Positioning for the VEEP Nomination
Posted by StormWarning on 23 Dec 2007 at 10:54 am | Tagged as: Commentary, National Security, Opinions
Not that I need another reason to be anti-Rudy, this morning brings us Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s coincident endorsement of Giuliani and his slamming of President Bush. Of course, “VP Rick” needs Rudy to be the “R” nominee and then hoodwink the electorate into anointing him President, but the transparency of Perry’s motives is…well, transparent.
The story is that on a recent campaign trip to Iowa for presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, Rick declared, “George has never, ever been a fiscal conservative.”
Some veteran observers were surprised by Perry’s flat declaration, made while he emphasized Giuliani’s fiscal credentials. But they expect more such campaign-trail talk given Bush’s lame-duck status and low poll numbers, even in the state he calls home.
Now, frankly, President Bush has not been many of the conservative things that he was billed to be (this is both relieving and disquieting to me and others of the more “moderate” side of the Republican spectrum). Forgetting about that for now, the slamming of President Bush by Governor Perry is to be expected of a Texan who has long been rumored to have his eye on the second spot on the Republican ticket.
Slamming President Bush
● Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville: “I was just absolutely floored. In a sense, he (Perry) got his governorship via George Bush. … It just reminds me of Harry Truman’s old phrase, ‘If you want a friend in politics, get a dog.’
“You’ve got (presidential hopeful) Mike Huckabee calling his foreign policy arrogant. You’ve got other Republicans criticizing Bush for everything under the sun. You’ve got his chosen successor as governor criticizing his fiscal record.”
● Political scientist Bruce Buchanan of the University of Texas at Austin: “The best sense I can make of what Perry’s motive might have been was — since he’s from Bush’s home state — to kind of sever that connection in preparation for a kind of redefinition of the party, which is implicit in a candidacy like Giuliani’s,” Buchanan said.
● GOP consultant Royal Masset called Perry’s assessment on target: “He (Bush) always ran as being a fiscal conservative and saving money, but the reality was that with (Democratic then-Lt. Gov. Bob) Bullock and (Democratic then-House) Speaker (Pete) Laney, Bush didn’t have any power to stop anything anyway, so he pretty much went along for the ride and let them pass all kinds of stuff. It just isn’t true that he was a fiscal conservative.”
● Kelly Fero, Democratic consultant: “It’s Stalin-esque in the effort to rewrite history…” Fero said Perry’s comments represent “an example of politicians trying to distance themselves from the Bush administration, which is clearly unpopular nationwide, including in Texas.
It seems pretty transparently clear to me that Texas Governor Perry has a motive…and that’s to somehow get himself onto the short list for the Vice Presidential nomination for the Vice President’s slot. So he’s betting on Rudy Giluiani’s current front-runner status to position himself for that. Just watch “hair boy” as time passes. We’ll see if his bet pays off. And then, further, we’ll see if my belief that Rudy Giuliani is the absolutely poor judge of people that I believe that he is…and whether he picks George Bush’s successor as the Republican Governor of Texas for his running mate.
Mark it down and bookmark this post. Sometime in the next 10-11 months, the truth will emerge.
I hope that by stumbling across my little place that you will get something from my “ramblings” (which of course are nothing like ramblings). I do hope that you’ll come back and follow this link to help me keep readership up.
Check out Right in a Left World’s point of view on the worst candidate for America (if elected).
Governor RIck Perry, hair boy, President Bush, Rudy Giuliani, Vice President
