Free Republic

Over his eight years as Texas' farmer-in-chief, Perry oversaw a loan guarantee program with so many defaults that the state had to stop guaranteeing bank loans to startups in agribusiness and eventually bailed out the program with taxpayer money. The state auditor panned Perry's claims of creating jobs and criticized Perry and his fellow board members at the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority for not following their own lending guidelines. In some instances, the auditor said, Perry and the authority guaranteed loans to applicants with a negative net worth or too much debt. Citing growing debts, the auditor finally suggested that...

...Two schools of thought run through Republican circles. One holds that Romney is the logical nominee and will consolidate the party's somewhat grudging support after conservatives stop flirting with longshots such as Bachmann and Cain. Republicans have a history of nominating the runner-up from previous primaries, and Romney fits that bill. The competing theory holds that Americans are angrier at government and the two parties than political pros realize, and the tea party is just the start of a potent, long-lasting movement. Under this scenario, Romney can never placate conservative voters because of his establishment ties and the more liberal...

Gov. Rick Perry kept the focus on his economic plan when he addressed hundreds of influential Iowa Republicans on Friday night, skipping any discussion of the social issues that would appeal directly to religious conservatives who play a large role in the Iowa caucuses. snip Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum seized the opportunity to appeal to religious conservatives at the dinner. “We are a faith-filled people that believe in the moral enterprise that is America,” Santorum said. “We are not a party that just focuses on cutting tax rates.” Perry, in contrast, talked about reforming entitlement programs, erasing budget earmarks,...

Heads up all ye who want change from another Obama term in 2012. There’s only one man for that job: Rick Perry. Voters said so in Wisconsin. Perry topped Obama 46% to 42% in a Rasmussen poll. Should Obama run against Mitt Romney, Obama would win 45% to 41%. Should Obama run against Herman Cain, Obama would win 47% to 41%. The poll makes a case for Perry if Americans really want to see Obama out. The Rasmussen poll surveyed 500 Wisconsin voters by phone, not a sampling of voters nationwide. But the trendline is up for Perry and a...

“You can put a program into place in which these individuals can be identified, and work visas in which they can move back and forth between their countries but not to become United States citizens,” Perry said. “And I think that’s where McCain, that’s where Romney, that’s where even Bush went wrong when they talked about the issue that, ‘we’re going to give amnesty to these individuals,’ and people just said, ‘no, we’re not.’” Perry didn’t elaborate on what such a visa plan would look like, saying only that authorities need to determine a better way to identify illegal immigrants...

During an interview with CNN's John King on Thursday, the Texas governor said that expectations that U.S. authorities are going to arrest and deport up to 15 million undocumented immigrants isn't realistic.

Rick Perry says Texas is the most successful state in America. He's right. Texan economic output exceeds Mexico's and Australia's and rivals India's. Rick Perry has been governor of Texas for nearly 11 years. Does the logic of politics lead us to conclude that the governor of the nation's most successful state, ipso facto, is the best man to be president of the economically gasping United States? We are about to find out. Getting lost, however, among the governor's adventures in the lovely hamlets of New Hampshire is that Texas, with or without him, has a story the rest of...

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 3 -- The Texas Democratic Party issued the following news release: According to data released by the Health and Human Services Department in October, retired teachers and retired state employees in Texas have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the early retirement provision of the health care law. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas received $70,629,796 from the feds to offer health insurance to early retirees, and the Employees Retirement system of Texas received $30,175,627. These two state entities are among the top 25 beneficiaries of this provision of the health care law in the country. More...

After a week of gaffs from Gov. Rick Perry, his wife Anita is left picking up the pieces and playing damage control on the campaign trail to steer conversation to policy issues. “I’m really proud,” said the first lady of Texas at an American Spectator gala in Washington, D.C. “He put himself on the line and is withstanding the fire because of love of country.” Perry has been in the line of fire, rather, since Friday when allegations surfaced that he delivered a speech in New Hampshire while intoxicated. Though event hosts are defending Perry’s sobriety, his lucid speech was...

It starts with Rush's comments today: ===============RUSH: Folks... Folks, get this. The Washington Post story that I have been citing liberally here for the last ten to 15 minutes? There are two versions of that story. There is a story that appeared online yesterday and a second version where something has been omitted. I have here what has been omitted near the end of the story as it ran yesterday on the Washington Post website. Are you ready? (shuffling paper) Ahem. Ahem. This has been deleted: "Because the case is more than a dozen years old, Bennett," the woman's lawyer,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry says his campaign didn't provide the media with information about sexual harassment allegations against his GOP presidential rival Herman Cain. In an interview with the conservative blog RedState on Wednesday, Perry said he and his campaign learned about the allegations in a Politico story published Sunday.

Want a laugh? Go look at Drudge... Almost his entire Cain coverage can be summed up in one word: "backlash". The subject of that misfortune, appears to be in a word: Perry. Looks like Rick Perry picked a fight with Cain, and got one from everybody. :D Sweet.

Watching Rick Perry being interviewed on Hannity right now. He was speaking of his “Flat Tax” plan. Two times, I repeat, two times, he called IRS “Dependents” on the tax form “Independents”. Two friggin’ times. One time could be construed as a "slip" but two time makes me wonder how long it’s been since he's even filled-out a tax form. He also called Governor Romney, "Governor Rominey". As a Texan I'm embarrassed.

Bold tax reform is front and center this campaign season. First Herman Cain made waves and poll headway with his 9-9-9 tax plan, which involves national 9-percent taxes on personal and corporate income and a 9-percent national sales tax. Now Rick Perry has followed suit with a 20-percent flat-tax plan, and Newt Gingrich has gone 5 better, with a 15-percent flat proposal. And these ideas certainly haven't fallen flat: tax reform is immensely popular among the Republican base. Yet there has been criticism, too — at least of Cain's plan, the only one around long enough to be criticized. Many...

If you read between the lines of the various news reports about the Cain operation, the picture becomes clearer to me every day. The latest dust up about the sexual harassment of employees confirms it. Leading up to the sex scandal, we had the clues. Now I know it to be so, that Herman Cain is an ass, and he's reckless.The first clue came just after Cain placed poorly in the Iowa straw polls. We heard from disgruntled former Cain staffers: Jim Zeiler, the regional field director who was one of the five disgruntled staffers who left, explained his...

Over his 10 years in office, Rick Perry has picked more Texas Supreme Court justices than any other governor, and if he wins the White House, his choices could be a clue about what kind of justices he would nominate in Washington. While Perry has been praised even by his critics for bringing diversity to the state’s highest civil court, critics say the governor leaned heavily on conservative, business-friendly ideology and gave too little consideration to judicial qualifications. Texas high-court judges are elected, but the governor fills vacancies when sitting justices step down, so six of the nine current justices...

— Rick Perry gave an odd speech in New Hampshire. Then again, it was oddly Rick Perry. The video of his speech Friday to a conservative Christian group has gone viral — not as viral as Mark Block pitching his boss Herman Cain while smoking a cigarette, but then, Perry doesn’t smoke. The Perry video, however, has spawned similar amounts of interest. Perry begins the speech with a riff about how much he loves the motto of New Hampshire: “This is such a cool state, I mean, c’mon: Live Free or Die. You gotta love that, right?” Understand that this...

Texas Governor and GOP presidential contender Rick Perry is trying to turn his poor performances in recent debates into an asset with a new campaign ad in Iowa. The money line: "If you're looking for a slick politician or a guy with great teleprompter skills, we already have that and he's destroying our economy. I'm a doer not a talker." With that blistering yet incredibly accurate depiction of President Barack Obama, Mr. Perry may have found the perfect way to redeem himself with the party's first voters.

.....“Governor Perry has always released his tax returns and Mitt Romney and the other candidates should do the same.” If history is any indication, watch for Perry to push that theme hard, and for Romney to remain firm in his decision to keep his returns private. “We’ll take a look at the question of releasing tax returns during the next tax filing season,” says Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul about the Perry campaign’s request. By then, of course, the primary campaign could be effectively over. Perry communications director Ray Sullivan responds: “Governor Perry made a decision a long time ago in...