Were I Rudy, I'd Keep My Distance
By Erick Posted in 2008 — Comments (24) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
If I were Rudy, and I'm not, but if I were, I would not be in such a hurry to promote Governor Rick Perry's endorsement.
Rudy already has a reputation as something of an autocrat that does not really put him in good with Republicans of the more libertarian leaning. Then there are the social conservatives that aren't enamored with Rudy because of his position on life issues. Lastly, there are those who view Rudy's judgement in people and business dealings with a great bit of skepticism.
An endorsement from Rick Perry brings him the baggage from all of those.
If you'll remember back to February, in a sweeping executive order without the participation of the Texas legislature, Governor Perry ordered all school age girls to get the HPV vaccine. The vaccine was controversial because, among other things, the testing protocols raised concerns about its use on girls of the age Perry intended it to be given. After the outrage, Perry was forced into signing a law passed by the Texas legislature undoing his executive order.
Of course, by that time, everything had hit the fan.
Chief of staff Deirdre Delisi's calendar shows that she met Oct. 16 with the governor's budget director and three members of his office for an "HPV Vaccine for Children Briefing."That day, New Jersey-based Merck & Co.'s political action committee donated $5,000 to Perry and $5,000 total to eight state lawmakers.
The calendar and other documents obtained by the wire service show that Perry's office began meeting with Merck lobbyists about the vaccine as early as mid-August, months before social conservatives, who are now those most outraged by the order, helped re-elect him in November.
That wasn't the only thing uncovered.
Critics had previously questioned Perry's ties to the company. Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff and Delisi's predecessor, lobbies for the drug company. The governor accepted a total of $6,000 from Merck during his re-election campaign, including $1,000 in December 2005.
According to Delisi's calendar, she met with Toomey three times in the sixth months before the order was issued.
Were I Rudy, sure, I'd be fine with the governor of the second largest state in the union endorsing me, but I would keep my distance and certainly wouldn't trumpet his endorsement to evangelicals -- Governor Perry burned that bridge down himself.
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Were I Rudy, I'd Keep My Distance 24 Comments (0 topical, 24 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I live in Texas, and voted for Perry, and he betrayed us on the issue of border security. I see so many similarities between him and Rudy, and they all have trustworthiness at their core!
I am not a Republican, but I tend to vote that way, the party people I know are not happy about potentially being forced to vote for Rudy in the General Election next year, just to keep a dem out of the white house. His links to Hugo Chavez are a big problem down here. (His Houston based law office works for Chavez)
keep his distance, and frankly it works well for him. Rudy doesn't satisfy any group of voters totally however he is able to make it work by spreading his support around the entire landscape of the entire Republican party and shunning a prominent governor who helped to re elect would not be a good part of any such strategy.
As for Perry, this isn't the first time I have heard of so called baggage that he brings Rudy. Why I just blogged about this and for the most part it has little negative effect.
Governor Perry is governor of one of the biggest states in the union and a good ally to have. I don't know any politician who comes with no baggage, and thus, if everyone shunned anyone that brought baggage, there would no longer be political allies.
We are men of action, lies do not become us
different view I suspect.
Anyway, its an endorsement, nothing more. Its not like he named Spence Abraham his Campaign Manager.
What exactly are you saying about Erick?
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Let's nominate the Nash Equilibrium for President.
I just think he's a good guy and I'm wondering what you mean to say about him there.
HTML Help Central for Red Staters
Let's nominate the Nash Equilibrium for President.
Do you mean to call Erick a liar? A "yes" or "no" answer will suffice.
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With all the love my mama gave me
I'm gonna drop the devil to his knees
Who is Leon, aka Macho Nachos? What, are you new here?
Because I am a supremely nice guy, I'll give you an introduction to what I call 'stupendously obvious truths'.
If you want to tangle with Directors and Contributors, you know, have at it. We're all big boys, and what we do on this site is debate, argue, and occasionally get pretty nasty with it, even with the BlamStick™ holders, for those of us who have demonstrated enough cred.
But it's pretty STUPID to taunt one with a 'who are you?', especially a Redshirt™.
Hey Beck, you got that RedShirt GIF handy? It amuses me.
It's war -- so when can we start shooting back at the enemy Democrats?
And there's more than one way to name call. If you're going to call Erick a liar, you need to go ahead and call him a liar, then provide some evidence for why you think he's a liar. This cutesy snark just annoys all the wrong people (me).
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With all the love my mama gave me
I'm gonna drop the devil to his knees
and intentionally so? I seldom call people liars, and would not do so here. But I did detect the aroma of sour grapes in the initial post.
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About the Author
Lord Vegas is a true American. some would call him a Mutt, but he prefers the term mixed breed!
dumb...
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
Did you READ where Erick explained the problems with Gov. Perry?
It sounds to me like you're still calling Erick a disingenuous fellow, to say the least, becuase you're implying that either a) he's just making this stuff up to attack Giuliani or b) he'd swallow all this stuff just to help Thompson.
HTML Help Central for Red Staters
Let's nominate the Nash Equilibrium for President.
on Spence Abraham, a former US Senator, a US Cabinet Secretary, because he is of Arab descent? And, by extension, you are attacking Senator Thompson for hiring him? Abraham, a long-time Republican Party loyalist and standard bearer is bad because...?
tread lightly dude!
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About the Author
Lord Vegas is a true American. some would call him a Mutt, but he prefers the term mixed breed.
Actually, James (and I apologize for getting to this late, I've been gone all day), I would take the exact same position on this one.
Actually, James (and I apologize for getting to this late, I've been gone all day), I would take the exact same position on this one.
He only won re-election thanks to Kinky Friedman's quixotic run spliting the vote in Perry's favor.
His in-your-face flipflop on the border issue was very manipulative and misleading.
He has declined to sell the new toll roads, that we desperately need, effectively.
I guess Pat Oxford forgot to give Rudy the staff memo on that.
Kay Bailey Hutchison may not be my ideal governor (Dick Armey or Phil Gramm would be great!), but she would be a breath of fresh air after Rick Perry.
And the Editors over at the Statesman will be hearing from me today.
haystack's 12th:
Conservatives (and Presidential Candidates especially) shall offer no aid and comfort to the opposition in times of legislative conflict (and ensuing political campaigns).