Rick Perry’s bad, Obama-style medicine
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Governor Gardasil, R-Merck.
Beltway types are obsessing over GOP Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign trail comments about the Fed and Ben Bernanke.
I’m far less aggravated by Gov. Perry’s injudicious toss-off remarks than I am by his profoundly troubling, liberty-curtailing actions in office and his fresh batch of specious rationalizations for them. My syndicated column today dissects Perry’s recent, so-called “walk backs” of his odious Gardasil vaccine mandate for children. I’ve written and reported on vaccine bullies in the schools and on informed parental authority over vaccines previously. But as you’ll see from my column below, Perry defenders who dismiss critics as “single-issue” activists are willfully blind to the Gardasil disgrace’s multiple layers of rottenness. Related must-reads on Perry and Gardasil: Tom Bevan, Rhymes with Right, and BA Cyclone at RedState. (See also this flashback on Hillary, Merck money, and Gardasil.)
While Perry and his campaign staff have now paid lip service to making a “mistake” in shoving the executive order down families’ throats, they remain defiant in defending the decree and Perry’s zealous, big government overreaching. From the latest story on Perry’s “reversal” in the Washington Post: “Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner dismissed the criticism. Governor Perry has always stood on the side of protecting life, and that is what this issue was about…”
Oh, no it wasn’t. Please read this, get informed, pass it on, and make sure that you don’t fall for a purported cure to our political ills that’s worse than the power-grabbing disease in the current White House.
As for the ridiculous idea that scrutinizing Perry’s much-bragged-out gubernatorial record is tantamount to “smearing” him, toughen up, buttercups. This is just the beginning of 2012 campaign heat. Limited government activists already know Perry’s ready, willing, and able to dish it out against them. If Perry can’t take it from supposed allies and friends on his own side of the aisle, why should he be trusted as the GOP contender against our Democratic enemies?
Update: Document dump from Politico’s Ben Smith and Byron Tau on the internal e-mails in Perry’s office regarding the HPV decision. Their takeaway from the 700-page dump seems to be that Perry was largely absent from the internal discussions and that the e-mails do not leave a record of Merck meddling. I’ll go through the records and add anything significant here. But 1) Much of the schmoozing and lobbying on such matters takes place outside of the e-mail sphere and 2) Perry wouldn’t need to be involved in the implementation details once he made up his mind to move forward and attempt to ram the mandate down people’s throats.
Point 3) Smith writes: “Perry seems to have been vindicated on the question of whether he rushed into a policy other states would never embrace: The National Council of State Legislatures reports that 20 states now have some legislation regarding the vaccine.” I’m not sure who argued that “states would never embrace” the policy. The whole reason to be concerned about Perry taking the lead in the first place is because in so many key areas (e.g., adopting school textbooks, etc), as Texas goes, so goes the rest of the country.
***
Rick Perry’s bad, Obama-style medicine
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011
Texas, we have a problem. Your GOP governor is running for president against Barack Obama. Yet, one of his most infamous acts as executive of the nation’s second-largest state smacks of every worst habit of the Obama administration. And his newly crafted rationalizations for the atrocious decision are positively Clintonesque.
In February 2007, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed a shocking executive order forcing every sixth-grade girl to submit to a three-jab regimen of the Gardasil vaccine. He also forced state health officials to make the vaccine available “free” to girls ages 9 to 18. The drug, promoted by manufacturer Merck as an effective shield against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) and genital warts, as well as cervical cancer, had only been approved by the Food and Drug Administration eight months prior to Perry’s edict.
Gardasil’s wear-off time and long-term side effects have yet to be determined. “Serious questions” remain about its “overall effectiveness,” according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Even the chair of the federal panel that recommended Gardasil for children opposes mandating it as a condition of school enrollment. Young girls and boys are simply not at an increased risk of contracting HPV in the classroom the way they are at risk of contracting measles or other school-age communicable diseases.
Perry defenders pointed to a bogus “opt-out” provision in his mandate “to protect the right of parents to be the final authority on their children’s health care.” But requiring parents to seek the government’s permission to keep an untested drug out of their kids’ veins is a plain usurpation of their authority. Translation: Ask your bureaucratic overlord to determine if a Gardasil waiver is right for you.
Libertarians and social conservatives alike slammed Perry’s reckless disregard for parental rights and individual liberty. The Republican-dominated legislature also balked. In May 2007, both chambers passed bills overturning the governor’s unilaterally imposed health order.
Fast-forward five years. After announcing his 2012 presidential bid this weekend, Perry now admits he “didn’t do my research well enough” on the Gardasil vaccine before stuffing his bad medicine down Texans’ throats. On Monday, he added: “That particular issue is one that I readily stand up and say I made a mistake on. I listened to the legislature … and I agreed with their decision.”
Perry downplayed his underhanded maneuver as an aberrational “error,” and then — gobsmackingly — he spun the debacle as a display of his great character: “One of the things I do pride myself on, I listen. When the electorate says, ‘Hey, that’s not what we want to do,’ we backed up, took a look at what we did.”
Are these non-apology apologies enough to quell the concerns of voters looking for a presidential candidate who will provide a clear, unmistakable contrast to Barack Obama? Not by a long shot.
How Obama-like was this scandal? Let us count the ways:
Trampling the deliberative process. Since Day One, President Obama has short-circuited transparency, public debate and congressional oversight. How can Perry effectively challenge the White House’s czar fetish, stealth recess appointments, selective waiver-mania and backdoor legislating through administrative orders when Perry himself employed the very same process as governor?
Not only did Perry defend going above the heads of elected state legislators, but his office also falsely claimed the legislature had no right to repeal the executive order. “The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it,” Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody told The Washington Post in February 2007.
When both the House and Senate repealed the law six weeks later, Perry did not — as he now claims — listen humbly or “agree with their decision.”
Human shield demagoguery. In response to the legislature’s rebuke, the infuriated governor attacked those who supported repeal as “shameful” spreaders of “misinformation” who were putting “women’s lives” at risk. Borrowing a tried-and-true Alinskyite page from the progressive left, Perry surrounded himself with female cervical cancer victims and deflected criticism of his imperial tactics with emotional anecdotes.
He then lionized himself and the minority of politicians who voted against repeal of his Gardasil order. “They will never have to think twice about whether they did the right thing. No lost lives will occupy the confines of their conscience, sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.” Perry, of course, has now put his own ghastly Gardasil order on that same altar — but with no apology to all those he demonized and exploited along the way.
Cronyism. Most noxious of all, Perry wraps his big government health mandate in the “pro-life” mantle. But the do-gooder theater is a distraction from the business-as-usual back-scratching and astro-turfing that are Obama hallmarks. Perry’s former chief of staff Mike Toomey is a top Merck lobbyist. Toomey’s mother-in-law CORRECTION his current chief-of-staff’s mother-in-law headed a Merck-funded front group pushing vaccination mandates. Merck’s political action committee pitched in $6,000 to Perry’s re-election campaign in 2007 and Merck discussed the vaccine with Perry staff on the day they donated.
The PerryCare executive fiat was not simply a one-off mistake explained away by lack of “research.” It exposed a fundamental lapse in both political and policy judgments, an appalling lack of ethics and a disturbing willingness to smear principled defenders of limited government who object to the Nanny State using their children as guinea pigs.
Trusting Rick Perry’s tea party credentials is a perilous shot in the dark.
***
I’m going to keep a running list of all the lame defense of Perry. They’re already starting to come in on Twitter:
1) “Spend more time attacking Obama instead of tearing down conservative electable candidates.”
Er, I wrote the book on Obama’s Culture of Corruption. And I just dissected how UN-conservative Perry’s instincts, judgment, and response to the Gardasil debacle have been. Hello?
2) “It never happened and he owned [up to it] that [he] never should have done it.”
Only he didn’t fully own up to it, his staff continues to defend the mandate as a principled pro-life cause, and it DID happen — only to be overturned, thank God, by both chambers of the state legislature.
3) “Don’t be such a purist.”
Really? We’re back to the McCain 2008 defense? The Tea Party movement was born out of disgust with the pollutionists in the GOP who ushered in the era of endless bailouts and failed to cut government. It’s the sheeple mentality to fall in line behind any hack with an “R” by his name and remain silent about his Nanny State proclivities.
4) “What do you want? Perfection?”
It’s not about looking for “perfection.” It’s about comparing rhetoric vs. record.
And it’s not just about one “mistake” or one issue, my friends. It’s about instincts, judgment, core values, and trust.
***
More background on Merck meddling and Perry’s executive order habit:
Merck is backing an organization of female legislators from around the country to promote the vaccinations. In Texas, the four directors listed on that group’s website are Reps. Alma Allen and Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston; Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple; and Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio….
Merck’s Texas lobsters are Mike Toomey, Lara Laneri Keel, and Holly duBois Jacques. Toomey’s getting the most attention, because he’s Perry’s former chief of staff, but if you go by the money, Jacques leads the team. Merck pays her $100,000-$149,999, according to the Texas Ethics Commission; Toomey and Keel (who are colleagues) reported income of $25,000-$49,999 from Merck. GlaxoSmithKline, which isn’t in the game yet, has 10 lobbyists registered in Texas.
After a few days of this, lawyerly folks began asking questions about just what authority Perry has here. Former state District Judge F. Scott McCown wrote that Perry is stretching his leash, and Nelson, joined by Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, has asked Attorney General Greg Abbott for his official opinion on the subject. Perry’s HPV diktat is his 65th as governor.
***
Flashback Erick Erickson at RedState 2007:
I think a responsible parent might want to get the vaccine for their daughter. But I don’t think it is sound public policy to be forcing the profit stream of a pharmaceutical company onto an unwilling public when the company has a monopoly on the drug and seems clearly to be behind the efforts to get these laws passed.
Lastly, the drug just came out. Do we really want to forcibly treat school girls as guinea pigs for Merck when the majority of them probably will never even need the vaccine or get the disease the vaccine hopes to prevent? And Merck does not even know if booster shots will be needed later in life. The drug is that new. In fact, it hasn’t even been fully tested on children and doesn’t wipe out all strains of HPV, and the risk of pelvic disease has doubled in those who have had the vaccine. Oh, and boys aren’t getting the vaccine despite the fact that they also can contract the virus.
This gives me the creeps. With the 100th anniversary of eugenics being remembered in the country, it just gives me the creeps that we might be forcing teenagers to serve as guinea pigs for a new drug held monopolistically by Merck that probably is not needed for most of them — but we’re doing it for the children.
Sure, it sounds good. It sounds like an excellent idea. But the lobbying by Merck behind the proposal and the fact that the drug is so new and prevents a virus that is not nearly as communicably infectious as standard mandatory vaccines gives me pause. No doubt we might all decide that this is sound public policy. But why rush into with the lobbyists pushing for it when we can, right now, educate parents and let them decide.
***
Dan Riehl: “Slick, grip and grin” isn’t enough to quell concerns.
Jennifer Rubin on the Perry/Gardasil document dump’s insignificance:
“…the notion that this was a blip on Perry’s radar screen is belied by his defense of the policy over a period of years.
It seems that Perry at least owes the voters a fuller explanation for his abrupt change of heart. When did he realize his decision was a mistake? And to be specific, was the decision itself faulty, or was the error in using an executive order to accomplish his aim? Or was it in not eliminating a potential conflict of interest (for example, by returning a campaign donation from the Merck lobbyist who pushed for the vaccination program)? There could be very good answers to these queries; we just don’t know what they are yet.”
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Long ago I said Tulsa was the liberal part of the State… you’re proving me right with your obsessive rhetoric.
The CA primary IS IRRELEVANT and has nothing to do with the topic of this article.
Now, you keep citing where Phil was wrong, but you’ve yet to prove that he was lying.
No wonder is misogynistic, he carries wood for Phil.
No, I’m just tired of having the conversation interrupted by your childish haranguing.
I guess love is blind and you can’t read Hiraghm.
OH, I get it now… ILoveMyCountry took over OK_L’s account.
Darned hacker…
What part of your dumbass doesn’t get, that the CA primary voted in Super Tuesday so there was no way that Phil candidates could of already been chosen for him as he claimed ?
What other part of your dumbass doesn’t get, CA just voted in an open primary in 2010 in which he claimed a) vindicated him of the 1st lie b) was what taint is CA 2008 as well.
A little jizz and you go cockeyed!
MM,
It’s becoming pretty clear that a couple or three people here need a timeout.
The comments have gotten out of hand.
Yoda
If they are mine, have the bells to say so….
You need a vacation…..suggest you take one.
I’ll put you down for conservatives that are alright with liars.
This blog is supposed to be about ideas, information and some humor sprinkled in……..
What you provide amounts to attacks and name-calling to others. As conservatives, we surely get enough of that from our pos Pres and the LSM.
Time for you to clean up your act, stop the vitriol, act your age and provide decent, but RESPECTFUL commentary.
I really give a rat’s a$$ what you put me down as on your ledger.
Liar sympathizer … it figures !
OOOOoooo Miss Manors is here ….
May be a good time to end this thread…
And again maybe not …
Wow. Chuck Devore, one of California’s favorite conservatives (I like him, too!), defending Perry? Now that’s news. I’ve always felt that most of the people who hated the TTC (other than on cost grounds) didn’t live in S. or Central Texas and have to drive I-35. But the original project was far too ambitious, unwieldy, and expensive. A 4-lane expressway would go a long way toward relieving the pressure on I-35 without a lot of the negatives of TTC, especially the cost.
So? I voted for Perot in 1992, but that doesn’t count for jack to the self-appointed guardians here against voting for the LOTE.
Since 1996 Michelle voted Bush, Bush, McCain, and she didn’t like having to pull the lever any of those times. She chose the LOTE, since the Democrat candidates were so unbelievably awful.
She’s a ‘noseholder.’ She is sane.
If the race is close on election day in 2012, she’ll vote to defeat Obama …. unless she has lost her marbles.
Look bro … any more LOTE crap and I’m totally going Megan McCain
We have vaccine intimidators here in Colorado also. But when the patronizing lecture doesn’t work, they resort to other less obvious methods.
After the FOURTH time I was called by a school nurse from one of Colorado Springs best schools, about resigning an immunization waver for the third time, I handed her a letter requesting any futher contact regarding immunizations be in writing.
My letter also stated that our decision to avoid certain immunizations was a personal and private one, made by educated people in consultation with our family physician. Then the letter cited the Colorado law regarding immunization waivers and wished her a pleasant day.
You would think that was an isolated incident, but the very next year, a similar thing happened during summer camp!
You sure?
The primaries are the appropriate time to beat the crap out of all of the candidates, to see which ones can take it. I think that after people do some digging, they’ll find Rick Perry to be the Bill Clinton of the right – an “any way the wind blows” skirt-chasing with piles of hillbilly-class corruption dogging his record (not a knock on Texas; I grew up there – but you know how “good ‘ol boy” political back-scratching goes).
I wondered about that too. I don’t remember her yammering incessantly that all of us little people needed to, either.
I agree, a thorough looksee is needed on the candidates. John Edwards had his fans, but even they must be mighty redfaced right about now.
If Perry or any other candidate is such a hothouse orchid that they whine about being held up for scrutiny, they obviously don’t make the cut.
That would require Democrats to have some shame…
I’m starting to warm up to Flyover’s idea. I’m just wishing there was someone who would start pushing it, nationally.
There was a lot of chatter on talk radio yesterday about whether Perry was establishment R or not. This shows me that the establishment knows they are distrusted by the base, and they are having to put more effort into trickery to keep the conservatives in line.
The time is ripe to force them to show their hand: Either get with the conservatives, or go away.
Wonder how many of his pop job numbers are pumped with quasi-illegal aliens instead of born black Americans. All I hear on this are crickets.
James Greenidge
I thank Michelle for publicizing Rick Perry’s record. We all need to thoroughly examine each one of the Presidential candidates before casting an informed vote.
Please learn more about Rick Perry’s support of the NAFTA superhighway here: http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=42209; his connections to China here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LFRDvkNz0U; and his illegal immigration policies here: http://news.yahoo.com/far-questions-rick-perry-immigration-191149873.html.
Yes. Black patent leather–to match the sheen of the slip.
that’s a good one, Rogue. I’ll have to remember ‘hootery’.
For the first time since I’ve followed MM I disagree with this broadside delivered against Perry. Admittedly I am not knowledgeable of this issue, yet I think it’s an issue he apologized for and it is out of proportion to the most good done for the most people in TX under his leadership. When has Obama apologized for his health care bill or for any of the massive corruption?I am very conservative and want government out of our lives yet I want someone who can create jobs and also get elected.No one hits every time at bat and all of our criticism should be directed at the people destroying the whole nation.The worst candidate we come up with will be heads and shoulder above the communists in power now.The search for perfection is going to keep us from getting a really good candidate.
If you haven’t seen her on Fox and Friends this morning, Michelle gave an excellent interview and review of her column. Not sure if Eric Bolling was playing devil’s advocate, but glad he asked a couple questions which was turned around to focus on Perry’s record and limited government…
Fox and Friends August 18th, 2011
(credit YouTube uploader: WebsurferguyMN)
A great video review. Watch and listen carefully.
Not for nothing OK, but you’re starting to sound like Ilovemychunkymunky’s parasitic twin.
A tired argument. Start with early comments on this and other threads and read the rebuttals and discussions.
Is this field of candidates as good as it gets anymore?
I find myself hoping that BO finds a challenger in the Democratic primary who unseats him. Right now, the only reason I’m casing my vote for president in 2012 is to boot him out of office.
Yup, that’s the question I’m curious about, too: “What percentage of those counted as employed are illegals?”
Hey marco, the point of Michelle’s column is the necessary vetting of every Republican during the primaries. She already wrote a book called Culture of Corruption which detailed Obama and his friends. The entire country has endured 2-1/2 years of Obama and fully understand his destructive policies. If you have actually been following her blog for any length of time, Michelle points them out every day. Rick Perry, like every other candidate, will be vetted on their record. Please use the time to rebuke her remarks with facts. Blind support of a candidate is destructive. I find Perry’s dictate ordering little girls to take vaccines extremely troubling and unlawful. The TX legislature was locked out of any discussion or debate. Did you think that was ok? Was it ok for members of his staff to lobby for Merck, which had the only patent on the drug? Did you read her column? Michelle never said she is looking for the perfect candidate. We have the right to ask tough questions. Obama has been making unbelievable policies from his office without Congressional oversight. Look at what that has done to our economy and social structure. Perry’s similar dictate is troubling.
Michelle,
Watched your Fox interview. That’s about as well as can be done. Marvelous job!
I’m thinking Hillary could take him down this time. But since she’s leaving SOS at the end of this term, I suspect it’s more likely she would replace Biden on the ticket.
Yeah, but it’s just so much easier to jump in late and rage at strawmen.
And you’re starting to sound like someone who holds liars and bigots in high regards.
Tilt at windmills much? You must be Don Quixote and ILMC is your squire Sancho Panza.
Yep, this Perry guy is an idiot:
“In another statement of impressive audacity, he recently called for Obama to “put a moratorium on regulations across this country” that are “killing jobs all across America”.
Eliminating “all regulations” would, of course, put an end to, among other things, the safety testing of food and drugs, government oversight of transportation and even the ban of medical experiments on animal-human hybrids! A Perry regulation moratorium would add an element of risk to going to the grocery store, getting on a plane, even stepping out of the house”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/18/rick-perry-presidency
No wonder he’s a republican from Texas
His recod on illegal immigration is a “job” killer for me. That and his push for the TransNational corridor…He is another globalist and that we do NOT need!
and just like that….
His relationship with islamists linked to terrorism needs further clarification as well.
I’m still leery about Perry at the moment, and my support still goes to Bachmann and Cain.
Bachmann/Cain, Cain/Bachmann in 2012. Either works for me.
The great thing about you “purists”, you’re gonna get Obama re-elected in 2012.
You’re gonna follow the example of my liberal “purists” friends, who pulled the lever for Ralph freaking Nader in 2004, and gave us 4 more years of Bush. Some of them were teary eyed and shocked to see how the Nader votes threw the election. Too late, “purists” too late.
Now I’m on the other side of the issue, and can’t wait to see some Tea Party extremist either bully their way to the GOP nomination, or run 3rd party.
Politics…
On August 18th, 2011 at 11:18 am, Ilovemyprivatehell said:
It must be hellish waking up every afternoon knowing you are a functional illiterate that faces a beating at least twice a day just for existing.
The Philvill dictionary:
Noseholder: N [Nōzʹ- hōldәr] Pejorative
Anyone who hated McClown’s guts but voted for him to prevent the present nightmare – on the correct assumption that the McCrud nightmare would be less damaging to the nation and our children’s future.
By Phil the pill’s definition Michelle and Doug are noseholders – and by extension, RINO’s. Unless he will explain why not. He won’t.
On August 18th, 2011 at 12:41 pm, Oingo Boffo said:
Yep, politics — a Cup O’Soup could run against the Sock Puppet and win, and this is only 2011. By 2012, Barky could run against himself and still loose to someone else.
This Perry guy just keeps getting better:
Texas “added 125,000 public sector jobs — nearly half of all government jobs created in this period nationwide”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/08/chart-of-the-day-government-jobs-led-to-perrys-economic-boom.php
Hey Ota, why you hiding out here, the party’s over man.
Someone is following you. They are watching you now. They are evil. Run for it!
Maybe you should have someone who can read look up the word “moratorium” for you – and for the Brit who wrote the comment to which you refer. Hint: It doesn’t mean rescission.
LOL. I’m a busy man. My appearances here have become rare, but that’s the way it is for a while.
To paraphrase from Aldus Snow’s dad:
“Some people have to work for a living.”
“moratorium”
Isn’t that an auditorium… only more so?
What do they call it when they only show silent movies?
I can guarantee you that hardly any of the workers at the new Caterpillar plant or the new Toyota Tacoma line are government workers. Same goes for the workers on the Eagle Ford and the Barnett Shale, both of which have expanded rapidly during the past few years. Sure, Texas has lost some jobs over the course of the Obama Administration. We’re not immune to national policy blunders by idiot Marxists. But compare our situation with that of your socialist utopian states with their double-digit unemployment.
Forget experience vis a vis Sarah Palin. To say she hasn’t offered favors to cronies is OBVIOUS crap. Look at what she did for John McLame AFTER he screwed her backside after the election he could have run away with had he just kept his mouth shut and not done anything stupid. That’s cronyism at its worst, and kissing McLame’s buttocks is quite a far cry from “shunning lobbyists”, to be sure.
Sarah Palin will not get the nomination. If she does, watch her lose in a landslide. Obama’s lies will be more than enough to put her away quickly and handily. People aren’t going to believe she’s conservative after with the way she kisses up to Meester Juan.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Not a popularity contest?
If you really believed that, you would vote as I do.
Instead, you just go there and accept the peanut butter and jelly when what you ordered was a cheesesteak … meanwhile you are stuck paying for both the PBJ and the cheesesteak.
Vote that way if you wish. I will not resort to your tactic of demonization and negativity beyond proving your foolishness time and again. I don’t begrudge your LOTE vote, even though it is the single worst thing you can do if you truly believe that electing a conservative is more important than election a Republican. You are the one holding up the revolution. You are the one causing the status quo to continue, whether under the Democrat or Republican regime. You are the one advocating keeping the real conservatives out because you fail to demand that your party provide an appropriate candidate in any way that has teeth. To the Republican establishment, you are just a big mouth kid sitting in the back of the room playing class clown. They will have your vote regardless of what they do, so your position doesn’t matter to them any more than it does to the Democrats.
Take away these guaranteed votes, and there is a chance that the Republicans will become conservative. Not a big chance, but a chance nonetheless. No Republican (or Democrat, for that matter) should be able to count on your vote before Election Day – EVER. Your voice means nothing to the Republican Party, because they know they have your vote in the bag. They don’t have to actually DO anything to get your vote. They could offer Adolf Hitler on the basis that he’s not Barack Obama, and you’d just flip the flippin’ lever just to get Obama out.
Get someone who truly respects the Constitution, and THEN we can talk about my vote.
In the meantime, I don’t see a candidate I’m at all impressed with. Not Palin, not Bachmann, not Cain, not Perry, not Romney. Since your vote is guaranteed, they will be listening more to me, IF they care to win. They don’t have to do anything for you at all. I am a Tea Party Federalist, and I am registered to vote in my irrelevant Republican primary. You are the Republican Party “base”. You mean nothing to them.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I am indeed a single-issue conservative, and proud of it.
My issue is the Constitution.
This issue SHOULD be the one issue we all rally around, but like good Democrats, people are allowing those who are supposed to follow lead them around on leashes.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Bring it on.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
the difference, Ota, is that in this case the Tea Partiers are the mainstream philosophically, and the noseholders are the minority, philosophically. The exact opposite of the Nader situation.
Ota is either Roland’s sock-puppet, or a satire troll like ILMC.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Man, what a bunch of babies.
Perry creates all of these government jobs in Texas and you guys get bent out of shape.
It’s a simple fact ladies – toughen up and deal with it.
GAWD you’re a moron. A moratorium on regulations means no more issuing NEW regulations, not ceasing to enforce existing ones.
You ought to spend some time there. Someone might finally 2×4 some sense into you.
It might be your only hope, though it’s probably too late in your case.
Right. Do the work of the evil left for them. Yup – we’ll win big THAT way!