Tag: Rick Perry

Why Rick Perry’s Nickname Was ‘Crotch’

Jon Ponder

I first met Rick Perry in 1985. He was a Democratic freshman state rep, straight off the ranch in Haskell, Texas. He wore his jeans so tight, and, umm, adjusted himself so often that my fellow young legislative aides and I used to call him Crotch. Even among state representatives, even among Texas Aggies (graduates of this cute remedial school we have in Texas), Perry stood out for his modest intellectual gifts. Hell, he got a C in animal breeding. I have goats who got an A in that subject. But lack of brains has never been a hindrance in politics.

– Democratic strategist Paul Begala

The Line: Rick Perry

Jon Ponder

photo-perry-stern

  • Kevin Drum, Mother Jones: Why Perry won’t win
  • Erica Grieder, The Economist: Democrats, you misunderestimate Perry at your peril
  • Washington Post: Fact-checking Perry’s announcement speech
  • ThinkProgress: Perry says Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional
  • Juan Cole, Informed Comment: Rick Perry and the hucksterism of the rich
  • Paul Begala, Daily Beast: Lack of brains has never been a hindrance in politics
  • SaintPetersblog: Is Rick Perry gay? Googlers want to know

Perry a ‘Cheaper Imitation of George Bush’

Buck Banks

Perry is a cheaper imitation of George Bush … and I think Perry has really studied Bush. But Bush’s brilliance with the religious right was that he did everything behind closed doors. There were no photo-ops, there were no press releases saying I met reverend so and so today. Bush did everything through intermediaries, and so there was no public trail of him reaching out to the religious right. The irony is that here comes along Perry, the dollar-general-store version of Bush, and here he is meeting with these people in public and you start looking at the line up of the people he’s cozying up to in public and all he is doing is setting himself up for trouble later on if by some miracle he actually wins the nomination … Some of these guys are really beyond the fringe — folks who George Bush would have never been caught dead within a hundred miles of.

— Shaun Casey, a professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary, in The Deseret News, commenting about Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).