"I don't think you could get far enough off the highway on the right-hand side to get to Rick Perry's right." "Is there anything too wacky that he wouldn't say to win that primary?" Those quotes from Charles Cook, editor of Cook Political Report.
As Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Gov Rick Perry square off for the Republican nomination for the 2010 election for Texas Governor, the nastiness continues from the Perry camp. First it was public boasting of his campaign that Hutchinson's husband was fair game and his career as a successful attorney in Texas would be under the microscope and now a quote from a Perry political consultant comes to light, via an article at dallasnews.com : "But that doesn't mean you take your principles and throw them out the door and become a whorehouse and let anybody in who wants to come in, regardless," Dave Carney said.
Carney is worried. Senator Hutchinson brings voters who are moderate Republicans and Independents. It is impossible for a Republican candidate anywhere, yes even in red state Texas, to win an election without Independent voters. Both parties vie for Independents in Texas as they do in other states. Governor Perry is beholden to the far right of the Republican party - the social conservatives who only vote according to their own "moral" litmus tests.
As Rich Galen, a GOP political consultant and former Hutchinson adviser, says "What Hutchinson is saying is that what most of us are looking for is a party that has core fiscal principles - Republican principles that include people who may or may not agree on the social issues." Galen is a former chief of staff to Speaker Newt Gingrich and to VP Dan Quayle. Is he now not "Republican " enough to pass the litmus test?
So, the Perry adviser feels perfectly comfortable to say - out loud - that courting all votes is somehow to lose your core principles and to turn your philosophy into a "whorehouse". Sexist and ignorant. While more conservative voters turn out in primaries, the general voting population is more to the center-right, as is the State of Texas.
Galen says, "You can't win a major race without the independents, and independents are leaving the Republican Party. "From a professional's standpoint, you cannot win elections by getting more votes from fewer people." How many more times must the deaf litmus testers hear those words?
Senator Hutchinson is a Republican. She is fiscally conservative, strong on national defense, and is a strong voice for Texas in Washington, D.C. She backs the ban on federal funding of abortions and she is against late-term abortion. She is in favor of parental notification.
Governor Perry, a former Democrat himself, is leaning on the purity litmus test from the social conservatives to win the primary. He is actively bringing on board politically active pastors - which Republicans traditionally criticize Democrats when they use religion as a political issue. His popularity rating is in the low 30's.
Senator Hutchinson will win the support of suburban voters, women, and economic conservatives. She has a strong, proven record on voting in favor of a consistent robust national defense. Governor Perry only recently became serious over border issues.
Both are Republicans. Both can win over a Democrat as Governor in Texas. But for one to try to out-conservative another using such nasty campaigning - to a fellow Republican - well, what would Ronald Reagan say? The Eleventh Commandment - don't speak ill of a fellow Republican. Or a sister Republican.
4 comments:
KBH was not even mentioned by Rick Perry's strategist.
This is such a trumped up deal by KBH's team and the mainstream media to cause conflict within the GOP.
What the strategist said was completely true. RINOs who put in record amounts of earmarks are why the party lost power in 2006. KBH, for the record, is the queen of earmarks in Texas.
Anon:
I have little respect for commenters who don't identify themselves as they leave negative comments. Grow a spine.
Who else would the Perry adviser be aiming the nasty remark at? Just a general comment? Sure.
Queen of earmarks? How honest has Perry been about the amount of stimulus money he accepted for the state while charading at events that he's refusing federal spending money?
Perry's consultant was obviously talking about our party, and he is totally right. KBH injected herself into the scenario unnecessarily with this silly letter her supporters sent out. She must be insecure about this, because she totally is playing up little miss victim.
Think about it. Do you think the GOP lost power because people got sick of conservatism? Because they hated low taxes and limited government? Because they suddenly stopped being pro-life? NO! They got pissed off that the party was becoming corrupt and full of big-spenders. Our party has been whoring itself out to lobbyists and so-called moderates for far too long. Our party couldn't even do anything of substance on abortion. We need to stand for something.
If you are a moderate who wants the Republican Party to swing toward the Democrats, fine, but if you are someone who wants the party to get back to its conservative roots, KBH is a disaster waiting to happen. Just look at her history. It is terrible. She is a true RINO.
Rick Perry is rejecting stimulus money with strings attached. I have never heard him claim that he was rejecting all of it. More than that, earmarks are fundamentally different from normal budgetary dollars in that they are inserted secretly and don't get a vote. Earmarks are associated much more strongly with corruption and repaying small groups of people for their support.
With or without a primary campaign, comparing independent voters to johns is nasty and disgusting.
As for your anonymous boasting of Perry's conservatism, well...
Rick Perry wasted millions of Texan taxpayer money and 10 Special Sessions of our Legislature on an unnecessary, overly partisan, immoral, and illegal mid-census Redistricting plan that was obviously designed to reduce the amount of accountability our state politicians are held to. Quite a big bit of spending there. Oh - and during the debate he was more than happy to declare that all who disagree with him should just leave the state.
Rick Perry justified a bunch of pet projects called toll roads - that cost several million dollars at least and also happen to have very little traffic. Again - big spending galore for narrow interests.
Perry's latest display of conservatism involved a mandatory HPV vaccine for all young girls in Texas. Oh and by the way, the vaccine itself had only been on the market for a year at the time and was developed by the producers of Vioxx - who just so happened to be huge contributors to the re-election campaign through which Perry lost the popular vote by 20 points.
Perry's only conservative to people who don't pay attention.
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