTW dems how’s that “war on wimmen” going?
Maybe yawl could use a cleaning lady as a logo?
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Robert Morrow Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
You don’t want to go out on a date with any girl who thinks she is a womyn.
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Art Reply:
March 30th, 2012 at 10:16 am
Hey JBB, bout as well as drill here drill now.
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anita says:
Perry fared so poorly not because of anything a consultant or his staff did or did not do — he failed because he was seen as a buffoon.
By the way, Rick Perry today endorsed ‘pink slime’. I kid you not. See today’s Houston Chronicle.
I hope someone will ask him if his personal chef at his rental mansion routinely prepares meals that include ‘pink slime’ — my bet is no. Just going on a lark here.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:11 am
Anita, Perry plans on moving back into the Governor’s Mansion in June once the renovations are finished (almost done if I recall).
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JohnBernardBooks says:
Perry has nothing against “pink slime” or democrats.
No I don’t think they are the same, are they?
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