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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Rick Perry, Showboating Putz

Open Thread: Rick Perry, Showboating Putz

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First, the PSA: MoveOn sent me an email, soliciting funds for KIND.org — Kids in Need of Defense. So if the antics of Guv Goodhair and his media enablers infuriate you, there’s an outlet for you.
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Because nobody welcomes the Second Gilded Age as much as our Very Serious media betters and their financiers, Rick Perry’s latest publicity stunt for his emerging 2016 presidential campaign has largely been reported in terms of the optics, not the law. Here’s the NYTimes:

Texas Governor Bolsters Border, and His Profile
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas on Monday ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico, seizing on a get-tough immigration message that foreshadows the approach to the current crisis by his party in Congress and that could position him in another bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Mr. Perry announced the move at the Texas Capitol, but many of the intended recipients were far away from here: members of Congress in Washington, including those who are fighting with President Obama; potential migrants in Central America who are contemplating a dangerous journey to the United States; and presidential caucus voters in Iowa, where Mr. Perry visited again over the weekend…

Of course, as the cynics at NYMag report, Perry and his GOP cronies intend to get the rest of us to pay for his partisan showboating:

This show of force will cost Texas taxpayers about $12 million a month, but don’t worry — Perry wants the federal government to reimburse him for his trouble. (“Texans are willing to put boots on the ground, but we expect Washington to foot the bill,” state attorney general Greg Abbott said.)

The saddest part of Perry’s elaborate 2016 campaign scheme is that National Guard troops won’t actually deter most of these migrants. (The National Guard troops already present at the border don’t actually perform arrests.)…

Even the New Yorker‘s limp conventional-wisdom “comedian” Andy Borowitz can’t be bothered to take Perry seriously: Perry Boosts Presidential Stature by Using Troops for No Reason.

Video up above (even Fox New’s Brit Hume can’t understand the gibberish coming out of Perry’s piehole) courtesy Heather Digby Parton, who finishes her report:

Oh, and by the way, as we watch the Republicans get more and more worked up about this alleged horde of diseased child invaders, here’s a little something to keep in mind:

While the number of unaccompanied youth crossing the border has doubled to nearly 60,000 in the past year, the total number of undocumented immigrants has mostly declined. About 1 million people have been caught crossing the border nearly every year between 1983 until 2006, but that number has dropped to about 400,000 in 2013.

That’s your immigration “crisis” for you. It’s right up there with fluoridation in the water and Cliven Bundy’s unpaid cattle fees on a list of important national concerns. Why, you’d almost think these conservative politicians and media celebrities are looking for something to gin up their gullible base for completely cynical political reasons.

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    BGinCHI

    Take it out of Texas’s highway money.

    That Perry has not already been laughed out of the 2016 conversation says a lot about the state of our national political affairs and our media.

  3. 3.

    Violet

    I have a hard time thinking that Perry will go very far in a national campaign. He’s a dumbass. That worked okay in Texas where he has lots of connections and the entire state will vote for the Republican.

    But to run for President he has to go national. He’s already shown he can’t debate. He’s looked dumb on TV just recently–one of those Sunday shows. The hipster glasses just make him look like he’s trying too hard, plus the upper rims hide his eyes and make him look shifty. The showboating thing with guns will probably make the teabaggers happy but it’s not going to win over anyone slightly left off Attila the Hun.

  4. 4.

    Suffern ACE

    but that number has dropped to about 400,000 in 2013.

    Because Obama is just letting them in?

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: I have as much chance of getting the R nom for president as Rick Perry does.
    As I told people here several times in the run up to 2012, RP will implode. Let the man do his thang.

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    So Faux News is pimping this faux “border crisis” in order to pimp Perry’s 2016 vanity campaign? Got it!

    The Feds should reimburse Texas exactly ZERO for this pointless stunt.

  8. 8.

    Yatsuno

    This show of force will cost Texas taxpayers about $12 million a month, but don’t worry — Perry wants the federal government to reimburse him for his trouble. (“Texans are willing to put boots on the ground, but we expect Washington to foot the bill,” state attorney general Greg Abbott said.)

    FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY!!! Also known as get someone else to pay your bills for your stupidity.

  10. 10.

    Violet

    @Corner Stone: Yep. Totally agree. The more he’s out there looking like the dumbass that he is and getting praised by Republicans, the more damage he does to the Republican brand. Just let him do his thing. Please proceed, Governor.

  11. 11.

    Violet

    @Yatsuno: What gets me is that Governor Perry is demanding that the Federal government pay for his National Guard stunt but he refused the Medicaid expansion because FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY! Makes your head spin.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    There are people too stupid to know it, like Rick Perry, and then there people too crazy to know it. It seems that both kinds want to run for President again.

  14. 14.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Since this is an open thread, I have a question for the social scientists among us. I’m reading Adrian McKinty’s THE COLD, COLD GROUND, which is set in Belfast during the Troubles. At that point, the idea they could ever stop killing one another must have seemed like a fantasy. But they did it, and I give them all the credit in the world.

    Is there some social science understanding of why they were able to do it when other places still struggle?

  15. 15.

    Violet

    @Amir Khalid: Oh, I hope we get a cornucopia of crazy on the Republican side again! Even confining the debates to Fox News won’t be able to contain the crazy. It may have the opposite effect of letting their freak flag fly even higher because they think they’re on friendly turf.

  16. 16.

    Yatsuno

    @Violet: That’s easy. Deploying troops is the prerogative of manly men. Plus it’s a nice way of playing Risk and thumbing your nose at Obummer. Medicaid expansion is giving THAT ONE in the White House (look at the name people!) a victory, and can’t have that. Completely different!

  18. 18.

    Karen in GA

    Open thread? Iggy cozies up.

    Rick Perry is just a magnificent moron, isn’t he? I’ll bet he has someone put his glasses on the front of his head for him, because if he did it himself he’d wind up gouging his eyes out.

  24. 24.

    Felinious Wench

    “Texans are willing to put boots on the ground, but we expect Washington to foot the bill,”

    No, Mr. Coiffure, Texans are NOT willing to put boots on the ground. But too many Texans don’t vote.

    Please proceed, Governor. I want some images for campaign ads.

  25. 25.

    Keith G

    Low substance, high emotion, stunts have a way of backfiring with a vengeance. What Rick Perry sees as a chance to help himself is just another way for him to show a feckless streak that is a mile wide.

  26. 26.

    Josie

    @Violet: I wonder who is telling him that he has any more than a snowball’s chance in Hell of being elected president. He is absolutely delusional.

  27. 27.

    Violet

    @Josie: I’m not sure he wants to be president. I bet he thinks running for president will get the money rolling in, though. He may be right or he may be even more delusional about that. I’m not sure which way it’ll go.

  28. 28.

    Hal

    Perry has been so terrible at running for President up until now, I just don’t know how he will ever appeal to a large number of people. Wasting millions of dollars a month a national guard that can’t do anything is not going to strengthen your image.

    PS: Does anyone else get annoying commercials playing automatically? Just started a few days ago. I’m using Chrome.

  29. 29.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Felinious Wench: That’s one of those weirdly surreal not-quite-puns like “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” Boots and foot are linked, but in context not really, so it sounds more logical than it is.

  30. 30.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Baud:

    That’s good news this far out.

    That’s my take as well. When one looks at the internals of the poll, lots of people are still getting to know Burke.

  35. 35.

    James E. Powell

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Is there some social science understanding of why they were able to do it when other places still struggle?

    Enough time for nearly everyone to get sick of it. Plus, if memory serves, at the time of the Good Friday the economy was doing well.

    I think that there were fewer people who were willing to engage in the violence and less community support for violent actors than might be supposed.

  36. 36.

    James E. Powell

    Perry can be pretty bad, but I expect he will get a lot more support from the corporate press/media if they don’t have an agreed upon Corporate Republican candidate, e.g., Christie, Kasich, Walker. Who else to the Republicans have? Jeb Bush? Spare me.

    What is chilling is that whoever the Republicans nominate will have a floor of 47% and maybe a bit higher if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee.

  37. 37.

    Dog On Porch

    Perry’s photo as a steely eyed gunner, peering into a dangerous southern horizon, will rank with the photos of Calvin Coolidge wearing a Sioux war bonnet, Dukakis on that tank, and GW wearing his flaming queen pilot suit during scene #1 of his infamous Mission Accomplished stage play.

  40. 40.

    Corner Stone

    @SatanicPanic: Yes. If you’re Mitt, and you’re looking around, don’t you feel pretty good right now?
    Who’s going to out fund raise him? Christie is toast, all the rest of the clown car parade can’t get out of their own way.
    It’s Jeb or Mitt.

  41. 41.

    Hungry Joe

    I now have two ads autoplaying at the same time. Refreshing just re-starts them. Am considering homicide, mayhem, maybe even animal husbandry. What the hell?! Wait — now I think there are THREE ads autoplaying, though it’s hard to tell … [about 30 seconds] Now back down to one … [15 seconds] Now none. But I know that if I refresh they’ll start up again. Don’t make me come over there. I mean it.

  42. 42.

    Mike in NC

    @Corner Stone: Mrs. Rmoney will have a vision about the White Horse Prophesy and then Mittens will be off and running! Maybe into a brick wall, but running all the same.

  43. 43.

    danimal

    @Corner Stone: The GOP nominee will be Ted Cruz, and it won’t be close.

    No one excites their lizard brains like the Calgary Cruz-er. I’m sure you’re right that the institutional GOP would like Mitt or Jeb, but the inmates all want the Tedster.

  46. 46.

    James E. Powell

    @danimal:

    Ted Cruz would be the Republicans’ George McGovern. Not just a landslide loss, like Dukakis, but a national repudiation of an entire way of being.

  48. 48.

    Hungry Joe

    @Corner Stone:
    Jeb kind of reminds me of Geoffrey, the second son/prince in “The Lion in Winter.” He just sort of lurks, waiting for his brothers Richard and John to implode so that, in desperation, his father, King Henry, will anoint him.

    It never happened, of course. Richard was Richard the Lionheart, and John eventually became one of the worst of England’s many bad kings.

  50. 50.

    RoonieRoo

    I wish it would be Cruz just to watch the crazy leaking all over but I suspect it will be Jeb. I don’t know if Christie is as toast though as we think. Time makes most people forget.

  51. 51.

    Hal

    @Corner Stone: Ugh. Romney is the king of unquantifiable statements. If America had elected him, everything would be fantastic now. Unemployment would be below 5% etc. I don’t think I can spend a whole year listening to him constantly.

    Plus, he won’t be running against Obama, it will be Hillary, and I’m curious to see how he would be against a woman. Also, there is an element of second hand embarrassment for Romney. Has anyone lost a primary, come back to win the primary and lose the general election, then come back again and won the primary? If he does end up the nominee again and loses, will he promise to go away forever?

  55. 55.

    Corner Stone

    @Hungry Joe: This is the mistake many made in 2012. It was always going to be Mitt in 2012. In 2016 Cruz will go as far as Santorum did in 2012.

  59. 59.

    David Koch

    What Hillary and the DNC should be doing is floating stories about how Perry is the candidate they fear most.

    “please, please, please br’er fox don’t throw me in that br’er patch”

  60. 60.

    Anne Laurie

    @Corner Stone:

    The R nom in 2016 will either be Mitt or Jeb.

    @danimal:

    The GOP nominee will be Ted Cruz, and it won’t be close.

    Don’t overlook Rick ‘Savonarola’ Santorum, not this time. The sorry remnants of the ‘Main Street’ GOP want a bidniz guy, but the GOP primary voters want a sword-swinging preacher from the roots. Mitt’s a proven #FAIL, and not even a ‘real’ Christianist; Jeb is too dainty, too plutocratic, too close to the brown people — all the worst of both previous Bushes, with none of their dick-swinging cred. Cruz, I suspect, is more interested in grifting than presidenting; also he’s a Yalie and a snob — first time he yanks away from some Iowa yahoo waving a corn dog at the state fair grip’n’grin, he loses the essential ‘heartland’. Sanctorum is meaner than Jeb and has a far better working-class schtick than Cruz; also, it’s His Turn, which argument still has a grip on the GOP lizard brain.

    Unless the Money Party gets its arse in gear and finds a less shopworn avatar to front, I’m afraid Rick the Dick splits the difference between the two warring voting blocs in the GOP.

  65. 65.

    askew

    I’ve set-up monthly contributions to KIND. They are a great org helping out those refugees. I wish I could do more.

    Rick Perry is a joke and no amount of photo ops or wearing glasses is going to make people forget what a dumbass he is.

  66. 66.

    Tim c.

    Since it’s an open thread and all… I hope John is okay, probably tough the first night.

  67. 67.

    catclub

    @Corner Stone: i agree with Danimal. Mitt and Mccain were hated by the base, but no one united the base to oppose them, so they just kept going and won with25-35% of each early primary.
    Ted has the base united early. I also agree that he repulses people and will lose the general in a 50 year repeat of 1964.

  72. 72.

    julia

    Every Republican candidate for governor in Arizona has a TV commercial up and running about immigration. They are all trying to out-macho each other on who will build the highest fence and send the most National Guardsmen to the border. And of course, make Obama pay for it all. It is disturbing and comical at the same time.

  74. 74.

    pattonbt

    Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t Cruz ineligible for prez? Foreign born and all that. I mean I know Obama was born in Kenya, but at least he had a fake birth certificate. Does Cruz have one too?

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