Dewhurst’s new consultant
It’s Rick Perry. Well, not exactly. What has happened is that Team Perry has taken over the Dewhurst campaign. Dave Carney is in charge. Mark Miner has joined the communications team. Rob Johnson is heading up the Super PAC. Everyone understands what that means. It means that the Perry playbook will be the textbook for Dewhurst’s runoff campaign against Ted Cruz. And the contents of the playbook have never been a secret. Chapter One is “Always attack.” Chapter Two is “If the first attack doesn’t work, try another one.” Chapter Three is “The only good use for earth is to scorch it.”
The unsolved mystery of Perry’s deep involvement in the Dew’s Senate race is why he cares. He must think he can benefit by Dewhurst’s going to the Senate.
How? In the first place, it is to Perry’s advantage to have an ally in the Senate, assuming he intends to remain active in state and national politics. Texas’s senior senator, John Cornyn, and Perry are not close. Nor does Perry have a lot of friends in the Texas congressional delegation. He won no allies in the delegation by running for governor against Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2010 with an anti-Washington message that irked all the members of the delegation, not to mention rubbing off on many of them. Most members of Congress work hard. They regard Perry as a show horse, rather than a workhorse. Cruz is certainly no friend of Perry’s, and he is also a rival for Perry as the leader of the tea party in Texas. That leaves only Dewhurst as a possible ally.
Finally, it’s possible that Perry can gain from Dewhurst’s departure by the simple possibility that Dewhurst would no longer be light gov. The Texas Senate would have to choose a successor, and Perry, as governor, would be in a position to influence that selection, which could prove to be useful if he remains in office as governor.
As I wrote in a previous post, the issue of how to run against Cruz is crucial. Cruz is a grassroots candidate. Dewhurst clearly is not. He is the establishment candidate. Cruz has an edge in using social media to contact his voter base and get them to the polls. Dewhurst’s failure to reach 50% in the closing days of the primary race indicates the campaign’s lack of a social media strategy that can identify and turn out his voters.
Carney will follow his usual strategy of attacking his opponent in the media. This strategy has the dual benefit of weakening Dewhurst’s opponent and providing consultants with more income from the placement of advertising. But how many bombs does Dewhurst have left to throw at Cruz? They have already hit him with an attack on his representation of a Chinese company that ended up having to pay a large jury verdict to an American competitor. A claim that Cruz supported amnesty for illegal aliens did not appear to have much credibility. What else is left? If the Dewhurst campaign is out of bombshell revelations, they could find themselves on the defensive in the closing days of the runoff.
Tagged: dave carney, david dewhurst, Ted Cruz
FLPD says:
Neither of these reasons seem plausible to me–he’s looking for an ally in the US Senate or he would be in position to help influence which senator replaces Dewhurst which would help him during the session. In reality, Perry desperately needs for there to be an opening in a statewide position for all of the wannabes to vie to move up the ladder. In 2009, Ted Cruz launched a website to run for attorney general in the event his then-boss Abbott had an opening to run for Lt. Gov. Perry’s re-election bid in 2010 stopped up the pipeline for everybody.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Perry made his re-election bid in 2010 official 2 years earlier on April 17, 2008 during a press conference at the GOP Governors Association meeting, which didn’t surprise anybody.
I still do NOT see him running in 2014 and the Dew is likely to win the runoff in the Senate race.
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paulburka Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
What does having everybody else move up do for Perry? Nothing.
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Rithmetic Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Perry isn’t the isolated case study here. Nobody who’s worked with Cruz and Dewhurst seem to support Cruz.
Perry and Abbott have both worked with Dewhurst and Cruz. Perry endorsed Dewhurst, and Abbott refused to endorse Cruz…his former employee! In a run-off where all bets are purportedly off, the fact that Abbott doesn’t endorse speaks volumes. The only coworkers that have supported Cruz come from his law firm–not from his time as solicitor general.
None of the state senators who have worked under Dewhurst have endorsed Cruz. If the Cruz attacks on Texas government and Dewhurst’s senate leadership were anywhere near true, shouldn’t he be able to muster one single ally in that argument?
Other interesting factoids: Ted Cruz didn’t endorse Perry for president (or, cowardly, anyone at all). Dewhurst did. Jim DeMint, a Cruz sugar daddy, endorsed Romney over Perry. How could Cruz contradict his money man? Lesser Cruz sugar daddy Dick Armey supported grassroots kryptonite KBH over Perry in 2010. Why contradict your D.C. mouthpiece?
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Distinguished Gentleman says:
The one who has clogged up the pipeline worse than anybody else is none other than James R. “Rick” Perry himself.
Others indeed could “move up the ladder” if there were term limits put into place–for all offices.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Georgia has term limits in place only for the governor while the down-ballot officeholders serve as long as they want.
North Carolina is the same way as is Louisiana.
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Jeff Crosby says:
When will they air a spot claiming Cruz is responsible for the death of a law enforcement officer? July 24 is my guess.
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Anonymous says:
If a Dewhurst win would help Rick “Oops” Perry….and if RP has his hand in this race…….then I’m switching my vote to Cruz
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Dave Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 2:14 pm
I wonder if Cruz slipped Perry a nice donation to endorse Dewhurst. Would be an effective use of funds.
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100 Year Decision says:
Rick Perry is a cockroach in the kitchen: it is not what he eats or carries off, it is what he falls into and fouls up.
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Just tired.... Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Thank coach Darrell Royal for that one, IMHO he originally said that about TCU…..
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Just tired.... Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Sorry…that should be IIRC he originally said….
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paulburka Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Correct re DKR: Texas had been ranked number one but lost to TCU. Happened in 1959 and again in 1961.
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Distinguished Gentleman says:
If I were Dewhurst, I would not want Rick Perry in any way involved in my race for the U.S. Senate.
While Dewhurst will still probably win on July 31st, it definitely makes me lean more toward casting a vote for Ted Cruz in the run-off.
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Steve S. Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Why do you assume Dewhurst will win? In early voting, Dew was up by 17. On election day, he only won by 3. That’s a 14 point swing, which is as big as the entire Leppert vote. If that’s a trend that’s still continuing (and the GOP convention sure looked like it), Cruz is probably already up among the folks who voted for either of those two. It only remains to see if the Leppert or James people show up. And they’d have to all break for Dewhurst to make up for Cruz’ ground game.
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Cyrus Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
What is Cruz’s “ground game” ? Robocalls and mail?
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 20th, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Dewhurst won the 1st round of voting by 11 points.
The recent poll has him leading by 25 points.
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anita says:
When is Dewhurst going to become his own man?
Why would you take political advice from the team that produced the most embarrassing presidential run in modern history?
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100 Year Decision Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Anita, you gotta consider the Gingrich campaign for pure buffoonery as well as Perrys….not sure which one was more amusing.
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Whoa Nellie! Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
And so it was, but Gingrich at least managed to speak in coherent sentences (most of the time), didn’t break into random giggling fits, and actually won a few primaries.
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Courtney Robertson says:
I hope to see you moderating or asking questions in a debate in the runoff, Paul.
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paulburka Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Not going to happen. It’s just as well.
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John Johnson says:
Please…please…please stop this “If Perry helps Dewhurst, I’m voting for Cruz” stuff.
Cruz is a hearlded debater…which means he can take any side of an issue and make it his own. He is good at it. Very good. He has convinced many that he is an uber conservative. If he wanted to, he could make you believe that he is George Soros’ protege.
He is the worst kind of attorney, ladies and gentlemen. He follows the money and will sell himself to get at it …just like he did when he represented the Chinese tire company.
What keeps him from selling out in D.C.? The answer? Nothing. Cruz is he worst kind of attorney…the kind that cloaks himself in chameleons’ skins.
Dewhurst is a piece of furniture planted in the middle of the living room. If he makes a move in D.C. it will be because someone is moving him and we will all be able to see it. I’ll settle for this any day over someone who is in the back room, out of view, doing “deals”. There are enough of those up there already.
Forget about Perry; vote for Dewhurst. Simple but sanitary.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 2:48 pm
Johnson, Dewhurst is still the odds-on favorite to be the next US Senator from Texas.
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TexRusk Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
I’m sure someone with the name Blue Dogs has all the insight into how a REPUBLICAN primary is going to turn out.
The reason Burka and everyone else in the Austin establishment bought into the hooplah that Dew was going to win without a runoff is that they’ve never BEEN to a Midland, Waco, or Mesquite GOP event. If you aren’t on the ground, you can’t predict this race. That’s like guessing who will win the superbowl having not seen a single NFL game all season.
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paulburka Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
No, I haven’t been to any partisan event. But the reason that I and everyone else in the Austin establishment thought the Dew would win the race is that he had the advantages of money and name I.D. away. In most races, that is enough to win. Cruz had the grass roots and word of mouth. Dewhurst was never able to identify his voters and close the deal with them. The Cruz team did a much better job on the social media. Dewhurst deserves some of the blame because he ran a lazy race, sitting back and counting on Perry’s endorsement to win it for him. That was a miscalculation, because Perry’s endorsement doesn’t mean what it used to. That was clear at the Republican convention. I think Dewhurst would make a far better senator than Cruz, but he slept on his lead and let it slip away.
Just tired.... Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Snore….back to the Chinese Tire Company.
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Robert Morrow says:
The Perry teams track record is not too stellar recently:
1) Gingrich presidential bid- an early term abortion
2) Rick Perry 2011 humiliation tour. Permanent political disfigurement.
3) Dewhurst … not looking too good
4) Who is next? Bashar Al-Assad of Syria?
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Cow Droppings Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
which is actually an interesting segue as to why Burka is such a drama queen. For years he gave begrudging success to the Perry re-election campaign, despite clearly despising Perry on policy. Now, after one failed national race, they can’t find their head from their ass.
If you want to know when Paul is going to change his position on an issue, just wait.
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paulburka Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
If you read my 2008 and 2010 articles about Perry’s campaigns, you will find that, far from giving begrudging praise to Perry, in both instances I was very complimentary Perry’s operation. Furthermore, I had full cooperation from the Perry team in both articles.
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Distinguished Gentleman says:
What makes Dewhurst think that he needs anything at all from Rick Perry?
I would have had much more respect for Dewhurst if he would run this campaign himself with NO involvement from Perry.
Now, I am very turned off.
And that pac-man commercial only makes Dewhurst look bad.
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Cassava says:
Paul:
Did you explain who Perry wants to be in the Lt Gov seat? And how he will get him/her there?
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paulburka Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
I do not know who Perry wants to be in the Lt. Gov. seat. But whoever gets there will do so by vote of the Senate.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 20th, 2012 at 12:43 pm
Burka, in the likelihood of Dewhurst going to the US Senate (assuming he wins the runoff), does Perry have any allies in the TX State Senate so he can influence some of the GOP state senators to put as LG ?
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Maddy Duncan Brown says:
I am amazed that the tea party, which was born from anger at taxpayer bailouts of financial institutions in 2008, now has been franchised.
The “tea party” is backing Ted Cruz, who is married to a seasoned Goldman Sachs banker, albeit now she’s home raising his family, I’m told. Either way, Goldman Sachs ties to Cruz should be researched… what kind of work did his wife do for Goldman? It creeps me out that so much of Cruz money comes from out of state people…and that his wife has a Goldman Sachs pedigree.
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Robert Morrow Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Madeleine Duncan Brown. Yes, she was a very key mistress of LBJ who told her Texas oil men and the CIA murdered JFK.
But Lyndon Johnson had a much more significant mistress: his secretary Mary Margaret Wiley who later married Jack Valenti. LBJ may even have told Mary Margaret Valenti (nee Wiley) details of the JFK assassination. LBJ spent tremendous amounts of time with her. LBJ had her marry Jack Valenti on 6/1/62 and kept seeing her. Courtenay Lynda Valenti is the biological daughter of Lyndon Johnson, NOT Jack Valenti.
And yes, Courtenay “Lynda” is named after LBJ.
One more thing, Mary Margaret Valenti (nee Wiley) is still alive today. She has given 7 oral histories. Now she needs to give the one where she tells EVERYTHING she knows. Even today MMV is keeping many deep, dark LBJ secrets. MMV was also at the 1960 Demo convention when LBJ and Rayburn blackmailed/strongarmed Kennedy into putting the despised LBJ on the ticket.
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=16617
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Just tired.... Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:48 pm
He sure fooled a lot of folks, didn’t he?
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 20th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Is Morrow talking about LBJ again ?
I know the man was NOT perfect, but my goodness these allegations about him are not true.
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paulburka Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Re Goldman Sachs: Don’t forget that they took a huge bailout and used it to pay big bonuses to their employees, which means that Heidi Cruz got a bonus and her husband benefited from it.
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Pat Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Lou Horseshoe says buy Ted Cruz for Senate.
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Tom says:
As a left-leaning, liberal, I don’t want either one to win, but, Cruz is intriguing. The son of a Cuban immigrant, he makes his way to Harvard, is attracted to government work and makes a name for himself. I would think the Republicans would prefer that over silver spooners like Romney and Bush.
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Robert Morrow Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
“Ted has seen first-hand that America’s bedrock principle is the pursuit of freedom and opportunity. His father came to Texas from Cuba penniless at age 18, not speaking a word of English. Cruz went on to study at Princeton where, in college debate, he was named the U.S. National Speaker of the Year and the U.S. National Team of the Year (with his partner). He also won the First Place Speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debate Championships.
He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude and served as a Primary Editor of the Harvard Law Review, an Executive Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and a Founding Editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review.”
I will be voting for Ted Cruz, but it has nothing tto do with his Ivy League pedigree.
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John Johnson Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Then why mention his background at all if it has mothing to do with your voting for him? It is why I’m not voting for him.
Obama graduated from Harvard Law School. He was Editor of Harvard Law Review. He is heralded for his speaking skills and power of persuasion. He is the son of a Kenyan immigrant. He’s really proud of himself. See any parallels?
Why are you voting for Cruz?
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Texian Politico Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 7:33 am
I’ve been saying since the beginning that Cruz is going to win this thing. I’m glad to see that more and more people are coming around to what I’ve been saying on this race. I predict a Cruz victory around 55% to 45%.
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WUSRPH Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 9:00 pm
Dewhurst is also sort of a self-made man…Father dead at early age; CIA agent; got into the alternative energy business very early, etc. He did it on his own.
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You are all turds says:
How many of ya’ll either work for Cruz or the Dew? Just wondering.
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John Johnson says:
Harvard does not turn our conservatives. Conservatives are not attracted to “government work”. Being of Cuban descent does not make Cruz conservative. He is a chameleon…moreso than Obama. He is whatever you pay him to be.
I’d much rather have a man enter office already rich than have one enter with a little money and leave with a lot.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
I can’t imagine anyone better than Guv Perry “having your back.” The Dew will win big time.
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noone Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 4:59 pm
You’re a sicko pervert.
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100 Year Decision Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 8:52 am
Yeah, Perry having your back…..that is absolutely hilarious.
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end of the road Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 9:09 am
There can’t be too many of you left…You go get them…
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anon says:
Why is an ivy league pedigree a red flag for conservatives? Newsflash folks: people are not admitted to institutions like Harvard because they check a box labeled “liberal”; they are admitted (with some exceptions which I know you’ll all start ranting about)because their grades and board scores are in the 99th percentile. This is generally a good proxy for intellect, not political leanings. I know it sounds quaint but I always intellect was something to be lauded in a political leader. Granted, ivy league schools are notoriously liberal, but so are the faculties of less esteemed institutions. At the end of the day, I’d rather have a Ted Cruz making judgments of national import than Sara Palin.
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John Johnson Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 7:16 am
Name an arch conservative political leader who graduated from Harvard. They might not enter as left leaning, but the vast majority are when they walk away. Furthermore, I feel that a good combination of smarts, common sense and morality makes the best political leaders. There are plenty of brainy crooks. If Mr. Cruz weren’t a smart, slick tongued attorney, who has shown that he will, in return for money, use his intellect and power of persuasion to protect foreign thieves, I might have considered giving him my vote.
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The Mustache That Dare Not Speak Its Name Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 7:41 am
Grover Norquist and William Kristol are two conservative leaders who graduated from Harvard. I’m sure there are others, but those two came to mind immediately.
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John Johnson Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 7:54 am
Thank you for enlightening me. Abberations, I would say. MQS’s protege and a magazine editor. Any real eleced “leaders”?
Robert Morrow Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 11:36 am
Jerome Corsi, King of the Birthers and World Net Daily, went to Harvard Grad School.
Robert Morrow Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Howard Phillips is about as hard right as you can get. He went to Harvard: http://www.conservativeusa.org/hpbio.htm
Howard Phillips, TCC Founder
From 1974 to 2011, Howard Phillips was the Chairman of The Conservative Caucus (TCC), a non-partisan, nationwide grass-roots public policy advocacy group. TCC provided leadership in opposition to the Panama Canal and Carter-Brezhnev SALT II treaties during the 1970s. Since then TCC has led national campaigns to end judicial tyranny, restore a U.S. military presence at Panama, deploy SDI, eliminate the graduated income tax, and terminate Federal subsidies to ideological activist groups. Other TCC campaigns have involved opposition to NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (WTO), passage of the Constitution Restoration Act (CRA), and withdrawal from all institutions of the New World Order, as well as continuing efforts to oppose socialized medicine, abortion, and special rights for homosexuals.
During the 1970s and ’80s, Phillips coordinated efforts to build private sector support for anti-Communist freedom fighters in Central America and southern Africa. He played an instrumental role in the leadership of the New Right, as well as in the founding of the religious right in 1977. Phillips has led geostrategic fact-finding missions to Eastern Europe, Africa, the Baltic States, South America, Central America, Western Europe, and the Far East.
Phillips is President of The Conservative Caucus Research, Analysis & Education Foundation and the U.S. Taxpayers Institute, and is Chairman of the U.S. Taxpayers Alliance.
Howard Phillips founded the U.S. Taxpayers Party (USTP) in 1992 to offer America leadership committed to restoring the Federal Republic to its delegated, enumerated Constitutional functions and returning American jurisprudence to its original “common law” Biblical foundations. Phillips was nominated in 1992 and 1996 to be the USTP candidate for President of the United States. In 1999 he was chosen to be Y2K Presidential nominee of the Constitution Party, the renamed USTP.
Married, with six children ranging in age from 24 to 45, and 17 grandchildren, Phillips left the Republican Party in 1974 after some two decades of service to the GOP as precinct worker, election warden, campaign manager, Congressional aide, Boston Republican Chairman, and assistant to the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
A 1962 graduate of Harvard College where he was twice elected president of the Student Council, Phillips is President of Policy Analysis, Inc. (PAI), a for-profit consulting firm which publishes the bimonthly Howard Phillips Issues and Strategy Bulletin (HPISB.
During the Nixon Administration, Phillips headed two Federal agencies, ending his Executive Branch career as Director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity in the Executive Office of the President, a position from which he resigned when President Nixon reneged on his commitment to veto further funding for “Great Society” programs.
Phillips has published four books: The New Right at Harvard (1983), Moscow’s Challenge to U.S. Vital Interests in Sub-Saharan Africa (1987), The Next Four Years (1992), and Victory 2000 (1999). He was the recipient of the Strategic Resource Group’s William Wilberforce Award for “Ministry to the Nation/Public Policy” in September, 1996; the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools Award, 1995; the Young Americans for Freedom “Alumnus of the Year” Award, 1990; the National Association of Pro-America 1983 Award for “promoting Constitutional government”; and the June, 1982 Eagle Forum Award, for leadership in the pro-family cause and “steadfast opposition to the mischief of the Federally financed feminists.” In May, 2002, the Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty conferred upon him the title of “Patriot”.
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texun Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Rep. Vann Taylor.
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Willie James Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Are we coming to the conclusion that far-right dingbats just can’t get in? Is the far-rights Harvard Texas A&M? Are we saying that these dumbasses can’t make it in tougher schools?
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anon Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 9:41 am
He’s not elected but Scalia went to Harvard Law. Pretty conservative guy.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
If Cruz should win its because dems sued to delay the primary, they aren’t revelant so they need attn., its called republican envy.
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100 Year decision Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 10:19 am
Thanks for contributing to the thread, JBB.
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Just tired.... Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
And a fine contribution it was….
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Anonymous says:
Perry has a lot at stake here. Dewhurst’s record and his are virtually the same. He has little future if Dick ‘Amnesty’ Armey can brand it a liberal, establishment one. We are in trouble big time if DAA and his libertarian backers can decide who defines conservative. Fast becoming the losing party of the nutty Ron Paul and the angry Johnny B.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 20th, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Perry and his cohorts better pull a Richard Daley and start rigging votes for the Senate runoff race right now.
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Anonymous says:
Too bad there were no blogs in the 1960s or 70s. I would have loved to have read JBB posts when the state was ran by Democrats.
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Just tired.... Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
There were….we called them “letters to the editor”.
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Anonymous says:
“Conservatives are not attracted to ‘government work’.”
Then who are all these people running Texas, as both electeds and appointeds? And some of them getting pretty fat off the government teat while they’re doing it . . .
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John Johnson Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 10:29 am
Many of them, however, are attorneys who, early on, hit from both sides of the plate until they see which is going to be the most lucrative.
In the Governor’s case, he didn’t start out conservative either, but he, too, found out early on where the most stroke and the heftiest renumeration was going to come from.
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Tom says:
“Name an arch conservative political leader who graduated from Harvard.”
So I entered that into Google and up pops:
“Mitt Romney, who has law and business degrees from Harvard”
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John Johnson Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 10:24 am
Maybe I should have remembered the old adage…don’t ask a question in a debate, unless you know the answer. Yes, Justice Scalia would be considered conservative, and Romney is telling everyone he is.
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
GW Bush has a Havard MBA, Bill O’Rielly has two Havard degrees, does that tell you how ez it is to get one?
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FLPD says:
Will there be a discussion on here about A&M receiving “one of the biggest federal grants since NASA” for the development of biopharmaceuticals and to make the U.S. less dependent on other countries to supply our vaccines? Texas hates federal money. The free market/pharmaceutical companies should dictate the supply of vaccines. President Obama is conducting a War Against Texas. Where is the outrage? The state is putting up $40 million to get this federal grant and A&M is putting up money, too. Isn’t anyone out there “Fed Up?”
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Just tired.... Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
If there is, it won’t be under a story about the Senate race….
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FLPD Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 3:23 pm
Excuse me. I thought the U.S. Senate race between Cruz and Dewhurst was about who will cut federal spending in Washington, D.C. And the topic of Burka’s post, afterall, was Dewhurst’s new consultant, Rick Perry, author of “Fed Up.” Just waiting for one of them to reject the federal funds.
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texun says:
My pet theory re. Gov. Oops boosting the Dew. Perry has cheesed off the country club
Republicans repeatedly. Looking forward at retirement from elective politics, he has discovered that they’re the ones who sign the big pay checks for former pols. He needs to be a lot more loveable to cash in. He might even get around to appointing some heavy weight to the Board of Regents at UT; a lot of short-ball hitters of late.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 20th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Texun, Perry already decided NOT to run again by the summer of 2011 and he’s just posturing to salvage whatever legacy he has left.
The 2013 legislative session is going to get UGLY because Perry will start vetoing lots of precious programs, initiatives that majority of the lawmakers will propose.
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Robert Morrow Reply:
June 21st, 2012 at 10:42 am
Vetoing a bunch of stupid bills is one of the BEST things Rick Perry can to. Everytime the Legislature is in session your wallet and your rights are in danger. Just one example of thousands – they made a requirement for interior decorators to get “licensed” and pay a “fee” just to work in our so-called free society.
If Rick Perry vetoed EVERY bill passed by the Legislature that might be a good idea.
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Robert Morrow says:
I want to know why Mitt Romney is not vetting ME for vice president. I issued a trial balloon on my Facebook page, letting him know I am interested, but so far no response.
This could affect swing states so I wonder about the competence of the Romney campaign …
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Blue Dogs Reply:
June 20th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Romney is likely to pick either Rubio, Portman, McDonnell or maybe Pawlenty as VP.
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Robert Morrow says:
Have you ever read “The Day it Became the Longest War” by Lt. Gen. Charles Cooper – about Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War.
It was about in November, 1965, when top military brass was meeting Lyndon Johnson over the Vietnam War.
http://hnn.us/articles/34024.html
It is Lyndon Johnson’s *unhinged behavior* that is more important than what the discussions over strategy were:
“Precisely at two o’clock President Johnson emerged from the Oval Office and greeted the chiefs. He was all charm. He was also big: at three or more inches over six feet tall and something on the order of 250 pounds, he was bigger than any of the chiefs. He personally ushered them into his office, all the while delivering gracious and solicitous comments with a Texas accent far more pronounced than the one that came through when he spoke on television. Holding the map board as the chiefs entered, I peered between them, trying to find the easel. There was none. The President looked at me, grasped the situation at once, and invited me in, adding, “You can stand right over here.” I had become an easel-one with eyes and ears.
To the right of the door, not far inside the office, large windows framed evergreen bushes growing in a nearby garden. The President’s desk and several chairs were farther in, diagonally across the room from the windows. The President positioned me near the windows, then arranged the chiefs in a semicircle in front of the map and its human easel. He did not offer them seats: they stood, with those who were to speak-Wheeler, McDonald, and McConnell-standing nearest the President. Paradoxically, the two whose services were most affected by a continuation of the ground buildup in Vietnam-Generals Johnson and Greene-stood farthest from the President. President Johnson stood nearest the door, about five feet from the map…
Normally, time dims our memories-but it hasn’t dimmed this one. My memory of Lyndon Johnson on that day remains crystal clear. While General Wheeler, Admiral McDonald, and General McConnell spoke, he seemed to be listening closely, communicating only with an occasional nod. When General McConnell finished, General Wheeler asked the President if he had any questions. Johnson waited a moment or so, then turned to Generals Johnson and Greene, who had remained silent during the briefing, and asked, “Do you fully support these ideas?” He followed with the thought that it was they who were providing the ground troops, in effect acknowledging that the Army and the Marines were the services that had most to gain or lose as a result of this discussion. Both generals indicated their agreement with the proposal. Seemingly deep in thought, President Johnson turned his back on them for a minute or so, then suddenly discarding the calm, patient demeanor he had maintained throughout the meeting, whirled to face them and exploded.
I almost dropped the map. He screamed obscenities, he cursed them personally, he ridiculed them for coming to his office with their “military advice.” Noting that it was he who was carrying the weight of the free world on his shoulders, he called them filthy names-shitheads, dumb shits, pompous assholes-and used “the F-word” as an adjective more freely than a Marine in boot camp would use it. He then accused them of trying to pass the buck for World War III to him. It was unnerving, degrading.
After the tantrum, he resumed the calm, relaxed manner he had displayed earlier and again folded his arms. It was as though he had punished them, cowed them, and would now control them. Using soft-spoken profanities, he said something to the effect that they all knew now that he did not care about their military advice. After disparaging their abilities, he added that he did expect their help.
He suggested that each one of them change places with him and assume that five incompetents had just made these “military recommendations.” He told them that he was going to let them go through what he had to go through when idiots gave him stupid advice, adding that he had the whole damn world to worry about, and it was time to “see what kind of guts you have.” He paused, as if to let it sink in. The silence was like a palpable solid, the tension like that in a drumhead. After thirty or forty seconds of this, he turned to General Wheeler and demanded that Wheeler say what he would do if he were the President of the United States….
Apparently unmoved, Johnson asked each of the other Chiefs the same question. One at a time, they supported General Wheeler and his rationale. By now, my arms felt as though they were about to break. The map seemed to weigh a ton, but the end appeared to be near. General Greene was the last to speak.
When General Greene finished, President Johnson, who was nothing if not a skilled actor, looked sad for a moment, then suddenly erupted again, yelling and cursing, again using language that even a Marine seldom hears. He told them he was disgusted with their naive approach, and that he was not going to let some military idiots talk him into World War III. He ended the conference by shouting “Get the hell out of my office!”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff had done their duty. They knew that the nation was making a strategic military error, and despite the rebuffs of their civilian masters in the Pentagon, they had insisted on presenting the problem as they saw it to the highest authority and recommending solutions. They had done so, and they had been rebuffed. That authority had not only rejected their solutions, but had also insulted and demeaned them. As Admiral McDonald and I drove back to the Pentagon, he turned to me and said that he had known tough days in his life, and sad ones as well, but “. . . this has got to have been the worst experience I could ever imagine.”
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