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Subscribe to RSSWith the national vetting of Texas Gov. Rick Perry now in full swing, a document already well known to observers of Perry's 2010 re-election race could raise more questions about the authenticity of Perry's fierce anti-Washington rhetoric.
During his 2010 gubernatorial primary, Perry opponent Kay Bailey Hutchison -- whom Team Perry dubbed "Kay Bailout" because of her support of Troubled Asset Relief Program -- pointed to a 2008 letter in which Perry and a Democratic counterpart urged Congress to pass an "economic recovery package."
"We strongly urge Congress to leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package," Perry wrote in his capacity as head of the Republican Governors Association on Oct. 1, 2008. (Cosigning the letter was now-Sen. Joe Manchin, who at the time served as the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.)
"We both believe that it’s time to stand together for our country," the letter continued. "There is a time for partisanship and there is a time for getting things done. No one likes the hand they've been dealt, and now is not the time to assign blame. It is time for Washington, D.C. to step up, be responsible and do what's in the best interest of American taxpayers and our economy."
The Senate passed its version of TARP on Oct. 1, 2008; it was passed by the House and enacted into law on Oct. 3.
Support of TARP is now considered a black mark to most conservatives, and Perry did not hold back in capitalizing on Hutchison's "yes" vote in 2009 and 2010.
In defense, Hutchison described the joint RGA-DGA letter as Perry's endorsement of the legislation that later became known as the "bailout."
Perry "wrote a letter to every senator saying vote for it because we’re going to have a financial meltdown," as Hutchison described it on a Dallas-Ft. Worth politics program in Nov. 2010.
Perry's campaign countered at the time -- as it does now -- that the letter was a response to political gamesmanship in Congress, and that Perry supported action to prevent a financial meltdown but did not specifically back the Bush-backed approach later derided as a Wall Street "bailout."
"The letter was urging action and in no way endorsed TARP," Perry spokesman Mark Miner told NBC News. "The governor has been very clear and vocal in his opposition to TARP."
Hutchison's charge never gained traction in the 2010 primary, and Perry ultimately trounced her in the March 2010 contest.
Still, the 2008 letter could serve as fodder to opponents hoping to paint Perry as a relatively new convert to vehement opposition to federal spending and intervention in state economic affairs.
On Monday, the Daily Caller reported that Perry praised Hillary Clinton's health-care efforts in a spring 1993 letter when requesting her inclusion of rural residents in the new national health-care plan. The Perry campaign responded that the details of the plan were unclear at the time the letter was written.
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Make no bones about it!
The skeletons are beginning to tumble out of Slick Rick's closet...
Wait until he's exposed for having balanced his budget off the stimulus funds, forcing teen-age girls to vaccinated against STD's thanks to his ties to Merck Pharmaceuticals & executing innocent men!
We've ONLY just begun to get to know the real Ricky Perry & it's not a pretty site! ;o)
Something tells me Slick Rick will be about as successful at praying away his record as he was at praying for rain! lol
"It is time for Washington, D.C. to step up, be responsible and do what's in the best interest of American taxpayers and our economy."
...but Slick Rick, you have repeatedly said that you want to make Washington 'inconsequential'!
OK, inconsequentially responsible.....
.........ummmmm
Sure wish someone, anyone, in the media would have vetted Obama..
I'm sorry you slept through 2008.
So here we have MSNBC reporting something that is well known, has been responded to and never "gained traction" once already, trying to revive a beaten dead horse.
Headlines shouldn't have question marks at the end of them, they should be declaritive you journalistic wizards.
And Feisty calls it a Skeleton. Kind of like Smoking crack and hanging out with known terrorists.
What's the matter, Palin didn't say anything today?
chilled cerebral cortex,
Do you really think the evil rich bankers would have made ignorant, stupid loans to people who couldn't afford them if government had not been trying to socially engineer the housing market, if there weren't mandates, if there was no backing from government sponsored entities, if they weren't allowed to package the crap loans and sell them off ......
If it weren't for the federal government, if the free markets had been left alone, if the Commodities Futures Modernization Act had not been passed, etc. - IF NOT FOR GOVERNMENT - THERE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A FINANCIAL COLLAPSE!
Heck of a consequence for big government huh?
So Bush cleaned up the mess caused by government with TARP.
OK, fine - Now get government out of the way.
White Collar Auto,
"sure wish someone in the media would have vetted Obama."
I wish they would still vette him.
Obama's Competency Problem?
@bob (numbers)
Thanks, but.......Your posts always suggest that you are not interested in having anything to do with learning, emotions, memory etc.
Sad!
cer·e·bral cor·tex
1.outer layer of front of brain: the wrinkled gray outer layer of the front parts of the brain cerebral hemispheres. Its functions include the perception of sensations, learning, reasoning, and memory
Gosh, you folks on the right must have missed the vetting of President Obama. He was vetted more than anyone else. I guess you folks were trapped in the Palin Fog.
Thank God that President Obama won that one. I hate to think of the crapper we would be in now if he hadn't.
Poor bob lotsanumbers and snuffy smiff. They've been brain dead for years. Still repeating stupid whack job talking points. Sorta like calling prostitution a victimless crime. Something most republicans are familiar with. Hmmmmm come to think of it I may be on to something here...If the congress is full of corporate whores and K street is their pimp...Where does that leave the American Middle Class?
Why couldn't this be "tarp" as in a big canvas circus tent falling on this clown?
It won't be long till everybody is "FED UP" with slicky Ricky.the closet is getting bigger by the day.
Feisty - "Make no bones" about Perry skeletons.....nice play on words!
;o) lol
LMAO......you call those bones......the comical sounds of desperation coming from the left.
Exposed for balancing the budget.......How dare he do that!!!!!!!
OMG-Obama Must Go
I've studied the 'Jim Jones' persona.
There is something freakingly similar with the 'Perry' persona.
Oh, I thought it said "Toupee" problem. Did anyone see the similarity between Josh Brolin as Bush to a photo of Perry? LMAO! Just think of all the possibilities for campaign ads, one with a "Mission Accomplished" banner place behind Perry, another with the caption "Fool me once, shame on ... Fool me — you can't get fooled again" under Perry's photo -- It's endless.
Getting whacked?
Richard, the GOP/TP Kool-Aid does smell like bitter almonds.
Well maybe Perry can use the same excuse that Obama made when he was reminded that in 2007 as a Senator he voted against raising the debt ceiling because it showed a lack of leadership in the WH and was spending our children's future. Well as President I see things a little different than as a Senator (or words to that effect). I really didn't hear the MSM or the liberals on these threads call Obama a hypocrite.
Wow, White Collar, I think you hit all of the Rove Tactics in just one post!
Ah, the chosen one ,Rick Pinochio Perry, nose continues to grow. He is a fake Bush clone, full of A.L.E.C.! Another politician running for a goverment job, because he hates... goverment? A career politician no less, that's never woked outside of goverment;seems govt is bad,only, for everybody else! What is wrong with this picture???
Perry is a liar and a cheat. The best place for "SLICK RICK' is deep in the heart of Texas, and nowhere else...he represents the epitome of the GOP's mantra; DO AS I SAY-NOT AS I DO, aka Tyrant.
"forcing teen-age girls to vaccinated against STD's"
Encouraging vaccination against HPV will prevent cervical cancer and save the lives of many women. What's disgraceful about Perry is that he is backing away from this position now that he has to please the ultraconservative wing of his party. Please, if you love your daughters and granddaughters, encourage all adolescents (boys and girls) to get the HPV vaccine.
This is a typical Bagger . It does not matter what you said before. It is what you are saying before the current audience. If you change what you said later on that day, it still does not matter.
Well, DUH! Obviously it should be perfectly acceptable to have a bailout and a stimulus if you're the one receiving the money but not acceptable if you're the one giving the money. Doesn't everyone know that?
Like taxes, right?
Perfectly okay if taxes are raised, as long as they're not raised on you.
There are many rich congressional Democrats who are advocating raising taxes on the rich (ie. themselves).
There are a few TEA party members who didn't accept the bailout, stimulus moneys or grants, one for sure, Governor SCOT of Florida. He refused all moneys from the FED and now his public is trying to impeach him by means of PINK SLIPS.
Heartlight3 - There is nothing stopping the rich congressional democrats, or anyone else for that matter, from paying more taxes than what they have to. I still haven't heard Buffett's reply when asked why he doesn't pay more if he is convinced it is a good idea. Since the liberal democrats always want to raise taxes maybe we should pass a law that says "all registered democrats will pay an income tax surcharge of 10% on top of what they owe."
This is as weak as the story about Hillary's HCR.
Urging congress to get to work on an economic recovery package-without setting forth any details- in no way indicates support for TARP.
Urging work on HCR in no way indicates support for any particulars plan.
You guys are reaching.
"We strongly urge Congress to leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package,"
Oh, I get it. Rick Perry was against TARP but was for the stimulus package. Man there's gonna be some upset Tea partiers.
Yep, he just meant take some kind of action, but not tarp, even tho' he wrote the letter during debate over tarp. And hey, really, if he'd only known the details of hillarycare...etc etc What do I need to say today? There's a word, last time it came to mind was re: another Texas pol - Tom Delay; the word is "smarmy"
or "slimey".
But isn't it fun, reading the posts from all the ususal malcontents on the right in response to this thread?
Must be in McDonald's, cause I'm Lovin' it!
Keep 'em coming, y'all.
Had the media only vetted Obama 25% as much as they are attempting the opposition's potential candidates, we wouldn't be in the mess were in now.
Gosh, you folks on the right must have missed the vetting of President Obama. He was vetted more than anyone else. I guess you folks were trapped in the Palin Fog.
Thank God that President Obama won that one. I hate to think of the crapper we would be in now if he hadn't.
Babaloui: Had the media only vetted Obama 25%......
Looks like return of the "Birthers"!
I can't speak for Babaloie, but, in my opinion, if the media had vetted Obama 10% as much as they are vetting his possible opponents- he would not be president today.
We WOULD have been better off with either McCain or Hillary. Both had the experience necessary to know that pie in the sky ideas do not work in the real world. Neither would have paid off donors with impunity- calling it an "investment in green jobs".
Neither would have run up four trillion in debt. Neither would have even taken on HCR until the economy was back on track- and you can bet your bottom dollar that neither would have forced their party members to walk the political plank for the sole purpose of making sure either got their pet project rammed through- consent of the governed be damned.
I'm fairly certain that, had either gained the office, Iran would not be this close to having a nuclear weapon. Nor would the Mid East have erupted in to chaos- because either would have heeded the warnings, and shipped wheat, corn, and other supplies to that area from the U.S. Reserves to alleviate food shortages- which is what started the chaos.
Obama is a failure. There is no if, and, but, or maybe, about it. From where I sit, the problem liberals have right now is the inability to admit that they were wrong in choosing him over a third Clinton administration.
Too bad the electorate is going to make that perfectly clear, very soon. The opening lesson was last November. Next November?
I don't think the mother in law is going to vote for him.
No jo
You were asleep. They vetted the President twice as much as Palin. You know a guy of color running for President. I dare him.
Has anyone demanded Perry produce an original birth certificate for public examination?
I've been told that he is a Mexican national and not qualified to run for President - not even qualified to legally be Governor of Texas. He should show his original birth certificate or STOP campaigning!
Why is he hiding these facts? Why doesn't he show us his birth certificate? Why do his stories keep changing?
FLIP - FLOP!!!
Since he was once a Democrat, I don't think this story is all that relevant. If voters are willing to overlook the fact that he changed party affiliations (for whatever reason--change of heart, expediency, etc.) then I assume they are willing to disregard any letters he may have written while a Democrat.
I would rather see information on his specific proposals with respect to economy, war in Afghanistan, etc than read these less important stories. In some ways, Huntsman had it right---we've spent a morning reading about inconsequential matters while larger issues seem to be ignored. I care more about what a speech contains than where it is delivered.
He was not a Democrat in 2008.
Sure Perry will do his magic act and twist all words to fit his take
He's just another low down, no good Republican say anything to get elected
Perry will not pass the republican litmus test either. There is nobody in politics who could. Of course, they will probably choose to ignore if not forgive his "sins." Much like they forgave limbaugh his addiction to perscription pain killers. Of course, Tricky Rick can claim that since collecting TARP funds he found Jesus............again.
Heck it is just another half truth.......no problem
Slick Rich was for TARP before he was against it. He was for Hillary Care before it became Romney Care before it became Obama care before he was against it or for it or whatever it is against -- for -- who can keep track?? He was against stumulas money before he took stimulus money but he's against taking stimulus money even though he was glad to get stimulus money. He's for smaller government even though Texas has more government employees than they had last year so he expands government so he can shrink government. He's a job creation machine even though his state's unemployment rate is less than1% below the national average.
It's the season of "I really didn't say that, er... mean it either." Pretty insulting to everyone. Doesn't matter how many flip flops occur, politicians won't own up them, and I think with Rick we're going to see several of these mishaps.
It appears Republicans and the Republican Party has to twist themselves up in knots to be acceptable to TPer's and their extremists views. Eventually, this whole things implodes whether that happens before the elections or after when these nut jobs are voted out of office is yet to be seen.
Laurie dont ever underestimate the power of hate and ignorance...especially among those that think God is on their side directing their campaign against the evil Satanists!
This is the advantage of a candidate who was elected to the job of Texas Governor three times!
Perry was vetted already...They only have re-treads... they are at the bottom of the barrel already.
But not to worry ; soon the biased media in desperation will start with the invented sex scandal...
Instead of "Is Rick Perry dumb"?
it will be "Is Rick Perry gay"?
How low will they go? Down to Feisty's level.
Being elected governor of a backward state like Texas is hardly an endorsement..
This is from the Texas Democratic Party......
Take a look at the property that Slick Rick has been renting (at TX taxpayer expense) for over three years......Looks like a fine place for a TeaParty.
http://www.meetrickperry.com/
"I am sure this was just Obama dressed up to look like Perry thinking he could fool the voters"...
How long before we hear that??
I REALLY WISH people would Know their facts first ,THE PLACE PERRY HAS IS PAID FOR OUT OF HIS OWN POCKET , that's facts folks ,
SECOND on the tarp if you all will recall THE Obama administration threatened to cut all FEDERAL FUNDING
TO THE STATES WHO DID NOT SUPPORT OR EXCEPT THE TARP BAILOUTS
what was any governor to do , with a dictator in control
Facts are facts
So, Darrel.... THIS is where Boehner, Cantor and McConnell got their idea of holding the debt increase hostage to get their way. We wondered.
Sounds like you are saying that the teanuts and wingnuts like being the "dictator in control" more than they like taking care of their responsibilities and doing their jobs....
I SAY: VOTE THEM
OUT!!Wow 16.1! Texas is a backward state? Check your facts. 51 Fortune 500 companies. That's over 10% in one state. The WORLD"S 10th largest economy. Do a little research and also try not to generalize. I moved to Texas 10 years ago and my quality of life has improved drastically! I'm beginning too think that a lot of the vitriol against Texas and Texans stems from a just a tad bit of envy...hmmmm?
" I'm beginning too think"
Correcting my own typo...too should be to.
Maybe, but I believe it more likely stems from a tad too much W. Bush.....
just sayin'