Posted on 08/14/2011 12:46:55 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON (JTA) – To some conservative Jews, Texas Gov. Rick Perry would make an excellent presidential candidate. He’s been to Israel more than any other candidate already in the field and has said he loves it. And Perry creates jobs.
But other Jewish conservatives seeking the anti-Obama candidate look at the three-term governor and see something arresting: He believes he’s on a mission from God.
Perry has nonplussed longtime Jewish supporters by claiming that he has been “called” to the presidency and by hosting a prayer rally this month that appealed to Jesus to save America. Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post’s “Right Turn” columnist and a bellwether of Jewish conservatism, took liberals to task on her blog for treating the event as “a spectacle” -- it was borne of deeply considered worries about the country’s parlous state, she said – but Rubin also expressed caveats about the rally.
“His words at the event were restrained but not ecumenical,” she wrote. “And his use of public office to promote the Christian event was, to me, inappropriate. The event, while scheduled last December, is still reflective of the man who would be president. Would he do this in the Oval Office? Does he not understand how many Americans might be offended? Is he lacking advice from a non-Texan perspective?”
Fred Zeidman, an influential Houston lawyer who has known Perry for decades and has hosted him at his home, said, “None of us remember him being quite as devout as he seems to be now, but we wouldn't necessarily have known.”
Zeidman, who for eight years served as chairman of the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, supports Mitt Romney. but Zeidman told JTA that before endorsing Romney that he checked with Perry last December to ask whether he would be running. At the time, Perry said no.
On Saturday, Perry threw his hat into the ring.
"A great country requires a better direction," he said, declaring his candidacy. "A renewed nation needs a new president."
Perry has been a conservative since before he switched parties in 1989 to became a Republican. A cotton farmer and former air force pilot, he led efforts in his first five years as a Democrat in the legislature to pare the budget.
Perry, a devout Methodist, was attracted to Israel from the launch of his career. One of his first acts after being elected agriculture commissioner in 1991 was to create the Texas-Israel Exchange, which promoted information and research sharing. In a 2009 interview with The Jerusalem Post, when he led a delegation to Israel, Perry – who around the same time flirted with Texas secessionist rhetoric – said the alliance was a natural one.
“When I was here for the first time some 18 years ago and I was touring the country, the comparison between Masada and the Alamo was not lost on me,” he told the Post. “I mean, we're talking about two groups of people who were willing to give up their lives for freedom and liberty."
As much as Perry’s heartfelt love for Israel makes him attractive to Republican Jews, it is was the other reason he was in Israel at the time – seeking out job creation initiatives, as he has across the globe – that has been the basis of his Jewish support.
“I became intrigued by Rick Perry when I read his book ‘Fed Up!’ because it was exactly what I was feeling,” Robin Bernstein, who heads Perry’s fundraising in Florida, said in an interview. “His economic success in Texas is a model for the entire country.”
Texas has managed to weather the recession comparatively well, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has reported that half of all U.S. jobs created from June 2009 to April 2011 were in Texas.
Published last year, “Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington” blames America’s woes on an arrogant power elite in Washington – Perry, in his first chapter, accuses it of “chutzpah” – and is music to conservative ears seeking relief from what they see as government unbound.
“We are fed up with being overtaxed and overregulated,” Perry writes. “We are tired of being told how much salt we can put on our food, what windows we can buy for our house, what kind of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kind of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say them, what political speech we are allowed to use to elect candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what kind of food we can grow, what doctor we can see, and countless other restrictions on our right to live as we see fit.”
It’s a message that resounds with Jewish conservatives – save, perhaps, for its defense of public prayer.
By the same token, Perry’s declaration last month that the presidency is “what I’ve been called to” sent a shudder through some among the conservative Jewish establishment. This month, it was Perry’s leadership in organizing the massive Houston prayer rally, dubbed The Response, and his insistence that “we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles," that led some Jewish conservatives to go on the record with their discomfiture.
"My response to The Response: No, thanks," wrote Jacob Sullum in The New York Post. "My people have managed without Jesus for thousands of years. Why start now?" Sullum also criticized Perry for seeming to abandon his previous let-the-states-decide view on social issues in favor of amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would outlaw abortion and same-sex marriage everywhere in the country.
Sixteen rabbis were among 50 Houston clergy members who urged Perry not to host the rally. National groups like the Anti-Defamation League also opposed it.
“He called this rally as a governor,” Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director, said in an interview before Perry’s formal declaration of his candidacy for president. “He didn’t try to camouflage anything. He's pleasant and he's smart, he has good relations with the Jewish community, but this is a conscious disregard of law and authority. What troubles me most is, this is his perception of where America is at.”
Bernstein, Perry’s Florida backer, said such concerns are overstated. “Nobody criticized Moses for being ‘called,'” she said. “The fact that he upholds the Ten Commandments is very important. I like to believe a man of faith has a moral compass.”
Jewish Democrats are eating up the controversy. In a statement, the National Jewish Democratic Council said it was “encouraging” Perry to run, “given that his record will help repel American Jews and remind them why they support Democrats in historic numbers.”
Zeidman wondered if, with the rally, his old friend was miscalculating. “I don’t know that he has not gone too far in his appeal to the conservative wing of the party,” Zeidman said. “That could prove harmful in a general election.”
Still, Zeidman said, it would be a bigger mistake to underestimate a governor who in 11 years in office has wrested much power from the legislature, where it had been concentrated for decades, and who knows how to win.
“He should never be underestimated in terms of his campaigning ability,” Zeidman said.
That would be the only logical reason anybody could have if they are conservative for supporting Rick Perry, as he has grown the budget in Texas from 49 Billion to 90 Billion in just 9 years.
Only a lover of government could support that.
TO ALL: Read the next to the last paragraph.
This is what Rick says to Mexico’s leaders (complete 180 from what he says to the voters)
http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/10688/
I'm willing to bet he told his kids not to tell the media they have 7 mommies.
Thanks for the actual context of that quote. Sure changes the meaning.
And do you LOVE NAFTA? The American Job killing agreement?
Here’s what RICK PERRY thinks about NAFTA
“The fruits of NAFTA have just begun to ripen. At the same time, we must not allow the roots of the tree to become poisoned”
See the fifth paragraph at http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/10688/
Perry and his baggage, dont be fooled, this sounds like another Bush we dont need
We have 23 million people here
People are flooding the place as they abandoned CA and the other ****pits.
Yeah, the budget is growing.
LOL!!! I think what got me the most was when he was at a town hall event of some sort and a man had asked him what he was going to do about the cost of gas. Obama uses this as his opportunity to educate this man on fuel efficient cars vs the gas guzzling SUV the man needed with his large family. Middle America will remember this going into the polls in 2012, I’m convinced of it. It’s up to all the “bitter clingers” to get out there and vote in 2012 and send Obama’s bitter a** home.
And RICK PERRY supports the DREAM act that REQUIRES the state of Texas to SUPPORT ILLEGAL ALIENS.
Perry is a Big Government RINO who just HAPPENS to be governor of a state with an economy so vibrant EVEN HE can’t slow it down.
Oh, and according to the 2010 census, it’s 25 Million, and 5 Million (there or about) illegals
So according to you, as population in the U.S. grows government spending and government needs to expand and spend more?
Gov Rick Perry is the first Texas governor since WWII to cut state revenue spending.
Yes! I recall that.
Perfessor BS missed the mark.
Umm...
more mouths, more bills.
On the whole I would say Texas’s policy’s are doing better than Obamas
I like to see numbers as a percentage of GDP
Is your candidate losing or not running?
Here are 15 pages about Texas and the 1250 mile international border security issues (excerpted and linked) that the state of Texas deals with.
http://governor.state.tx.us/initiatives/border/
Umm... more mouths, more bills.
So you agree. OK
Fact: the 2010-2011 Texas Budget was 182 Billion, or ~ 90 Billion a year
Fact: the 2001 Texas budget was 49 Billion.
In what Universe is that CUTTING?
In the LIAR RINO universe that LIARS inhabit!
What will you say when I post the links here? Will you keep repeating the same old lies?
It will as long as the Dems control the WH and the Senate. Unfunded mandates -- Universal Health care -- Public Education with no questions asked -- etc.
Wonder how all the folks that support Palin and are Perry bashing now are going to react when she endorses him.
Of course if population grows debts will, but in a properly managed state revenues will increase as well.
Fact is Texas is prospering and Obama cant fight that.
He is toast.
Perry has been in this jerks face trying to expand energy an growth from DAY ONE.
Whats Obama got? Debts and woes
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