Moe Lane

So, Governor Rick Perry made a speech today where he proposed the following:

• Ending the practice of giving lifetime appointments to federal judges (current judges would not be affected);
• Cutting Congressional pay in half;
• Cutting Congressional pay in half again if they don’t balance the budget by 2020;
• Cutting Congressional office budgets in half;
• Cutting the Congressional calendar by half;
• Criminalizing insider trading by Congressmen (no, actually, it’s not currently illegal for them to do that);
• Reducing spending to 18% of GDP;
• Privatizing Fannie & Freddie;
• Ending the funding of Planned Parenthood;
• Eliminating the Commerce, Education, and Energy Departments;
• Getting the EPA under control;
• Getting the TSA under control;
• Audit the government, including the Department of Defense;
• Freeze incoming federal regulations, and audit all of them for the last five years;
• Federal salary freeze for all non-military and non-law enforcement officials until the budget is balanced;
• And cutting the Presidential salary in half until the budget is balanced

This is not red meat.  This is raw meat, still steaming from the cow.

(more…)

“…would you like to forget about the most?”

This is, by the way, the only right way to handle this kind of situation: admit the screwup, don’t run from it. Whether it works or not is up to the voters, but I will note for the record that at least some of the other candidates are perhaps a little too aware of their own dignity to admit to a mistake…

(Via Reader workingclass artist)

Moe Lane

PS: I voted for wanting to forget about the Department of Education. Although the Marine Mammal Commission was surprisingly tempting.

For those who missed it, Perry flubbed a question on how many agencies he would cut.  How bad?

This bad:

I’m guessing that the Cain people are hopeful, the Romney people are throwing together a Perry attack ad, and the Democrats are looking into ways to push it further.

The bright side?  That statement by Perry is probably the best response that he could make.

…in the blogosphere.  For the record, I still like Herman Cain – but his staff is currently getting really, really, REALLY into a death spiral with this story.  Not to be mean about this: suggesting that Rahm Emanuel would use the Rick Perry campaign as a stalking horse to try to derail Cain’s campaign?  Or that Perry would allow that to happen?  That is what we in this business call crazytalk.

Seriously.  My mind keeps trying to encompass a world where the two would collaborate on anything covert or sneaky without the scheme immediately being brought out screaming into the light by tight-lipped partisan staffers on either side, and failing: it keeps skittering on the surface of that thought like a beetle on a marble egg, always looking for an entrance that just isn’t there.

Just… no.

Moe Lane

Perry plans to end federal ethanol subsidies, by the way.

Texas governor and Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry participated in a Presidential manufacturing forum today in Pella, Iowa (hosted by the Vermeer Corporation): and it’s pretty interesting viewing.

(The entire forum (and transcript) can be seen here.)

Governor Perry answered questions from both the moderators and the audience: if I had to sum up fifteen minutes of informed, fairly specific commentary in one sentence it would be “The single largest problem that the USA is facing in terms of job and economic growth is our own regulatory climate.”  Perry was obviously relaxed and confident throughout the proceedings, which leads me to wonder whether a large part of his past public appearance issues have been due to lingering pain from his recent back surgery.  Certainly he was knowledgeable and engaging throughout this particular event.

(more…)

Hot Air and Ace of Spades HQ are both contemplating the issue of Herman Cain, whether he can win, and whether he is truly likely to win.  Fortunately or unfortunately – depending on your point of view – I take a utilitarian point of view on the matter: what does the Herman Cain Iowa plan look like? Does it look like this?

Campaign organizer: We’re going to harness the power of the grassroots and take this country back by getting together and coming together with one voice in caucuses all across Iowa to win and we’ve got people calling and the enthusiasm out there that I’m seeing every day is infectious!

…or does it look like this? (more…)

Plan here.

[UPDATE]: Speech done; copy can be found here.  Lots of good stuff in it: to quote @DrewMTips…

Shorter Rick Perry: “What’s my plan? Just about every popular conservative idea that’s been floating around for 30 years”.

Pretty much, pretty much.  I like ending baseline spending, myself.  A lot.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Yup!  I’m going there.

It’s funny: by the standards of a lot of people in the GOP I’m pretty firmly in the ‘pro-amnesty squish’ wing. [INSERT INTEMPERATE RESPONSE TO INSULTING AND PROVOCATIVE STATEMENT THAT WILL NOT FOSTER PARTY UNITY, BUT WILL MAKE THE RESPONDER PERSONALLY FEEL BETTER ABOUT BEING CALLED A RUDE NAME HERE] So it’s always a little interesting to talk about the immigration debate in the primaries.  Particularly since the two people that I’ll be talking about – Rick Perry and Mitt Romney – are both considered to be pro-amnesty squishes themselves by some.

First off, we have what is an entertainingly unhinged response by Team Romney over something written about Rick Perry in passing by MSNBC:

(more…)

I can tell you at least one key difference between this latest ad by Governor Rick Perry and the latest one from former Governor Mitt Romney…

…Team Perry will probably not have to fall all over itself later today to pull the ad from the Internet. Which was something that Team Romney had to do yesterday with their ad.

For those without video, the Perry ad is called ‘Misleading:’ and it starts off by helpfully defining the term for Mitt Romney. It then proceeds to spend the next minute replaying several times where Romney’s allegedly lived up to the title, starting with Obamacare (with a shout-out to Romney editing his support of it) and ending with Romney’s “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake: we can’t have illegals” Kinsey gaffe from Tuesday’s debate. In other words: it’s a much better attack ad than the one that Team Romney put out, and then hastily buried, yesterday. (more…)

And here’s part II: the Q&A from last night’s (10/11/2011) post-debate remarks by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Again, this was done by RedState’s Aaron Gardner, not myself. You can see the first part here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Our own Aaron Gardner was on hand to record the Governor’s remarks after the debate last night. I’ll be putting up the video in two parts: this part consists of the formal remarks that Governor Perry made, and the second will be from the question-and-answer period.

Not to be, ah, pawkish about this or anything: but as you can see, the difference between Perry’s performance at debates, and his ability to interact with a room, is palpable.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Background: there was a ranch in Texas with an unfortunate name*. Gov. Rick Perry’s father rented the hunting rights of the camp; when the family discovered that there was a rock on the premises with the aforementioned unfortunate name on it, they first painted over, then turned over, the rock**. Almost thirty years pass. In the meantime, Rick Perry switches parties; takes over the hunting rights; watches as the Texas legislature handles the problem of unfortunate names; gets elected Governor; and eventually stops using the property. The Washington Post, apparently looking to replicate the same magic in 2011 that caused them in 2009 to be rechristened The Washington Bob McDonnell’s Thesis, begins the process of trying to blow this story up.

Contra Jim Geraghty, who is wearily tired of junk like this, I submit that it would be fairly simple to counter the WaPo’s rather naked and fairly sad agitprop; and it involves using Gov. McDonnell’s strategy of calling in any paper that’s interested to a media availability. Once there, Gov. Perry should simply patiently explain the circumstances of the ranch, over and over and over and over again, until the other papers realize that the WaPo’s being gonzo partisan crazy again and go find something else to report about. (more…)