Free Republic

Republican starlets Rick Perry and Sarah Palin are both known for their personalities, love of guns, sexiness, and moments of TV humiliation, but only one of them is doing something to avoid forever being labelled an idiot. After his intellectual humiliation during the last presidential election cycle — during which he was unable to remember his own policy points — Perry is becoming considerably more wonkish than we’ve previously known him, fashioning himself as something of an elder statesman, in stark contrast to Palin. The Texas governor, a pair of smart-person glasses now permanently attached to his face, has been...

Same schmuck who just declared war on the Tea Party...  I was actually considering Perry a second-tier maybe for 2016, hard to argue with his economic record. But when he comes out and endorses Mitch McConnell vs. a viable Tea Party challenger (when there was no reason for him to weigh-in in the first place) it becomes clear enough to me that Rick Perry is not the man to reliably bring this country anything resembling a Reagan Revolution. He plays a good conservative when campaigning, and would most certainly portray himself as one again in 2016- but this time the stink won't...

MURRAY, Ky. (AP) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry threw his support behind U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell on Saturday, telling 300 fellow Republicans that the minority leader will win re-election. McConnell finds himself in a GOP primary fight with wealthy businessman Matt Bevin, who attended the event but wasn’t allowed to speak.

MURRAY, Ky. (AP) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry threw his support behind U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell on Saturday, telling 300 fellow Republicans that the minority leader will win re-election. McConnell finds himself in a GOP primary fight with wealthy businessman Matt Bevin, who attended the event but wasn’t allowed to speak. “I love the number six,” Perry told the crowd at the Lincoln Reagan Dinner of West Kentucky. “Sam Houston was 6 foot 6 inches tall. And Mitch McConnell is going to be in his sixth term as United States senator.” Organizers said the dinner was supposed to unite the...

If Rick Perry were to seek a quieter life after leaving office next January, none of his longtime aides and admirers would blame him.Already a grandfather, the longest-serving governor in Texas history will by then have capped off three full decades in public office and will be just a couple of months shy of his 65th birthday.There are weekend tailgates at Aggies games and hunting trips to attend, there’s big-time money to be made in a cushy private-sector job, and an opportunity to kick up his boots a little for the first time in his adult life.But as the end...

Greeted by a handful of audible boos and jeers, Rick Perry was able to win over the audience when he took the stage during Jimmy Kimmel’s visit to Austin on Tuesday night. ...snip... Kimmel later asked Perry about a reported story that he shot a coyote while jogging, which the governor confirmed. “You jog with a gun?” Kimmel asked. “I do interviews with a gun,” Perry slickly quipped.

Democratic strategist James Carville predicted the next GOP presidential nominee will come from Texas. "It's either going to be Ted Cruz or Rick Perry," Carville said Monday on Fox News Channel's "Hannity." Cruz is a freshman senator from Texas and a tea party favorite, and Perry is serving out his last term as Texas governor. Perry ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 but came up short after a few fumbles on the campaign trail. But Perry has advantages, Carville said. "He's been around the track once, and he can raise a bucketload of money," Carville said of Perry....

(Texas governor Rick Perry at CPAC) Perry took jabs at targets including New York, California, and the Department of Education, noting that common-sense governance has been absent not only from blue states but from Washington, D.C. “It’s time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” the Texas governor said, paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson. “We don’t have to accept recent history — we just need to change the presidency,” Perry continued. “We must elect the right kind of leaders to represent us to Washington.”

Touting the contrast between red states and blue states, Rick Perry kicked off the second day of CPAC by spiritedly urging his audience to help bring back those successful conservative policies that have been absent in Washington for the last several years. “It’s time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” the Texas governor said, paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson. “We don’t have to accept recent history — we just need to change the presidency,” Perry continued. “We must elect the right kind of leaders to represent us to Washington.”

“With all due respect, Texas is crushing it,” says Texas Gov.Rick Perry. When it comes to attracting new business projects to the state, that’s true, according to a survey conducted by the real estate magazine Site Selection. For the second year in a row, the Lone Star State’s governor won the magazine’s Governor’s Cup for luring more commercial projects than any other. Other states with the most total commercial projects in 2013 were Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan. But the ranking changes when you look at the largest number of projects per capita. Using this methodology, Nebraska came in first,...

RUSH: I guess the top story in the soap story line of the hour and around the world is whether the Drive-By Media and the rest of the political and cultural establishment will be able to bully the Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, into vetoing the Arizona legislature's bill which would allow businesses to refuse service to homosexuals based on the business owner's religious beliefs. Like if a gay couple walk into a bake shop and say, "We want you to bake our wedding cake," and the shop owners, "Well, you're homosexual. I'm not going to do it." They want to...

The Talk Shows February 23rd, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Govs. Scott Walker, R-Wis., and Peter Shumlin, D-Vt.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): National Security Adviser Susan Rice.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Martin O'Malley, D-Md.THIS WEEK (ABC): Former President George W. Bush.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Govs. Rick Perry, R-Texas, Mike Pence, R-Ind., Dannel Malloy, D-Conn., Jay Nixon D-Mo.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Dallas, Texas (CNN) -- In the afterglow of Chris Christie's smashing re-election win last November, a chorus of big-name Republicans heralded the charismatic New Jersey governor as the party's savior in 2016. Not everyone was so enamored. Just days after the election, Texas Gov. Rick Perry appeared on national television and poured cold water on Christie's impressive victory. "He was a successful governor in New Jersey," Perry said on ABC's "This Week." "Now does that transcend to the country? We'll see in later years and months to come. We're all different states. Is a conservative in New Jersey a conservative...

SAN ANTONIO — Texas Gov. Rick Perry signaled Thursday that he's for the decriminalization of marijuana use — not legalization, but the softening of punishment for marijuana users in the border state. “As governor, I have begun to implement policies that start us toward a decriminalization” by introducing alternative “drug courts” that provide treatment and softer penalties for minor offenses, Perry said during an international panel on drug legalization at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. His spokesman confirmed that Perry is staunchly opposed to legalization of marijuana because of the dangers that have been associated with the drug,...

Sean Hannity tells his audience he is leaving New York state after Cuomo’s comments. Sean said he discussed it with his wife and they are moving to Texas or Florida. “Look, I have contractual obligations, I can’t leave here. My kids are in school. And there are about over 100 people who that rely on me. People who have kids and mortgages and homes. I can’t selfishly pack up and leave. But my wife and I discussed last night Dana that we are going to leave. I wouldn’t pay a 10% state tax in Florida or Texas. I would save...

On Saturday’s Melissa Harris-Perry show, MSNBC host Harris-Perry made an over the top analogy about the liberal fight against laws restricting abortion as she invoked the art of judo and asked if the political effort was similar to a woman physically fighting off an attacker. Speaking to Nancy Northrup from the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights, Harris-Perry posed: So, Nancy, self-defense teaches women, “Get on the ground, kick with your legs, don’t try to go right,” you know, “don’t try to go arm to arm because that’s not necessarily where the strength is.” Is this what this new strategy is?...

The delays, deceit and debacles that marked Obamacare’s rollout in 2013 show no signs of slowing in the new year. People all across the country have witnessed what a disaster this program has been from its earliest stages, ranging from the $600 million website debacle to the sad fact that President Barack Obama flat-out deceived the American people when he promised that those who like their coverage could keep it. To stem the bleeding, the administration is resorting to arbitrary delays for some Obamacare mandates, which only inject more confusion into the marketplace and with consumers.

Dr. Diane Harper was a leading expert responsible for the Phase II and Phase III safety and effectiveness studies which secured the approval of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines, Gardasil™ and Cervarix™. Dr. Harper also authored many of the published, scholarly papers about the vaccines. She is now the latest in a long string of experts who are pressing the red alert button on the devastating consequences and irrelevancy of these vaccines. Dr. Harper made her surprising confession at the 4th International Converence on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia. Her speech, which was originally intended to promote...

In a recent interview with Marie Claire Magazine, pop star Katy Perry, a former contemporary Christian artist, announced that she no longer believes in Heaven or Hell nor professes to be a Christian. “I don’t believe in a Heaven or a Hell, or an old man sitting on a throne,” she advised the magazine. “I believe in a higher power bigger than me because that keeps me accountable. Accountability is rare to find, especially with people like myself, because nobody wants to tell you something you don’t want to hear.” “I’m not Buddhist, I’m not Hindu, I’m not Christian, but...

Joe Perry, lead guitarist for the rock band Aerosmith, which is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and who with front-man Steven Tyler is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, tweeted a defense of the Duck Dynasty controversy concerning anti-gay behavior saying, “More crackin’ down on Freedom of Speech in the US or what?” In a follow-up tweet, Perry said, “Seems to me people have a right to express their opinions & religious beliefs. But that doesn’t mean we have to agree.”