Posted on 09/21/2011 7:47:46 PM PDT by freespirited
In his first one-on-one national TV interview since kicking off his presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry referred to Mitt Romney as “Obama-lite” and charged that the former Massachusetts governor is blurring lines between Republicans and Democrats.
But Perry told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday that his differences with Romney aren’t personal.
“Oh, it’s business,” he said. “I just think it’s important for the people of America and certainly in a Republican primary to see the clear differences that the candidates have. We need to nominate someone who has a stark clear difference between the Republican nominee and President Obama. We don’t need to nominate Obama-lite.”
Perry did not answer a question from Hannity about his 2007 executive order requiring sixth-grade girls to receive a vaccine for the HPV virus, instead limiting his answer to another question Hannity asked in the same breath about his state’s policy of allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at Texas state colleges and universities.
“This is a Texas issue,” he said. “This is an education issue, not an immigration issue.”
Asked by Hannity why he used the term “secession” during a 2009 Austin tea party rally, Perry said the incident never happened.
“I never used that term at all, as a matter of fact,” Perry said.
As to why he had famously been reported as using the term, Perry said: “I have no idea to be real honest with you. It was never a factual bit of reporting. It was shouted out by an individual at an event, at a tea party, actually. And I said, ‘Listen, America is a great country, we have no reason to dissolve this union.’ I said, ‘I get it why people are frustrated because they’re seeing Washington spending this massive amount of money, we’ve got a huge debt and people are really frustrated with what they see in Washington, D.C.’ I understand that, I didn’t agree with it, but I understood it.”
At the event in question, an April 15, 2009, rally in Austin, supporters yelled “secede” while Perry addressed the crowd, according to reports at the time.
Perry, asked about those sentiments immediately afterward, told reporters: “I think there are a lot of different scenarios. Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of issues is that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that. My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union, and there’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come out of that?”
Perry’s not exactly right about this piece of Texas history, according to the Texas annexation document up on the Texas state library and archives website. Upon the Lone Star State’s entrance into the union, Congress, fearing the state would be too large, passed a law allowing Texas to subdivide itself into as many as five separate states. Neither the statehood agreement nor the act of Congress gives the state the authority to secede outright.
Yeah. Perry’s had to actually deal with the big issues on a day-to-day basis.
According to today’s Rasmussen poll he is very much running for the nomination. After his last two debate performances he’s managed to net a -7 point spread in the polls.
A US citizen resident of a neighboring state would have to pay more than an illegal alien in Texas.
If you make it so that they cannot get jobs, they will not come. If we enforce our laws and stop giving them federal monies, they will stop coming and the border will be easier to defend/watch/seal.
Rather than pass E-verify, he wants Congress to pass a guest worker program. pfffft!
That’s because immigration IS trouble for Perry.
“Hard stance,” from the perspective of the illegal immigrant.
A lot of people didn’t like Bush’s illegal immigration policies BEFORE he was even elected. The things you mentioned just added to the dislike.
Thanks for the informative post!
Could the attorney be a liberal Democrat because I've never heard of such crap!
This is just one lie after another.
Surely you don't live in TEXAS...and this is a Texas issue.
If the illegals ALL stayed in Texas then it would be strictly a Texas issue. Then I would say no problem, let TEXAS pay for them!
He wants boots on the ground instead of just a fence (we found out that a fence in the middle of nowhere stops nobody). Had we had boots on the ground or preditors in the air Robert Krantz might still be alive. You need a fence near a city but it's useless out in the desert. You might as well drop hundred dollor bills down the toilet.
Take away their jobs, anchor baby citizenship and government freebies and they won’t bother coming. This would do more to stem the flow of illegals than filling in tunnels, and putting up a fence or drones in air.
I agree totally. I understand the Texas thoughts because I was raised in Arizona. There were always illegals but they were a different type then what is coming in today. They were basically quite, they didn’t apply for or take freebies (except school) they paid their bills, they kept their homes better then we did, they kept their kids out of trouble. Whole different kind of people. They basically came and went across the border when there was seasonal work and nobody minded. What is coming today is from deeper in Mexico, they have nothing in common with us, for the most part they hate and resent us, and they want something for nothing.
I was there as well. All along the I-8 corridor. It is a different time.
Yep. Like W, Perry talks more conservative than he is and, like W, he’s more than just “soft” on illegal immigration. To both of them, illegals are the civil rights issue of our time.
Today, we went past a restaurant asking people to come celebrate Mexican Independence Day. I can’t post what I thought. ;)
I am NOT falling for that crap again!
Mexico is independent? Who knew?!
About as independent as a parasite attached to a host.
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