Hotline Blog: Recession? What Recession?

National Journal | Hotline Bog | September 21 2009

People are “buzzing” over Gov.Rick Perry’s (R) 9/17 “comments about the recession.”

Perry: “Why is Texas kind of recession proof, if you will? As a matter of fact … someone had put a report out that the first state that’s coming out of the recession is going to be the state of Texas … I said, ‘We’re in one?’” (Gravios, “PoliTex,” Ft. WorthStar Telegram, 9/18)..

Sen.Kay Bailey Hutchison’s (R) camp “accused” Perry of being “breathtakingly out of touch” for the statement, which came “the same week that the state’s unemployment hit its highest level in 22 years.” But a Perry spokesperson “countered” that his remarks “were taken out of context for political gain.”

Hutchison spokesperson Joe Pounder: “His statement is so breathtakingly out of touch that it speaks for itself.” Perry spokespersonMark Miner: “It’s unfortunate that Sen. Hutchison and her campaign are using a speech where quotes were taken out of context to score cheap political points. The governor, in all of his remarks, talks about how Texas is doing better than most states. His No. 1 priority is to create jobs in Texas” (Montgomery, Ft. WorthStar Telegram, 9/18).

Texas Monthly ed.Burka wrote, “This gaffe is going to stick. It is going to be national news. It will come back to haunt him. You cannot be callous and cavalier when people are losing their jobs and homes. … It could cost him the race” (Gravios, Ft. WorthStar Telegram, 9/18).

Mr. Perry Goes To Washington, Even Though He Hates It There

Perry, addressing the Value Voters Summit 9/19 “accused the federal government of promoting an irresponsible, immoral agenda and suggested Washington look to the Lone Star state for policy guidance.”

Perry said being is Washington is like entering “the belly of the beast,” using a “familiar theme from his” race against Hutchison.

Perry: “It’s unfortunate that many of the people who serve in this town ran for office as conservatives, then got to Washington and started spending and legislating like liberals.”

Perry “chided the ruling party for wasting tax dollars, intruding in citizens’ lives and pushing immoral policy, referencing a prohibition on foreign aid from going to clinics abroad that performed abortions,” which Pres.Obama overturned when he took office. Perry “wasn’t the headliner of the conference” but his “pro-states’ rights and pro-religion message” resonated with attendees, “many of whom frequently cried out ‘yes’ and interrupted him with standing ovations.”

A straw poll by the Family Research Council “floated” possible GOP presidential candidates. Perry “had been on the poll but asked to be removed, saying he has no WH aspirations” (Korn,Dallas Morning News, 9/20).

Perry also attacked Hutchison over the weekend, trying to “paint” her as “someone who has been away from Texas so long that she no longer understands her home state.”

Perry: “Although Sen. Hutchison has been in Washington for 15 years, I don’t think you can lay the blame completely at her feet.”

Asked “if he’d run against Washington even if he beats” Hutchison in the primary, Perry “responded with an emphatic nod.”

Perry: “I’m going to run against Washington until Washington changes” (Merchant,Wall Street Journal, 9/18).

A Two Front War

Houston Chronicle’s Powell writes, Hutchison “is harnessing the powers of incumbency in Congress to wage a two-front campaign” in DC and TX to defeat Perry. Hutchison “is using her” SEN post “to showcase conservative positions on high-profile state and national issues while using her” seniority “to shepherd bread-and-butter appropriations” to TX.

But “some analysts think Hutchison’s Capitol Hill-based campaign may have backfired.” Perry “has a knack for parlaying the powers of incumbency into appeal to potential supporters.” He has deployed Texas Rangers and National Guard troops “to bolster security along the border” and “has staged ceremonial bill signings across the state.”

Perry, “striking at one of Hutchison’s main claims to fame, told reporters in Washington” on 9/18 that the senator had “joined a long and distinguished list” of lawmakers from TX “who have been unable to get the federal government to send more money” to the state “than the federal government takes in from taxpayers.” Perry: “Texas gets shorted on a pretty regular basis by Washington, D.C. We’ve been grousing about that for a number of years.”

SMU prof.Cal Jillson: “I don’t think incumbency is working for Sen. Hutchison.”

Perry is successfully casting himself as being home in Texas working hard for the people of Texas and portraying her as being up there in Washington passing all these burdensome laws and taxes that Texans don’t want.”

Rice Univ. prof.Robert Steinsays many of GOP voters expected to cast ballots “are gripped by the same anti-Washington, anti-spending fervor that brought tens of thousands of conservative activists to the nation’s capital this month.”

Stein: “That sentiment makes it difficult for her to take credit back home for all the ‘good things’ that she’s bringing back to Texas. Her successes in Washington don’t resonate with Republican primary voters in Texas” (9/21).

Dallas Morning News’s Gillman writes, “Nearly half” the TX GOPers in Congress support Hutchison. “Perry doesn’t tout a single endorsement. Those staying neutral worry about betting on the wrong horse. Many are loath to pick one friend over another.”

Miner said Perry “hasn’t made much effort to court endorsements from Congress, and that makes sense. A blessing from Beltway insiders would undermine Perry’s argument that Hutchison has lost touch with Texas values during her time in Washington. Plus, he’s probably had trouble overcoming the goodwill she has built in 16 years of helping House colleagues fund pet projects, and on a host of issues.”

The Hutchison camp “includes nine of the 20″ TX GOPers in the House (9/20).

Austin American-Statesman’s Embry writes, Perry and Hutchison “aren’t doing a very good job of hiding their personal displeasure that the other is running for governor.” The race “would be heated no matter the personal relationship of the candidates.” Yet “it can’t help matters that, if you listen closely, it’s clear that Perry and Hutchison each feel that the other has no business running.”

Hutchison’s case “seems to be that she stepped aside for the good” of the GOP in ‘06 and “that it’s now her turn.” Perry, meanwhile, “seems to think the contested primary is bad” for the GOP but “seems to think it is solely Hutchison’s obligation to stop it, not his” (9/21).

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Hutchison was among those who “tossed darts” at Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her trip to Austin 9/19 to raise money for the DCCC.

Hutchison: “Nancy Pelosi is coming to the wrong place if she’s trying to drum up support for Obama’s government takeover of health care. The Texas grassroots movement in opposition to government run health care is unlike anything I’ve seen. The message is clear, ‘don’t mess with Texans’ health care.’ I urge Speaker Pelosi to listen to the people and stop pushing legislation through Congress that would have a disastrous effect on the quality of our health care and on the economy” (Selby, “Postcards,”Austin American-Statesman, 9/19).

Purse Boys

Ex-Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer, in his book Speechless, “gives an account of the day he suddenly found himself faces to face” with Hutchison in an elevator at the Capitol. He writes that “a friend got her shoe wedged in the door, delaying the elevator and visibly annoying Hutchison.”

Latimer: “”As the elevator proceeded downward, the senator turned to her J. Crew aides. They were ‘the purse boys.’ That was the nickname staffers gave them because their job seemed to consist of carrying Sen. Hutchison’s purse around Capitol Hill. They also were known to drive her from her house to work — a distance of approximately two blocks. They were basically taxpayer-subsidized butlers.”

Then “as one of the aides quietly held her large purse, she started to fish through it. Then she issued a list of instructions” which included taking her nail polish and makeup from the bag and putting it all in the refrigerator too.” The purse boy “nodded dutifully, and Latimer and his friend, feeling uncomfortable, let Hutchison pass when the elevator door opened.”

Latimer: “She did so regally, without a word to either of us, the purse boys following close behind. In those few minutes, my enthusiasm for KBH sunk to a previously unfathomable low.”

Hutchison’s camp “dismissed the account as untrue.”

Hutchison: “For the record, I have never put nail polish, nor makeup in the refrigerator. That is bizarre. Who does that?” (Slater, “Between The Lines,”Dallas Morning News, 9/19).

King Of The Hill

‘06 Ag. Commis nominee Hank Gilbert(D) “kicks off” his camp today “with a tour around the state.” Gilbert said his “priority is education” and said that today “he’ll outline a public school strategy that will call for scrapping the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.”

Gilbert “doesn’t hesitate to take shots at political rivals.” In ‘06 he called Perry “just one notch lower in stupidity” than ex-Pres.Bush. Gilbert: “I’m a no-bull kind of person. I’m not always politically correct in the way I say things or present things, but people who know me … understand that whatever I tell them, they can take it to the bank.”

Gilbert will face ex-Amb./ex-state Rep.Tom Schieffer(D) in the primary. Gilbert “has criticized Schieffer for his ties to Bush, who appointed Schieffer as U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia” and said that Schieffer’s “work overseas has made him out of touch” with TX (MacLaggan,Austin American-Statesman, 9/21).

Gilbert said he’s never watched “King of the Hill” but said “he’s used to jokes.”

Gilbert: “Every year my kids were in school, other kids would find out my name and call me ‘Hank the Cowdog.’” He was”referring to a children’s book.”

Gilbert: “So, the idea of ‘Hank the Governor’ doesn’t bother me a bit” (Kennedy, “PoliTex,” Ft. WorthStar Telegram, 9/20).