Is Kay Fiddling While Perry Tears It Up?

Editorial by James Aalan Bernsen - TexasRepublicNews.com

The polls have shown Hutchison running strong. But Perry’s got a head of steam and has seized the limelight. And he’s just staked his claim to a mad-as-hell constituency – just the kind that he needs for the primary to pull off the win.

First, a bit of full disclosure: In 2006, I served as Sen. Hutchison’s campaign press secretary. I have nothing but respect and admiration our state’s senior senator and think she would make a fabulous governor. I have also supported Gov. Perry in the past and don’t believe the line that you have to love one and hate the other. The only problem is that the governor’s mansion just isn’t big enough for the both of them.

Perry, say what you will of him, is a bold risk-taker. He doesn’t mind jumping in front of the wild steers and thinking he can rope and tame them. Sometimes it fails miserably: look at the Trans Texas Corridor. But Perry has a genius for reinventing himself, and now many of those very same people who defected to Carole Keeton Strayhorn or Kinky Friedman in 2006 are singing his praises.

When the Tea Party movement first began to simmer in February, Perry wasn’t the first on board by any means. But whether he was acting on principle or guessing which way the political winds would blow, he got religion when he vetoed the stimulus funds for unemployment insurance. Soon, he was endorsing Rep. Brandon Creighton’s HCR 50, a combative – if toothless – bill reaffirming Texas’ sovereignty under the 10th Amendment.

As the April 15 Tea Parties approached, Perry eagerly jumped on the bandwagon while most state officeholders stayed away. David Dewhurst timidly released a press release – somewhat like Louis XVI sending a meek statement of royal support for the French Revolution in its early days. But Perry recognized the Tea Party for what it really was: A conservative renaissance with both the power to bless the heads of political leaders – or to whop them off.

It was a risky call to be sure. Like all revolutions, it brings in elements of unpredictability. The calls of many in the Tea Party crowd of “secede” certainly expose Perry to concerns that he’s hanging out with a radical crowd. Perry didn’t dodge the calls, but seemed to egg them on, while providing just enough qualifications to have it both ways. 

The result is that Perry has seized the momentum and is on fire with a large section of the Republican Party base, not just in Texas, but nationally. And it will be the wing of the party most important in the primary. 2010 is a mid-term election. Among Republicans, there is no reason to expect that the wrath against the Obama administration’s massive power grab (in the eyes of Republicans) will diminish. The media may still worship the president, but Texas Republicans won’t and the Dallas Morning News editorial board isn’t voting in the GOP primary.

All this doesn’t mean that Hutchison is doing nothing. Far from it: she recently was successful in introducing an amendment into the 2010 budget to make the sales tax deductible from federal income taxes. That alone is worth all the stimulus checks Barack Obama could parachute into the Texas economy and will have a better positive effect over the long term than Perry’s unemployment insurance funds veto.

From a conservative policy standpoint, this is dynamite stuff. Laying out her case at a Houston furniture store on Wednesday, Hutchison also made some really positive comments about the tea parties. She was smart enough to recognize that the protests were not about taxes so much as spending. After all, George W. Bush cut all sorts of taxes – he just didn’t cut any of the growth of government in the process. 

But Kay, like Dewhurst, wasn’t there, and Perry was, in casual clothes and a ball cap, looking like he’d be just as comfortable drinking a Shiner bock at Gruene hall as he would be signing legislation. What Perry did was recognize the mood and latch onto it. Among populist Conservatives – as opposed to the country club crowd – this is red meat. Much as aging hippies define themselves by proudly saying that they were at Woodstock, Perry’s now got a certifiable right-wing tattoo on his bicep for all the conservative world to see.

None of this guarantees him victory, of course, and there’s still a long way to go. I’ve seen Hutchison campaign, and nobody outworks her once she gets going. But she’s not in campaign gear now and Perry is. It may be a case of the tortoise and the hare, but unless Perry falls asleep or fumbles the legislative session, he’s building powerful momentum among the conservative base that will decide the GOP primary.

Hutchison should take notice. 

James A. Bernsen is a former press secretary for Sen. Phil Gramm, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and House Speaker Tom Craddick. He is currently the editor of Texas Republic News, a conservative Internet news website that can be found at www.texasrepublicnews.com