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March 14, 2007
Reality Check
Is Texas Governor Rick Perry living on Planet Earth? It's hard to tell these days, based on what's going on in Austin. After limping across the electoral finish line with 39% of the vote last November, Perry magnanimously declared he would be a "100% governor" in his new term. A 100% train-wreck, perhaps.
Since the election, and especially since the legislative session began, the Guv has managed to piss off just about everybody. He has drawn bipartisan ire over the Trans Texas Corridor, the Texas Youth Commission, the TXU fiasco, and skyrocketing utility rates. Perry has been a bicameral offender this session as well -- witness the smackdown he got from the House yesterday on the HPV vaccine, and today's 29-0 thumping from the Senate on the unfolding TYC disaster. We bet Rick is glad he's not around Austin this week (he's in Qatar.)
But even while out of town, Perry's presence can be felt around the Capitol. The Governor recently sat for an interview with Evan Smith of Texas Monthly, with the result so stunning the magazine simply couldn't wait five weeks to run it, and has posted it early online.
In talking to Smith, Perry comes across as so divorced from reality, we wonder if he's been spending the session in Crawford, rather than in Austin. The Guv ends the interview by touting his possible reelection plans in 2010. Right... Rick Perry, a legend in his own mind, and one we're stuck with for the next 4 years.
Posted by houtopia at March 14, 2007 05:07 PM