Murky land deals mark Gov. Rick Perry's past [2010]

Three years after Gov. Rick Perry's biggest real estate score, questions persist about whether the governor benefited from favoritism, backroom dealing and influence-buying.

The Dallas Morning News found evidence that Perry's investment was enhanced by a series of professional courtesies and personal favors from friends, campaign donors and the head of a Texas family with a rich history of political power-brokering.

Together they may have enriched Perry by almost $500,000, according to an independent real estate appraisal commissioned by The News.

The governor's staff insists these were routine, legal deals that were properly handled. They point to a bank's appraisal, done when Perry sold his land in 2007, that said the buyer was paying Perry slightly less than market value.

Experts hired by The News dismissed that appraisal as "unsupported" and said it did not meet professional standards. County tax appraisals at the time also indicated that the governor was able to buy the land below market value and sell far above it.

It occurs to me how difficult it must be for a politician to be able to say “I’m not for sale.” When a politician has a record over many years during which they have never sold out to corruption or cronyism, that person is truly the rarest gem among leaders. When a politician has sold himself out to corruption, he will avoid the claim “I’m not for sale” like the plague.

Well, politicians being politicians and sinners being sinners, I really doubt there is a single politician out there that has a right to throw the first stone and brag about the right without having the non-supporters of the said politician rolling with laughter.

In 1987, Gary Hart dared the media to follow him around and see how boring his personal life was. That turned old news into brand new hard news and the rest is history.

In 2011, certain politicians would be very foolish to repeat Gary Hart's dare to the media.

The Branchflower Report, released by a 12-0 vote of the Legislative Council, with eight Republicans and four Democrats voting. CONCLUSION: " ..... abused .... power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act,"

That same politician was also forced by the State of Alaska to return more than $386,000 in contributions to her Alaska Fund Trust when the Independent Cousel concluded that "the Trust itself, as ultimately conceived, violates the Ethics Act." The State of Alaska also forced a longtime political crony, Kirstan Cole, to be removed from serving as Trustee of the fund.

That same politician could have addressed the issue of frivolous lawsuits used as blackmail against sitting Governors in Alaska and stayed to fight for a "Loser Pays" law such as the one that Texas now has. Instead, that politician resigned in order to pursue Reality TV contracts and speaking fees that resulted in $12 million in personal income within the first two years after leaving office.

It is extremely easy to say, "I am not for sale".

The hard part comes after you say it and the old skeletons in the closet become marching out again as a result of the bragging.

And the facts continue to appear. Facts are NOT campaign smears.

So, the facts... A guy was buying a property for $700k, noted the unsold half acre next door, and said, 'Make it a million, and I'll take both.' Agreement made, he then sold it to a friend for a little above what he paid for it. That property, five years later, was listed for $1.2 million, but eventually sold a year later after being off the market and dormant for 8 months for a little over $1.1 million, at the top of the real estate market.

Then a whole lot of filler and innuendo is tossed in to make it look like a payoff by those who supported Rwandan genocide and arms dealing, and published before an election, three years after the property sale. It is just coincidence that the Dallas Morning News endorsed Democrat Bill White. They also endorsed Kay Bailey Hutchinson in the primary against Rick Perry, another random coincidence that had nothing to do with campaign smears.

Kudos, at least, to the Dallas Morning News for actually including all the actual facts in the article in between all the smears.

Sold below market and then bought back by the business partner at an above market rate—that doesn’t have the sent of a Clinton/Obama/Biden RE deal to you?

I'm sorry, you missed it, the property was bought by an arms dealer who supported Rwandan genocide, not the senator who bought the land for Perry. If you're going to buy the smear, at least grab onto the right part of it.

Then I suggest you’re impervious to all exposures of Perry’s corruption, you’re so in the tank for him.

Yeah, totally in the tank for Perry, there's such a long history of my posting in support of him... It was a smear to help bump up the democrat challenging Perry, and got pretty much no traction, mostly because it was a pretty transparent smear attempt.

So should she have stayed and fought for the Loser Pays law after the dozens of frivolous lawsuits were dismissed and millions of taxpayer dollars were lost, or should she have done it before they were dismissed when her hands were already tied and it was impossible to work as a sincere Governor?

When Palin says “I’m not for sale,” she means her principles are not for sale. This is very different from earning money. Her record shows she’s not for sale, and with this record she nukes all opponents.

Yes, politicians are politicians and sinners are sinners.

Trees are trees. Rocks are rocks. But diamond is never mistaken for sandstone.

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