Texas
Related: About this forumAfter Dewhurst loss, it seems Perry might have problems in 2014
After Dewhurst loss, it seems Perry might have problems in 2014
HOUSTON Well, this could be different. Texas government now is led by a couple of losers whose undefeated streaks at the ballot box have come to ugly ends.
Gov. Rick Perry's White House dream died in Iowa and New Hampshire. And Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's once-promising path to the U.S. Senate was dead-ended Tuesday by his own party in his own state. Ouch. That could leave a mark.
So, barring unexpected resignations, Perry and Dewhurst, who both dearly wanted to be in Washington, will be in Austin when the Legislature convenes in January.
Dewhurst's GOP runoff loss to rookie candidate Rafael Edward Cruz (you know him as Ted Cruz, if you know him at all) also was a significant setback for Perry, who backed Dewhurst and effectively loaned him his campaign team.
The pain for Dewhurst was multiplied by the $24.5 million of his own money he poured into the race.
We can only hope that this is Perry's last term as our governor. And as for Dewhurst/Cruz - a pox on both their houses!
Perry beat Kay-Baily Hutchison in 2010 by courting the tea baggers and the theocrats.
sonias
(18,063 posts)Last edited Wed Aug 1, 2012, 12:10 PM - Edit history (1)
This Cruz nut is even further right than Perry can pull off right now. If he was running for Governor this year, he would probably lose to "anyone but Perry".
Just wishful thinking on our part.
mbperrin
(7,672 posts)NoPasaran
(17,291 posts)If the Teabillies oust Perry, it will only be because they've found someone crazier, meaner and more viscous.
sonias
(18,063 posts)The republican party has to keep moving so far right that they actually will be viewed as bat shit crazy by normal people. People who have been comfortable calling themselves republican and independents in Texas but maybe will start having some serious reevaluation of their beliefs.
Just saying it's time the pendulum swung back towards the middle in Texas. We've been hagging on the right side for far too long.
NoPasaran
(17,291 posts)I'd like to think that we've reached Peak Crazy. But maybe there is no Peak Crazy; maybe there's just an accelerating positive feedback loop for crazy that's really starting to run away.
sonias
(18,063 posts)No Peak Crazy! Man there has got to be an end to the madness. I just have to believe that.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)sonias
(18,063 posts)He'd be like Dewhurst. They will find another Ted Cruz clone they can control.
Either way, this will be Perry's last term as Governor.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)When it comes to Republicans yesterday's radicals are today's hated establishment. I bet Bill Clements and John Tower couldn't win a Texas Republican primary today to save their lives -and yeah I know tower is dead. Clements, I guess is still around.
Vogon_Glory
(9,127 posts)Bill Clements died not so long ago.
I heard from one of his confidants that he was dismayed by the Rick Perry style of Republicanism. I think that he'd be even more upset with the Tea Party crowd.
What worries me is that I suspect that thousands of Republican voters have realized that their Republican Party has made a sharp turn into lunacy, but out of some misguided sense of party loyalty, they'll vote Republican anyway, despite their realization that a Tea-publican Texas legislature will govern even WORSE than what we've got now.
Vogon_Glory
(9,127 posts)Despite the puffery slathered far and wide over the (uncritical) Texas media and the buddy-buddy relationships between the media's owners and Texas Republican politicians, it seems that a dim realization is slowly forming in the minds of many Texas citizen-voters: Republicans can't govern competently.
I don't think most of the electorate has fully thought this out. They see a chance for change and that's why a lot of them went for the Tea Party candidate.
Boy, oh, boy are they in for a BIG surprise!
It is to be hoped that slowly, surely, independents and at least some Republicans are realizing what many Texas Democrats realized even before George Walker what's his-name decamped for Washington, DC: voting Republican and expecting competent governance is like shopping at Auto-Zone (tm) for a wedding gown. You ain't gonna find it there.