Rick Perry: 'I Have Never Advocated For Secession And Never Will'
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has written an op-ed for the Austin American-Statesman, strongly denying that his stand in favor of states' rights meant he was in any way advocating secession:
I can't say I was surprised that critics recast my defense of federalism and fiscal discipline into advocacy for secession from the Union. I have never advocated for secession and never will.Like the president, members of Congress and every other state governor, I have sworn oaths to our nation and Constitution. My sincere pledge to uphold and defend the Constitution has fueled my concern and my statements about the recent unprecedented expansion of our federal government.
It's worth looking back on what Perry said during the Tea Party rallies back in April that got people so worked up. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it," Perry said. "But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that."
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Is he unaware of teh YouTube, or does he not care?
May 18, 2009 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, if everyone misinterpreted what he said, why didn't he speak up back in April? I don't recall him denying anything back then.
May 18, 2009 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
He hadn't seen the poll numbers.
May 18, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice little country you've got here - too bad if something were to happen to it.
May 18, 2009 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
brilliant.
May 18, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
"But if Washington continues to thumb their [sic] nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that."
We got a pretty good idea in November, didn't we?
May 18, 2009 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Priceless.
I have never advocated for secession and never will.
But if I did, sort of, do just that, it's because I was just upholding the Constitution!
My sincere pledge to uphold and defend the Constitution has fueled my concern and my statements about the recent unprecedented expansion of our federal government.
He twists any further, he's going to be mistaken for a pretzel.
But I think this is an interesting turn of events. He must be getting pushback from Texans.
May 18, 2009 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
I want to keep pointing out that when Perry was last "elected" it was with about 35% of the vote. The Texas constitution does not allow for a run-off in the governors race. Perry ran against 3 other candidates and managed to pull the most percentage, therefore winning another term. He is the "Barely" governor without a mandate.
May 18, 2009 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perry's political career has been largely built on being at the right place at the right time.
He was one of the few "down ballot" Republicans to ever win statewide. After switching parties as a Texas House member, he defeated incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower. Voters finally figured out Hightower was not the "good old boy" he portrayed himself as, but an actor playing a character to disguise the fact he was the most liberal politician ever to win statewide in at least a half a century. Hightower won originally by defeating a racist bufoon in the Democratic primary.
Perry got elected Lt. Governor as part of the coattail sweep led by the first re-election of Bush as Governor. He got the office when Bush left to be President. He won re-election against an Hispanic banker whom he successfully (in voter's minds) to Mexican drug cartel money laundering. In his past re-election effort he only got 39% of the vote against a weak Democrat, a flaky Republican who became an independent, a Kinky Friedman, who had even less political sense than musical talent.
He is literally the first Aggie ever to serve as Governor. And he has performed as such.
May 18, 2009 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is what Rick Perry said, "“There’s a lot of different scenarios,” Perry said. “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”
He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out. However, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede.
Texas did secede in 1861, but the North’s victory in the Civil War put an end to that.
Now let me be a reporter and ask Perry a few follow up questions, what does the word independent mean? And when you declared that there is no reason to dissolve it (Texas statehood in the union) and then you follow that sentence up with "if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people (he actually talking about Texans, not the American people) then who knows what might come of that?"
So what would come of that Gov Perry (aka Mr.hair)? You know I think some people have claimed that you and many of your supporters back the idea of being a strict constitutional-ist (in the federalist sense of the word, my emphasis), so what do you think about being consistent when it comes to your speaking ability? It has taken you over a month to respond to the many articles from right and left leaning newspapers who all claimed that secession was exactly what you were getting at, can you respond to that? They even did a poll!
Gosh what a ignorant piece of Sh^t, he doesn't even know our own state history and its founding.
May 18, 2009 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think the 4 state argument is no longer a valid point. It may have been part of the treaty when Texas entered the Union in 1845. I would argue that when Texas seceded in 1861 the state abrogated the treaty. Upon readmittance to the Union, Texas was required to accept the 14th Amendment, and the equal protection clause. No state or citizen of a state shall be entitled to rights beyond what all US citizens hold. Just an opinion on my part.
May 18, 2009 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm no lawyer, but I would make the same argument. Secession and re-admission on a new set of terms rendered the initial agreement null and void. Besides which Congress would have to agree to breaking the state up, and I don't see that happening.
May 18, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nanute53 and slb, are you folks arguing along the lines of faled companies not being able to reference their pre-failure contracts? Cause, I mean, what if that replied to bonuses at AIG, Merrill Lynch, et al?
Sorry, a bit off topic, but I'm just sayin'.
May 18, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, no -- get the Molly Ivins line right. It's "aka Governor Goodhair". Alternatively referred to as Rick "Goodhair" Perry, a man with a head of hair any Texan can be proud of.
May 18, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Republicans here in Texas are an "interesting" bunch. You've got your Cornyn, Sessions, Perry, Bush,GW, and the whole right controlled Texas legislature. It's a difficult state to live in if one is left of center. Hopefully Kay Bailey Hutcheson will come home to run for governor. She is also GOP but more of a moderate than Perry. A left leaner doesn't stand a chance here until our Hispanic voting population gets more powerful and numerous or the GOP leaders all switch parties again. They all mostly used to be red-dog Democrats back in the day you know.
May 18, 2009 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Do you appreciate how slanted things are when Kay Bailely (Perjury isn't really a crime) Hutchinson is widely considered to be a moderate??
May 18, 2009 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Worse. By Texas standards, she probably does count as a moderate.
May 18, 2009 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Texas Republicans need a country of their own, somewhere south of the border.
Their presence is probably the real reason a great little city like Austin is drying up in a terrible drought.
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/12_week.gif
That ominous (to put is mildly) black spot you see now over Austin hung over Jefferson, County Alabama throughout Siegelman's imprisonment, then moved to Austin when Siegelman was released.
Go figure.
May 18, 2009 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wasn't that a plot on "The Twilight Zone"?
May 18, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it lying or the kind of cognitive dissonance which comes from being 12 forever in the brain?
May 18, 2009 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
With apologies to Molly Ivins for using her pet name, but Governor Goodhair must have lit matches wedged in the toes of his boots to be recanting so thoroughly. Texas probably misses you more than the rest of us, Molly.
If only we could run Ann Richards again. Sorry, feeling a bit nostalgic on this beautiful spring morning in Kentucky.
May 18, 2009 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Did anyone else actually watch the video of Perry making his various smirking secession threats?
This guy is W writ small. With shinier teeth.
Very dangerous. Someone needs to make sure his political career gets ended, and soon, before this bozo starts to get Presidential ideas.
May 18, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
"W writ small"...exactly. As a Texan, I'd love to see his career stopped too. I'm not feeling hopeful, though--it seems that unless politicians get squashed by big enough scandals (once they've been around long enough), they never seem to go away. Hopefully he won't fail any further up the ladder than this. But with the Republican Party in the shape it's in, who knows?
May 18, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
And "W writ small" is pretty damned small.
May 18, 2009 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the YouTube has not preempted his running, nothing else will.
I love it that you can't get the toothpaste out of the Tube! :-{)>
May 18, 2009 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perry's advocacy of secession is like Gore's claim to have invented the Internet. And, as much as I believe out Governor to be a misguided fools who is as bad a Govenror as Bush was, I do not think those who rightfully railed at the way the media took Gore's statement an embellished it
to fit their bias should applaud the medioa for doing the same with Perry.
He is an Aggie. That's got plenty of downsides on its own. He is neither a right wing revolutionary or a traitor. The former requires convictions, the latter nerve. He lacks both.
May 18, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, I don't see any other way to interpret what he said. I understood it as, "There's no reason to dissolve the Union now, but if the federal government pushes us much farther, that calculation could change."
He may have stopped just short of saying "Texas should secede," but what he said, and the political context in which he said it, seems to me to strongly imply that.
How do you interpret what he was trying to say?
May 18, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I understood what Al Gore said as "I invented the internet." I undestood what Al Gore said as "I found Love Canal." I don't see anyother mway nto interpret that but that Al Gorfe is a serial liar.
May 18, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
And
Love your comments, Ricky, but if you're going to rightly point out the hypocrisy in people doing to Rick Perry what was done to Al Gore, you should include Gore's actual words.
I think one could listen to Gore's comments and the reaction might be, well, of course he didn't "find" Love Canal, and he probably means he didn't physically invent the Internet. Same way one would listen from a distance to Gov. GoodHair Perry's comments and think, "Of course he doesn't actually mean secession! That's crazy! No sane governor would seriously advocate secession!" But Perry has intimated just that, multiple times, and the response of drenching scorn from liberals has met with no response from the media, unlike the response, by Republicans, to Gore's comments. The Post and the Times were quick to highlight the Republican ridicule of Gore.
But there're crickets when it comes to Perry.
So you're right. It's hypocritical to rail against the press treatment of Gore, but not the press treatment of Perry. The problem, though, is that the press amplified the Republican attacks on Gore, and isn't doing a damn thing about Perry.
May 18, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was the press which created the internet invention story and the Love Cnal story. Republicans just piled on and the press gave them free reign. So to did elements of the press and blogs create the Perry calls for secession meme.
Texas pols have not jumped him for it so the story is not getting repeated like the Gore stories were.
Gore did not say he "doscovered the Love Canal, only that his hearings brought it to national attention. He clearly did not say he created the internet. Perry clearly said he did not advocate getting out of the Union.
May 18, 2009 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unless you live in the Great State of Texas with “Governor Good Hair”, other parts of his commentary don’t leap out to others as it does to us who have to live with this nonsense.
I suspect America's founders would be appalled at their successors taking control of private corporations, hiring and firing workers and breaking contracts. Watching the federal government purchase majority stakes in manufacturers should terrify anyone who ever saw a Cold War-era Russian automobile. Government lacks competitiveness, which makes it a breeding ground for inefficiency and stagnation.
Those looking for the positive impact of limited government and fiscal conservatism should turn their eyes to Texas. Our Constitution limits our Legislature to 140 days every two years with the bottom line of a balanced budget. Our freedom from an income tax makes Texas attractive to employers and entrepreneurs as do the state's predictable regulatory climate and fair legal system. Add hard-working Texans to our opportunity-friendly environment, and you start to understand why the state leads the nation in exports, job creation and Fortune 500 companies. Limited government works.
I love the short memories of this laissez faire crowd. They forget the abuses of the savings and loan scandal, particularly here in Texas, where many of the abuses started and the Resolution Trust Corporation (government) had to fix.
Or, the private contractor toll road abuses that we are now paying for here in Texas. These private contracts are so bad that the legislature may totally halt the program and completely restructure the highway department to fix the problem.
Or, the private contract for social services using a computer system designed by a company that declared bankruptcy while they had the state contract. The fix is now costing the state millions plus the costs to run the agency – after they fired all of the experienced staff. In Texas limited government only works if you are on the receiving end of the private contacts.
Or, the highest electricity rates in the country after 'deregulation.'
Our ‘freedom from an income tax’ is nice, but we pay high property taxes for all government including schools and a total sales tax of 8.25% in most cities. Plus, we have a growing number of specialty districts that add to the tax burden. Yet, it is still relatively cheap to live here and we are managing better than most in this economy.
The Governor may be challenged by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison if she resigns her Senate seat and returns to Texas to run for Governor. Perry believes his future is in the far right camp and after he terms out for Governor, he could be on a national ticket. Palin/Perry??
For now, he just makes us all look a little goofier than usual.
And, we here in Austin do miss Molly . . . sigh.
May 18, 2009 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, that made me choke.
And yes, I well remember the S&L scandal of the late 80s, because I was working in the S&L industry myself. And some of the worst problems were with state-regulated S&Ls in Florida, Texas, and California, where state regulation (especially in Florida and Texas) was lax. As I recall, there were also reports that the Reagan-Bush administration had also put out the word to the federal regulators to go easy on S&Ls in the region that included Texas until after the 1988 election. (One of the Bush brothers -- Neil, I think -- was involved with one of the insolvent S&Ls in Texas or Oklahoma. Silverado, I believe. That was not the only Bush family connection to the S&L scandal, but it was probably the most notorious.)
As for "fair legal system," I guess the question there is, "Fair to whom?"
May 18, 2009 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I have never advocated for secession and never will! And by that of course I mean I might, yes, be in favor of secession. Except if that doesn't poll well in which case I'm, you know, gonna furrow my brows like I practiced in the mirror, and make it clear that I did NOT say what I just said!"
How DARE anyone impugn his treasonous duplicity.
May 18, 2009 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry to hear this denial from Perry. So, what can we offer him to start advocating for secession?
May 18, 2009 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Best thing to do with such Texicans is attack their lack of manly virtues
When the heat was on, Perry left the kitchen just like a big mouthed yellow bellied sap suckin Texican.
May 18, 2009 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Real Texicans like Perry never go in the kitchen in the first place unless its to get a beer out of the fridge because the Missus had to go over to her mommas house for something.
May 18, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
My thought exactly. There must be something we can offer that would make it worthwhile for him to carry through on his threat.
May 18, 2009 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
'I Have Never Advocated For Secession And Never Will'...except when I dogwhistle to confederates.
May 18, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't he leave out the part where he said that the TX constitution game them the right to become a sovereign nation again?
May 18, 2009 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
State law in Texas requires every student to take Texas history in elementary school, middle school, and college. It doesn't require you to remember what you were taught.
May 18, 2009 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink