What Sort of Liar is Perry...You Decide

Back in the day, when Texas men were men, and Texas women were damned glad of it, someone told me that in Texas there are only two kinds of liars. Liars and damned liars.

Now, mind you, we've always had double talkers; polticians, lawyers, insurance salesmen, and football team owners from Arkansas, but what I'm talking about here is the sort of low-down S.O.B. that will climb a tree to tell a lie rather than stand flatfooted on God's good earth and speak the truth.

And, I guess with the Yankee influx of the seventies and eighties we've been gentled down some, which accounts for so many woman going around with tight jaws, there's emerged a third sort of liar: The Hypocrite.

I got this e-mail yesterday from Boyd Ritchie, the chairman of the Texas Democratic party and from it you'll see that our dunce cap wearing governor is the third sort. A big-time hypocrite.

Dear fellow Democrat,

In sharp contrast to Governor Rick Perry's soapbox crusade about big spending in Washington, a bipartisan review of the recently approved state budget proves that his anti-stimulus rants are the height of hypocrisy.

A recent analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman's Jason Embry, shows that "Texas reported that it relied most heavily on stimulus dollars, using those dollars to provide 96.7 percent of the gap-closing solution" [Austin American-Statesman First Reading blog, 7/23/09].

The fact that Perry and his fellow Republicans relied on federal stimulus funds more than any other state to balance Texas' budget shows that blaming Washington is nothing more than campaign rhetoric designed to distract Texans from his dismal, failed record as Governor.

Furthermore, in a fundraising letter, Perry postulates there are "two models of governing: the Washington model that talks the talk about limited government while delivering record earmarks and increasing bureaucratic control, and the Texas model of balanced budgets and fiscal restraint" [Politico, 7/23/09].

When it comes to double-talk, Rick Perry's so-called "Texas model" is long on political posturing and short on restraint and balance.

It's no surprise that Perry is feverishly courting the extreme partisans who vote in the Republican primary, given the competition he faces from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is heating up her own appeals to the same extremists after spending years as a do-nothing Republican Senator who opposes everything and offers no solutions to improve health care and the economy.

In light of this report that brings the Governor's hypocrisy into broad daylight, it's clear that Texans deserve better than a choice between the tired old rhetoric of Republican politicians like Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison. We can only Move Texas Forward by electing Democrats. With your support and your help, we can make that a reality in 2010.

Your fellow Democrat,
Boyd L. Richie
Chairman
Texas Democratic Party