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Jewish World Review
Oct 25, 2011
27 Tishrei, 5772
Rick Perry's birther Parade
By
Dana Milbank
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
If at first you don’t secede, try the birther movement.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who more than once has dipped his cowboy boot into the secessionist swamp, has found a new outlet for his fringe instincts. The Republican presidential candidate has revived questions about President Obama’s birth certificate. The controversy pretty much died in the spring when Obama, hounded by “carnival barker” Donald Trump, released his long-form birth certificate confirming his birth in the United States and, therefore, his eligibility for the presidency. But Perry, in an interview in Sunday’s Parade magazine, showed that he marches to a different drummer: Q. Governor, do you believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States? A. I have no reason to think otherwise. Q. That’s not a definitive, “Yes, I believe he”— A. Well, I don’t have a definitive answer, because he’s never seen my birth certificate. Q. But you’ve seen his. A. I don’t know. Have I? Q. You don’t believe what’s been released? A. I don’t know. I had dinner with Donald Trump the other night. Q. And? A. That came up. Q. And he said? A. He doesn’t think it’s real. Q. And you said? A. I don’t have any idea. It doesn’t matter. He’s the president of the United States. He’s elected. It’s a distractive issue. Actually, it’s more of a destructive issue. But it has become distractive again thanks to its revival by one of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. Perry knows something about distractive issues. A couple of years ago, when asked about the possibility of secession, he allowed that, while breaking up the union is unnecessary, “if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that.” When the Parade interviewer asked him about when he “hinted at the possibility of Texas seceding,” Perry replied: “Actually, I didn’t. Let’s not misrepresent it.” The interviewer invited Perry’s comments on other issues that make him look presidential, such as his lethal force used against a coyote that was menacing his daughter’s puppy (“one shot right in the shoulder”) and why this was necessary (“Come to Austin. I’ll show you coyotes that will come and get in your backyard and eat your little puppy”). The retelling of such stories, and the emergence of some new ones (such as the racist name long attached to the Perry ranch) have made for an unpleasant couple of months for Perry on the campaign trail. Add to that his debate performances, which have ranged from somnolent to belligerent, and you can understand why Perry’s status as the frontrunner was so abbreviated. The candidate’s wife says he has been “brutalized and beaten up” because he is a Christian. But might it have something to do with the unchristian things coming from her husband’s mouth? Other candidates have said wilder things, to be sure. In a speech over the weekend, Michele Bachmann called for abolishing the energy, interior and commerce departments, the Environmental Protection Agency and the tax code. She might have abolished more, but was given the hook. “Is that it?” she asked. “Is that it? Okay.” In a bit of unintended symbolism, the speech was given in a building called the Knapp Animal Learning Center. But political professionals expect more from a mainstream candidate such as Perry. After Perry’s birther Parade, strategist Karl Rove lectured his one-time friend Monday in a Fox News appearance. “You associate yourself with a nutty view like that and you damage yourself,” he said. Rove added that the pandering to Trump “starts to marginalize you in the minds of some of the people whom you need in order to get the election.” Good advice, but Perry won’t follow it. Whether it’s secessionism or birtherism, he seems determined to prove that nothing succeeds like excess.
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Previously:
• 10/24/11 The birthers eat their own
• 10/19/11 The GOP's middle man
• 10/17/11 The waiting for nothing Congress
• 10/12/11 Sparsely occupied D.C.: Why the movement hasn't caught on
• 10/10/11 Can Obama strike an alliance with Occupy Wall Street?
• 10/06/11 Chris Christie, such a presidential tease
• 10/05/11 Obama and his foot soldiers go toe to toe
• 09/28/11 Cain could deliver
• 09/26/11 Republicans? Mr. Nice Guys?
• 09/22/11 Why Ron Paul is winning the GOP primary
• 09/21/11 I am a job creator who creates no jobs
• 09/20/11 Obama launches a revolution
• 09/19/11 Dems for Romney?
• 09/14/11 ‘Supercommittee’? More than stupor committee
• 09/07/11 Mitt Romney finds his (corporate) voice
• 09/01/11 The infallible Dick Cheney
• 08/31/11 This liberal says Perry is the ultimate conservative candidate
• 08/29/11 Wanted: More bite from Obama the Great Nibbler
• 08/10/11 How Rep. Austin Scott betrayed his Tea Party roots
• 08/09/11 The most powerful man on Earth?
• 08/08/11 The FAA shutdown and the new rules of Washington
• 08/04/11 Lt. Col. Allen West fires a round at the Tea Party
• 08/03/11 Government on autopilot
• 08/02/11 Dems mourn debt deal like death
• 07/27/11 Life imitates sport
• 07/26/11 Obama and Boehner take on Washington
• 07/21/11 Why Americans are angry at Congress
• 07/20/11 The new party of Reagan
• 07/18/11 Rob Portman, the boring Midwesterner who could bring sanity to the debt debate
• 07/13/11 John Boehner's bind
• 07/04/11 Stephen Colbert, Karl Rove and the mockery of campaign finance
• 07/01/11 President Puts Up His Dukes, As He Ought To
• 06/28/11 Rod Blagojevich verdict: All shook up
• 06/27/11 Progressives voice their anger at Obama
• 06/24/11 ‘Mission accomplished,’ Obama style
• 06/22/11 Jon Huntsman's first step toward oblivion
• 06/21/11 Scott Walker finds making bumper stickers is easier than creating jobs
• 06/20/11 A day of awkwardness with Mitt Romney
• 06/06/11 Hubris and humility: Sarah Palin and Robert Gates on tour
• 06/02/11 The Weiner roast
• 06/01/11 Congress clocks in to clock out
• 05/30/11 Hermanator II: No More Mr. Gadfly
• 05/24/11 How Obama has empowered Netanyahu
• 05/24/11 Pawlenty bends his truth-telling
• 05/20/11 Default deniers say it's all a hoax
• 05/18/11: Gingrich gives voice to moderation
• 05/17/11: Donald Trump and the House of Horrors
• 05/16/11: The medical mystery of Mitt Romney
• 05/12/11: The body impolitic: Schock photos should tempt lawmakers to cover up
• 05/10/11: Muskets in hand, tea party blasts House Republicans
• 05/09/11: The GOP debate: America -- and the party -- needs the grown-ups
• 05/05/11: Mitch Daniels, an alternative to scary
• 05/03/11: Obama's victory lap
• 05/02/11: How the journalist prom got out of control
• 04/28/11: Obama's birther day: Why did he lower himself by appearing in the briefing room?
• 04/27/11: Obama, lost in thought
• 04/24/11: Andrew Breitbart and the rifts on the right
• 04/22/11: Ten Commandments for 2012
• 04/21/11: Obama likes Facebook. Facebook likes Obama.
• 04/18/11: Without Nancy Pelosi, Obama is adrift
• 04/15/11: If progressives ran the world
• 04/14/11: Faith in political apostasy
• 04/13/11: One man's revolution is another's political expediency
• 04/11/11: Shutdown theatrics
• 04/06/11: Paul Ryan's irresponsible budget
• 04/05/11: Robots in Congress? Yes, we replicant!
• 04/04/11: Robert Gibbs, Facebook and the White House corporate placement service
• 04/01/11: Haley Barbour, the fat cats' candidate
• 03/31/11: Republican freshmen in House shut down compromise, and possibly the government
• 03/30/11: Coburn and Durbin, the dynamic duo of the debt crisis
• 03/28/11: The Obama doctrine: A gray area the size of Libya
• 03/24/11: Dems as Weiners
• 03/23/11: Obama's quick trip from tyrant to weakling
• 03/17/11: Who's afraid of Elizabeth Warren?
• 03/15/11: The underwear flap over Bradley Manning
• 03/10/11: In Senate's debt debate, talk isn't cheap
• 03/09/11: With Obama's new Gitmo policy, Administration officials had some 'splainin to do
• 03/02/11: Issa press aide scandal is like bad reality TV
• 02/25/11: Jay Carney: Mouthpiece for an inscrutable White House
• 02/14/11: The Donald trumps the pols at CPAC
• 02/09/11: Arianna Huffington's ideological transformation
© 2011, Washington Post Writers Group
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