There were, of course, problems. Detroit caught fire in July 1967 in race riots and Governor Romney asked for federal troops. Most of the racist white southerners that had come north to work the factories instead of the fields in the south had managed to set themselves up in segregated communities, regardless of their incomes. The high school I attended, Grand Blanc, between Flint and Detroit, was still all white in 1969. Dr. King’s message was rattling around unheard in the tin ears in much of America.

Governor Romney’s son Mitt was at least partially insulated from the times by his family’s wealth. He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, an affluent suburb of Detroit, where his father had become the CEO of American Motors. Mitt was not to be seen in public schools during his high school years. The family sent him across town to Cranbrook, an exclusive boarding school that offered a better education than the public system. One of his classmates was Daniel Ellsberg, a former Marine who stood up to protest the U.S. political mistakes and deceptions in Vietnam by releasing The Pentagon Papers. There was one black student in Romney’s graduating class.

All the Soft Places to Fall

Mitt’s progress from there was predictable. While the sons of southerners were mostly running to the car plants to fill out applications to work on the assembly lines, he was off to Stanford and Harvard and Brigham Young. In California, when students were staging a sit-in at an administration building to resist draft assessment tests, the future head of Bain Capital took part in a counter protest. The Vietnam War he was supporting was a conflict in which he would not be compelled to participate. Mitt got two student deferments and another one for being a “minister” of the Mormon Church while he was a missionary in France. His luck held when he drew the number 300 in the first ever draft lottery.

What, exactly, makes him presidential?

There is something troubling about the collective American consciousness that enables us to elect persons of privilege to a job whose most basic requirement ought to be a first hand understanding of economic struggle. Like the two Republican Bush presidents, Mitt Romney has always had a soft place to fall. In 1975, when he left Harvard, he went straight to Wall Street with a class of business school graduates who became consultants instead of employees. The mortgage his dad told him to deal with first was probably never a big worry and when Mitt landed at Bain Capital in 1977 he was launched on the business career that is somehow supposed to qualify him for the White House. Please explain how being successful at an investment fund trains an individual for dealing with foreign policy, a stubborn congress, and a lagging economy.

We Americans celebrate wealth and business success as if it were a form of religion. Of course, people who work hard and accomplish their goals, financial, material, or even spiritual, ought to be admired because they contribute to the advancement of our culture. But the rich are not necessarily special; they tend to be prepared and lucky. Their money is generally not the consequence of any intellect or insight that can translate to leadership or government. We simply want to believe that is how they earned it.

In Romney’s experience, he has been almost as disconnected from the concerns of the working class as was George W. Bush and his father. W once asked a friend to help him “to understand the poor,” as if the economically disadvantaged had somehow made a decision to not have money. “Why’d they do that?” W seemed to be asking. W’s father loved to tell the tale of leaving Connecticut in an old car with “Bar” and heading out to West Texas to become a wildcatter in the Permian Basin oil patch but he always leaves out the part where his father the senator staked him to a half million dollars to get the oil business rolling. Eventually, H.W. sold the company for millions, set up trust funds for all of his children, and ran for congress.

There isn’t any class warfare in America. We are all participants in the same game and some of us have greater advantages and use them to gain wealth but that doesn’t mean the rich should be president. I’ve often thought the difference between the two political parties was that one was rolling down the highway in a nice new car and ignoring all of those who had fallen into the ditch while the other party was slowing down and pulling over to help get the stranded travelers back on the road. Capitalism is imperfect and x amount of effort does not necessarily produce y amount of results. Some of us end up in the ditch. People fail for many reasons. But almost all of them are trying. Our national discourse is over how we provide assistance.

We’ve had wealthy presidents in the past and some have had greatness. Our greatest president, however, came from a log cabin and understood the common man’s struggle, and it is not about corporate tax cuts. Leadership is a product of intimate understanding, which rarely is a consequence of wealth. But America has only two types of citizens: millionaires and those of us who very shortly expect to be millionaires. The result is we admire money and project onto the wealthy characteristics they often do not possess.

And putting those people into the White House tends to be a grave mistake.

Waiting for Jesus on the Jumbotron

The AFA might call itself Christian but its intolerance has gotten the organization labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of the nature of written and verbal comments from AFA leaders about gays and Jews. (Both are hell bound, apparently; Jews because, well, you know, and gays because they have “chosen” an alternative lifestyle). Of course, AFA says it loves gays and is praying for them to understand the sinful choices they have made. And Jews, well, you know. If AFA believes you can “pray away the gay,” can you get rid of your Jewishness, too?

Sounded like AFA founder James Dobson was also praying for President Obama. The prayers are needed since Dobson equated Obama’s policies and his administration with the Nazis, but in a kind of loving, forgiving, Christian sort of way. Anyone looking at the crowd in the stadium, though, might have recognized the borderline mass hysteria as something they had seen on The History Channel’s black and white films of the rising Reich, arms raised, chanting, stomping feet, tears.

Perry, who wants to replace the president (regardless of his lack of a campaign proclamation), also prayed for Mr. Obama. He quoted scripture and mentioned suffering but he didn’t mention all of the agony in Texas. As Hair Almighty took the stage with a nuclear smile and a red power tie, he had much to pray about, and most of it was in the state he has been running for more than a decade.

Perry's Prayerapalooza

According to researchers in the Texas Legislative Study Group, 17.3 percent of the state’s population lives in poverty, 4.26 million people. 66 percent of Latino children and 59 percent of black children live in low-income families, compared to 25 percent of white children. 28 percent or 6.1 million of the population of Texas is uninsured, the largest share of uninsured in the nation. And if you are a woman with a child and in financial straits, don’t come knocking on Uncle Tex’s door for a handout. In 2010, the average monthly benefit for Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) recipients in Texas was $26.86, the lowest in the country. Yes, that’s for a month. You want more, you better pray. But so far that hasn’t worked in Texas.

Perry didn’t pray about any of that or the fact that Texas is 50^th in workers’ compensation, 50^th in percent of women receiving prenatal care, 50^th in percent of non-elderly women with health care, 50^th in per capita spending on mental health, 49^th in per capita state spending on Medicaid. Texas was sad before he became governor but Rick Perry has turned the state into a tragedy.

Maybe that’s because we aren’t all doing our share to help our neighbors or perhaps we aren’t praying enough to be heard. Perry, of course, wants to privatize much of government and believes that faith-based groups, individuals, and non-profits can help reduce the burden on government. This is what you’d expect of a conservative man of faith, and that he would do his personal part to help the less fortunate (since the government he is running clearly does not give a damn about “the least of these”). The evidence in Rick Perry’s tax returns, however, indicates he may have missed some Sunday school classes on giving.

In 2007, the governor of Texas earned $1,092,810. According to his IRS form, he gave $90 of that total to his church. He was a tad more generous in 2008 when the governor’s adjusted gross income was $277,667 and he donated $2,850 to his church. Perry was feeling less magnanimous in 2009 when he earned $200,370 but shows all zeroes as a line item for church donations. For the years 2000-2009, Governor Perry’s adjusted gross income on his tax returns adds up to $2,694,253 and church donations are $14,293. He did, however, manage to itemize each article of clothing and household items he donated to Goodwill, which amounted to a deduction of $30, 768 during those same nine years.

Perry isn’t exactly troubled by daily expenses, either. He lives in a $10,000 per month mansion, which the state is leasing for him since fire destroyed the historic residence of the governor. No fretting about making mortgage payments, and health care is provided, along with all transportation costs, and he does not pay for utilities, food, or property taxes. Maybe he could have edged up those church donations a bit without much personal suffering.

The information about Perry and the state he is destroying indicates he is both mean and stingy, and at The Response he proved that he hangs out with organizations that promote hatred against certain types of people. They all claim tolerance, of course, and inclusion, but take the folding chairs out of Reliant Stadium and roll out some prayer rugs for a Muslim Day of Prayer for America and see what happens. Perry has used his office, his tax paid time, state letterhead, and the Texas brand to promote a single religion. The man who would protect the Constitution as president begins his campaign with a gross violation of one of its most basic tenets.

Let’s hope he doesn’t have a prayer.

Mitt Romney is emerging as the grown up in the GOP primary process, which is too bad. He will not win the nomination. He would make the strongest candidate for the Republicans in 2012 but he cannot win the primaries. The primary process does not require sanity and moderation in the GOP race. The candidate must appeal to the Tea Party, evangelicals, fundamentalists, and right wing conservatives who vote on social issues.

And they rarely vote for Mormons.

Romney’s problems with the radical right go a bit beyond his religion. He has refused to sign an abortion pledge because the way it was worded meant that too many federally funded hospitals would be forced to close. He decided that everyone in his state ought to have health care and passed a bill his own party derisively calls Romneycare. He thinks that global warming is a real issue but he is not sure about human contribution to the problem. And he doesn’t seem afire with desire to stop gay people from getting married.

Romney makes too much sense to win this GOP nominating process.

And lucky Ricky Perry is the guy in the perfect position to win by default. The Texas governor is neither as smart or as poised as the former Massachusetts governor but he’s close enough to be the first choice of the primary voters who will take their anger against Obama into the polls this winter and into next spring. Romney’s repeated squishiness on social issues will give them pause and then his religion will help them make their decision to vote for Perry. He is consistently conservative on the social issues that matter to primary voters.

And he is not a Mormon.

Religion is the biggest issue in the GOP primary and it is being completely ignored in the debates and public discourse. The only way a Republican can win back the White House in 2012 is with a southern strategy that turns out huge numbers of conservative Christian voters. And conservative Christian voters do not view the Mormon faith as being a part of Christendom. If Romney is the nominee, they will stay home and President Obama will be easily reelected. Romney’s campaign keeps trying to suggest that a tiny percentage of evangelical voters will ignore him because of his faith, which is unfounded optimism.

James Gimpel, a GOP political scientist and consultant, argued in the Boston Globe that Romney is failing to recognize what could be an “insurmountable” problem with fundamentalist Christians. “The question is whether a church-going Christian is willing to set those differences aside as irrelevant to holding the office of president, or take them quite seriously as heretical and cultish. There are a great many evangelical Christians who would have a hard time justifying a vote for Romney under any circumstances.”

But they are enthusiastic about the wildly conservative Christian Rick Perry.

Republicans must carry the south, including Florida and Texas, to win the presidency because they will split the plains states and the Intermountain West. The president will win New York and California and the Northeast and the election will come down to the Midwest. Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania are the electoral votes that will pick the president. Romney can do well in that part of the country; his father was a popular governor of Michigan. But it is irrelevant unless he wins the south and that is impossible. A Mormon cannot win Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas, and, consequently, the White House.

A 2007 Pew poll reported that 43% of Christians do not believe Mormonism is a Christian religion and among Christian evangelicals that number jumps to 57%. The unanswered question until Election Day is how many of those evangelicals will cast a ballot for a Mormon, who has also been vague or contrarian on social issues that matter to religious conservatives. A significant number of these people view Mormonism as a cult. They will not vote for Mitt Romney.

Rick Perry will have to make a huge mistake to lose this GOP election. Christian conservatives in Iowa will make him a big winner. If he loses in New Hampshire, where Romney has a home and has been campaigning for four years, Perry will win handily in South Carolina as well as Florida. On Super Tuesday, which includes (under current GOP scheduling rules) states like Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia, Perry will win handily. Romney has the resources to stay at least through that March 6^th multi-state contest but the race will not last any longer and he will be forced to concede.

Romney and Jon Huntsman, both Mormons, are the best candidates for the GOP to have a chance against President Obama. But neither of them will survive the primaries because of their faith. Rick Perry will win.

And the GOP will lose.

Man of the Moment

Tiger’s advisers have him convinced that he is different from other fallen public figures.  Maybe they know he doesn’t want to answer questions and because he pays them so well they aren’t going to force the issue.  Who wants to lose a gig working with Tiger Woods? Tiger has done things greater than most mortals and even other astounding athletes and his counselors appear to be testing a notion that he can play by different rules.  He can’t.  Just because he took golf away from the plaid pants and martini crowd and turned it into a disciplined endeavor doesn’t mean he’s going to get a pass on his behavior.

The idea that he only has to read a written statement to a solitary live camera, a room full of friends and colleagues, and a few wire service reporters that have agreed not to ask questions, is certain to anger journalists and the public that has adored Tiger but still wants answers.  Nobody wants to know how many women and how long this went on and whether his wife is considering taking him back into her life.  But Tiger has to respond to reasonable inquiries from practicing journalists before he can expect to get another clean start with the public.  He doesn’t have to provide details but he does need to deliver honesty.  He isn’t likely to be given a second chance unless he gives some answers.

The first question to be asked, however, is about journalism.  What kind of wire service goes to a “news conference” where no questions are allowed?  Are they present simply to write about Tiger’s facial expressions and how much he sweats?  There probably aren’t many reporters at Bloomberg, Reuters, or the Associated Press that want to attend this event and be ridiculed for sitting silently and playing by Tiger’s rules.  And if they don’t ask questions, they are likely to endure a bit of their own ridicule from peers.

This appearance has the potential for Tiger’s friends and colleagues gathered in the room to turn into a bit of a Greek chorus as he reads his statement.  Politicians often try this public relations scam when they are beleaguered.  Dealing with a controversy or a faux pas, the pol doesn’t want to face journalists alone so he or she invites supporters to encircle the podium and populate the audience and applaud at responses and hiss at questions.  It never works and only further angers reporters and they redouble their efforts to do critical reporting on the politician.  Tiger risks cranking up the tabloids and TMZs of the world to go out and find more of his paramours.

Tiger is likely to endure the same treatment as the evasive politician.  If he isn’t going to answer questions, why not just videotape his statement and stream it on his web site?  A cutaway camera could show all of the supporters in the room with him as he read and he wouldn’t risk angering sports reporters.  Regardless of how much contrition is in Tiger’s statement Friday, it will not be enough unless he takes a few questions and provides honest, difficult answers.  Someone ought to ask, first, why do this at the Accenture Match Play Tournament and distract from the golf?  Is it because they were the first major sponsor to drop you?  Are you being petty?  Isn’t there a better time and location?

The statement he will read, unfortunately, is fairly predictable.

“First, I want to apologize to the public and the fans and supporters of golf.  I’ve been dishonest with my fans, myself, and most importantly, my family.  I didn’t know I had an addiction.  I’ve entered treatment and believe I’m recovering.  I am also trying to work things out with my family.  I love my children and I am also working to save my marriage.   This has been, and continues to be, a difficult time for my family and me.  I realize I’ve dishonored all of the things I claimed were important.  But I want to try again.  I deserve a chance to try again.  I ask for your forgiveness and understanding.  But I am also a golfer.  Golf is my life.  It is who I am.  And I cannot fully regain my life unless I am playing golf.  So, I want to announce today that I am returning to the tour.  Thank you.”

Does that cover everything?  Does the public have a right to know more?  Should Tiger Woods answer the question of whether he was having extra-marital sex while his wife was pregnant?  How long has he behaved this way?  Where did he get the idea this way okay?  If he didn’t have that idea, why was he cheating when he knew he was one of the most high profile people on the planet?  Where in the hell does the fan’s right to know end and Tiger’s privacy begin?  He might need to denounce some of the stories about porn stars and having sex with someone other than his wife on the night his dad died. Don’t these issues go to the heart of a man’s character and help golf fans decide whether they can separate the man from his game, his life from his swing?  Who the hell knows?  But a five-minute statement in a completely controlled environment isn’t going to end Tiger’s woes.

And it may even make matters worse.

The oil flowing out from the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico may be under such great pressure that we do not possess technology to stop the tragedy.  Chances are quite good we have no true sense of the dire nature of the situation.  The facts that have been ascertained, however, lead to a dark scenario.

We know that the blowout preventers did not work but we do not know why.  There are theories, though.  The Deepwater Horizon rig was floating on pontoons about 5000 feet above the floor of the Gulf.  When drillers struck an oil deposit, the bit was reported to be at about 18,000 feet, which is approximately three and a half miles beneath the platform.  Does science even know what kind of pressure can be encountered at that depth, under almost a mile of water and two and half miles of rock?

BP and Transocean, which owns the rig, has said there was a maximum working pressure of 20,000 PSI but the system was able to handle a kickback pressure from gasses of about 60,000 PSI.  The breakdown of the blowout preventers can be interpreted to mean the pressure coming up from the hole exceeded 60,000 PSI.  Generally, various mixtures of mud circulate up and down the drill pipe to act as lubricants and equalize pressures encountered at great depth, and this process was said to be working at the time of the accident.  Does this mean it’s possible, even likely, that the Deepwater Horizon encountered pressures current technology are not equipped to handle?

Although BP and Washington are trying very hard to convince the public that everything possible is being done to stem the flow of crude, there is seemingly little that might be accomplished.  5000 feet below the surface of the water with oil blasting out at tens of thousands of PSI, and wreckage from the giant rig scattered about, fixes are not easy to find.  The latest plan is for a special funnel to be placed over the spout, which will then force the flow into a pumping channel.  But how does a funnel get placed over the top of anything pushing at that kind of pressure?  Consider that story to be an unrealistic solution.

A well blowout in 1979 offers a bit of context; except the Deepwater Horizon horror show is already about to transcend what happened in the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico.  The Ixtoc 1 rig blew and began to spew crude that flowed uninterrupted for nine months.  Before the well was capped, 3,000,000 barrels of crude had drifted north to Texas and the northern coast of Mexico.  The endangered Kemps-Ridley turtle, which nests along the border beaches, had to be airlifted to safety and has only begun in recent years to recover in population.

The Ixtoc disaster, however, is spit in the ocean compared to the potential damage of the British Petroleum apocalypse.  If estimates are correct and the current blowout is putting 200,000 gallons or 5000 barrels of crude per day into the waters of the Gulf.  Ixtoc’s blowout was not capped until two relief wells were drilled and completed at the end of those nine months, and regardless of optimistic scenarios from the federal government or BP, relieving the pressure on the current flow is probably the only way to stop the polluting release of oil. The only way to relieve that pressure is with additional wells. No one is going to honestly say how much time is needed to drill such wells but consider the scope of environmental damage we are confronting if it requires at least as long as Ixtoc?  Nine months of 5000 barrels of crude per day ought to turn the Gulf of Mexico into a lifeless spill pond and set toxins on currents that will carry them to deadly business around the globe. And there is no way to know with any certainty if nine months will be sufficient time for capping.

Nor are there guarantees relief wells are the fix. What do we do, in that case?  Humans cannot function at 5000 feet of ocean depth and the mitigation efforts currently are being handled by robotic remotes.  What is left to us as a solution other than an explosive device, which is often what is deployed during above ground blowouts.  Given the pressures reported and the amount of flow, we may need a bunker-buster nuke to be placed over the wellhead.  We can then begin to talk about the water pressures caused by burst at detonation and residual radiation.  Is that a better or worse situation?  Certainly, aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico is doomed unless there is a reclusive genius to step forward and save us from our great failure.

The attorney general of Texas, Greg Abbot, informed reporters that it appears Texas will escape harm.  Abbot’s visionary powers must exceed his legal skills since there is no way to know when and even if the well will ever be capped.  In fact, if there is no plug placed in the hole, it is not inconceivable that no part of the planet’s oceans will escape harm.  According to the non-profit, non-partisan, Air and Waste Management Association, a quart of crude oil will make 150,000 gallons of water toxic to aquatic life.  BP, which has been marketing itself as an energy company “beyond petroleum,” is setting loose upon the planet what is quickly turning into humankind’s worst environmental disaster.

Tone-deaf politicians, especially from Texas, are trying to manage public fears, which is exactly what the state’s former governor attempted in 1979.  Bill Clements, who was one of the founders of SEDCO and owned the Ixtoc platform, originally described concerns as “much ado about nothing.”  As oil moved toward the pristine beaches of the Padre Island National Seashore, his advice was to “pray for a hurricane.”  I confronted Clements on his lack of concern and he stuck his finger in my chest and told me the state was not hurt.  Thirty years later the tar balls still roll in with shifts of tide and wind and oil was everywhere on the beach for years.

Anyone who thinks this tragedy is not going to result in massive kills of marine life is either blind, ignorant, or in denial.  The one scenario that we all refuse to confront is the possibility that it is beyond our capabilities to stop this undersea blast of oil.  If that is the case, the flow continues until the pressure eases, which might be years.  How much ecological injury will that cause our planet?

Nobody knows.

Perry painted the state an even brighter red, in part, because his democratic opponent, former Houston Mayor Bill White, suffered from the heartbreak of ineffectuality.  Nothing he tried inspired and his strongest messages were, “I’m not Rick Perry,” and “Rick Perry has been governor long enough.”  Coyote-killer Rick, however, was taking credit for the state’s geography and climate, which have been essential to job and business growth.  Regardless of what the governor argues, no one is coming here as a result of his or his party’s policies.  Property taxes are the worst in the country and the schools that are funded with that money are overwhelmingly mediocre, which has led to a scandalous charter school program.  Roads are falling apart, state parks are suffering decaying infrastructure, our air is the dirtiest in the country, mass transit is resisted by leadership, and we are ranked 48th or 49th in every government consideration other than raising up unqualified presidential candidates.

Perry might be a little light in his Lucchese’s but he has shown a great facility for ignoring standards and even the law without enduring penalty.  On the same day his reelection filled the column inches and the web site of the Austin paper, there was also a report that the governor was refusing to release a copy of a $4.5 million contract with the state.  The money went to a startup technology company founded by one of Perry’s major donors.  The American Statesman filed a Freedom of Information request but Perry’s office said no and ignored the fact that those millions are tax dollars and the manner in which they are spent is subject to public disclosure.  How money is used and where it comes from makes the kid from Paint Rock a bit nervous, unless, of course, he is the beneficiary.  He has become inexplicably wealthy during his term while earning less than $200,000 annually.

Conversely, he has turned down hundreds of millions in education dollars from the federal government that would have provided improvements to Texas schools because he claimed there were “strings attached.”  There were: good grades.

The red run of Election Day does more good for Perry’s opaque ambition than it does Sarah Palin’s.  As he brags about having the best job in America, the governor begins a national tour for his slim book about being fed up with the feds.  Answers to softball questions will saturate the airwaves from friendly media over the next few weeks and there will be talk of his Texas mandate and it how it compares to the whopping win George W. Bush earned in his race against former Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro.  The pretext to begin circulating Perry’s name for a presidential run will be easily established and the Tea Partiers that he energized with his irresponsible talk of secession will slowly turn pragmatic and confront the question of who can win in 2012.

Palin may not have been the personality who sent those Tea Partiers to the polls but she loves them and they have affection for her.  That attraction, however, cannot be consummated because there will never be enough Tea Partiers to elect a president. A compromise is inevitable since the GOP cannot field an electable candidate without energizing the party’s Diaspora, which has tipped way right.  What’s a bad speller to do?  Palin will do well in several early primary states and if the GOP wants to have any chance against President Obama it will have to engineer a ticket.

No matter what either party suggests, American presidential politics is more about viscera than intellect and issues.  Uncertain voters tend to make decisions based upon charisma and aesthetics.  Few people trust political ads and when they are busy trying to pay down credit card debt or keep the mortgage banker at bay they do not have time to read party platforms or study issues on candidate web pages.  Party activists are the only people paying attention to campaigns until the last few weeks.  Which leads us back to Rick Perry.

The GOP is already spending time trying to find a prospect to get Sarah to act a bit more politically demure.  Their options are limited.  Haley Barbour, the well-wired governor of Mississippi (State motto: Thank god for Texas) has the round face and weary drawl of an old school southern pol.  As connected as he is to governors’ mansions and DC insiders, he would have a tough task against Obama if for no other reason than aesthetics.  Mitt Romney is arguably too polished and too Mormon.  Whether they will acknowledge it or not there are millions of Christians in the US that still view Mormonism as a cult and it hurts Romney’s chances.  (The John Kennedy and first Catholic president analogy is not relevant.) Jeb Bush will not be able to help himself and will pursue the White House because he wants to prove he is the “smart one” in his family but there are no more than two dozen voters that want to see another Bush or Clinton on a national ticket.  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will likely enter the picture as an independent and burn enough money to make E-Bay’s big bucks Meg Whitman look fiscally prudent but he will not travel well in the south; except for Florida.

The compromise ticket will be Perry and Palin.  They will make a lovely camera-ready couple from the union’s two biggest states.  (The Hair Pair?) Team Tea Party has fondness for both of them and the mainstream party machine can convince donors that Sarah will never get her hands on the nuclear launch codes but that she is necessary to elect the ticket.  The only complication is Karl Rove’s role.  He is still ginning up cash and running a big fund-raising operation and he has offended Palin and the Tea Party.  Karl, who does not seem to be able to keep friends, led Perry’s campaign when he won his first statewide office in Texas but there has been an alienation of affection.  Rove supported Sen. Kay Hutchison in her race for governor against Perry in the Republican primary.  Karl will need to be taught to heel but that should not be a problem since he has proven in the past that victory and money are more important than any principle.

So, there you go, America; since you are too busy to get informed we will just turn this into American Idol or maybe Dancing with the Stars.  Nothing to read.  Just use your cell phone or your remote to vote.  Have fun!!!

And we will go ahead and start grooming you another goofball down here in Texas.

“I was totally dumbfounded,” Lawrence said later.

He and his partner, Tyron Garner, were arrested, handcuffed, and driven to jail in their underwear. They were charged with a Class C misdemeanor under the 1973 Texas Homosexual Conduct Law and spent the night in jail. Yes, in the late 60s and early 70s, during the era of free love when sex was a party favor and nobody paid any attention to what somebody might be doing with somebody else, Texans were busy passing a law making it illegal to have gay sex.

Which was kind of hard to enforce.

But Lawrence and Garner had been set up for arrest by a mutual friend, Robert Eubanks, who had helped them move furniture that day into Lawrence’ apartment. They had spent the evening drinking margaritas before they returned to Lawrence’ apartment and made plans for transporting the old furniture into Eubanks’ place the next morning. Garner and Eubanks ended up in an argument and Eubanks excused himself to get a soda in a fit of jealousy. Instead, he found a pay phone and described a frantic scene involving a gun in Lawrence’ apartment, which was not true. (Eubanks later spent 30 days in jail for making false claims to the police.)

Lawrence and Garner, however, decided to fight. They pled “no contest,” paid a $200 fine, and then began filing appeals. Texas appellate courts upheld their convictions but their legal team managed to get the case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Eventually, the high court, by a vote of 6-3, overturned the Texas sodomy law, which it had previously upheld in 1986. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that gay men and lesbians were “entitled to respect for their private lives” and that the previous interpretation of the law “demeans the lives of homosexual persons.” The majority opinion also argued that the state “could not control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.” As of the court’s decision on June 26, 2003, gay sex became legal in Texas.

And that has kept Rick Perry very, very busy.

The problem with letting homosexuals have sex with each other is that it might turn into an emotional attachment and then if they fall in love they may want to marry. Two homosexuals united in marriage, as Rick Perry tells everyone, is a threat to the institution of heterosexual marriage. No one is quite certain how this might happen but there are some big Texas thinkers working on the connections. The state was one of only four that banned same-sex sodomy and tried to outlaw it for heterosexuals. Maybe acting like a homosexual during heterosexual intercourse leads to gay sodomy, which turns out to be nice and becomes love and then gay marriage? If that sounds illogical, then you’ve never lived in Texas where it is abundantly clear to conservatives that every time homosexuals hold hands another crack forms in the foundation of traditional marriage.

In its zealotry to stop anal sex, the Texas legislature overlooked bestiality, sex between (kind of) humans and animals. One of the state’s U.S. Senators, John Cornyn, who must not have been busy with the Wall Street bailout or Afghanistan, had a moment of sudden clarity when he realized the lack of a ban on bestiality combined with the possibility of gay marriage being legalized created scary scenarios. The Republican Cornyn had written a speech about the dangers of gay marriage, which he was to give to the conservative Heritage Foundation. Either he did not look at what his ghostwriter had penned or the senator had second thoughts but he dropped from spoken remarks a line that made it into the media. A copy of the speech had already been distributed and the Associated Press reported the unused text.

“It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of a man and a box turtle is on the same legal footing as a man and a wife.”

Imagine a world where human and box turtle hybrids get squished trying to cross the road. There is also the bitter divorce fight during property settlement of who gets to keep the aquarium and who gets custody of any hatchlings or recently laid eggs. In a culture where Hillbilly Handfishin’ thrives on cable TV, it is not hard to envision John Cornyn’s grim tomorrow fueled by box turtle sexual mania. The senator may have saved us from our latent shell fetishes.

But he didn’t help Rick Perry get any sleep at night.

The governor of Texas got active in the state’s legislature and almost exactly two years after the U.S. Supreme Court had overruled the ban on gay sex, Perry signed a measure that allowed voters to change the Texas constitution to permanently ban marriage by homosexuals. Perry was so pleased that lawmakers were putting the constitutional amendment in front of the public that he held a signing ceremony for the referendum. Nobody noticed, though, that there was no place on the document for the governor’s signature; it wasn’t required. The two-thirds majority of the legislature, which is needed for a constitutional amendment, meant the governor’s legal authorization was not necessary for the gay marriage ban to be included on that year’s November ballot.

But by god he was going to have a signing ceremony.

Ignoring a fundamental tenet of the U.S. Constitution about keeping church and state separate, Perry’s campaign office chose an evangelical school in Fort Worth to host the event. An email was sent out urging “Christian friends” to come to the Calvary Christian Academy. “We really need for you to help us turn out a very large crowd. We may also film part of this to be used later for TV.” This was the first time Rick Perry had signed any legislation at a religious institution; he had stepped over a border that disappeared behind him so far he can no longer even remember its relevance. The governor was going to a church on Sunday to formalize state law.

The New York Times quoted Rev. Robin Lovin, a Southern Methodist University professor and a Methodist minister, who said, “Signing a bill into law at a church is a pretty clear sign that the church is at the service of the state or the state is at the service of the church. Either way, we’ve crossed an important line that has a long history in both politics and theology.” The Perry campaign’s email didn’t even bother to pretend this was anything more than a Christians for Perry rally, though. “We want to completely fill this location with pro-family Christian friends who can celebrate with us.”

The ceremony was moved from the church sanctuary to the academy’s gymnasium in an attempt to appease critics. There were about 100 protestors on the street but more than a thousand adoring Perryites cheered the governor as he signed the constitutional amendment on gay marriage and a new law requiring women under 18 to get the consent of their parents before having an abortion. Previously, they had only needed to provide notice.

“We may be on the grounds of a Christian church,” Perry told his congregation. “But we all believe in standing up for the unborn.”

Rick Perry has been very good at protecting the unborn. It’s the living he can’t be bothered with. The poor. Elderly. Unhealthy. Uneducated. Unemployed. Gay. Lesbian. Teachers. Texas is last among all states in almost every possible category of social services and has reduced public help as the economy has worsened. But the governor’s been busy with more important issues. Nothing matters if he can’t keep homosexuals from getting married. Everything will fall apart when that happens.

When the Texas Republican Party met in 2010 to affirm Rick Perry as its candidate for governor, the policy platform indicated he had not gone far enough in his commitment to fight the rising scourge of legalized homosexual happiness. Outlawing gay marriage wasn’t enough; the Texas GOP wanted it criminalized. The platform called for “legislation to make it a felony to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple and for any civil official to perform a marriage ceremony for such.” Party members wanted to prevent the presentation of the homosexual “alternative lifestyle” in public education and stop family from being redefined to include gay couples. Perry had inspired them to also seek a ban on strip clubs and sexually oriented businesses as well as eliminating all pornography. They are an ambitious organization.

Being over-zealous in the public about gay marriage always prompts suspicions. There are enough examples of exposed hypocrites to support a separate book on the topic. During the administration of George W. Bush, Ken Mehlman, who was the Republican National Committee chairman for several years, was also a top political operative for the president’s campaigns. Mehlman led the strategy laid out by Karl Rove to oppose gay rights in order to increase conservative vote turnout for the GOP. He refused to answer questions about his sexual orientation but after leaving public life acknowledged that he was gay. Congressman Ed Schrock, a Republican from Virginia, was a sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment to constitutionally ban gay marriage and had complained about having to share showers in the military with gay men under the “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” policy. Schrock resigned from congress when he was recorded soliciting gay sex from a male escort agency in Washington. Republican U.S. Senator Larry Craig, who wanted to give states even more rights to prevent gay marriage and voted against including the term “sexual orientation” in a hate crimes bill, resigned after he was caught soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom. Chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign in Florida, State Representative Bob Allen, offered an undercover cop $20 if he could perform fellatio on the officer. Allen had previously signed onto then Governor Jeb Bush’s Friend of the Court filing to stop adoptions of children by gay couples in Florida. A former national chairman of the Young Republicans, Glenn Murphy, Jr., was accused of two sexual acts where two different drunken young men awoke after passing out and found Murphy performing what is best described as mouth to penis resuscitation. There is also, of course, Ted Haggard, a Colorado minister who met regularly with President George W. Bush to offer spiritual guidance. Haggard preached that homosexuality was an abomination and he fought vociferously against gay rights, until a male escort and masseuse convinced the media he had been having sex and doing methamphetamine with Haggard for three years. Haggard finally admitted his sins.

Self-loathing homosexuals always seem to have the loudest voices in the anti-gay rights choir. Well, now, wait a minute. That doesn’t mean that anyone who is trying to stop same sex couples from getting married has unsettled sexual orientation questions of his or her own, does it? But the odds are probably higher that they’ve had a few dreams and urges they can’t figure out, which makes them very mad since they’ve been told for so long that’s naughty, naughty, naughty, and unnatural.

You see where this is going?

This is the point in the story where the editor of a big city newspaper or TV station gets all huffy and says, “We don’t report on gossip, whispers, and rumors.” As a policy for journalists, this is a good standard. An angry, ill-formed individual with revenge in mind and a lot of good contacts could destroy a person’s reputation just by spreading untruths. It happens in politics without the power of the media’s assistance. Karl Rove did it to John McCain in South Carolina in the 2000 presidential primary. He organized a whisper campaign that suggested McCain had spent so much time in solitary confinement in Vietnam that he was mentally unstable, and that he had a black child out of wedlock. Rove was also responsible for a rumor that spread through East Texas that the late Texas Governor Ann Richards was gay, which probably helped Bush defeat her in their election contest. Rumors can kill.

That’s why Rick Perry spoke publicly about his rumor problem.

In 2004, there was a story about Perry’s personal life circulating in the Texas capitol and there was no one in politics, government, or journalism that had not heard it in some version. The details were consistent, regardless of who was doing the retelling, and it began to almost transform from mythology to fact. The version of the yarn that most Austinites had heard involved Perry’s wife Anita coming home to the governor’s mansion and finding her husband in flagrante with another man. She supposedly ordered up a moving van the next day and was said to be returning to her hometown of Haskell to file divorce papers. Not a scintilla of proof of any of details, however, has ever been provided.

Instead of just being whispered about as gossip among political professionals, the story became a part of the public discourse. The governor woke up one morning to a small group of protestors outside the mansion. They were carrying signs that said, among other things, “It’s okay to be gay, guv,” and “Come out. We’ll support you.” Later that evening at a rally in Houston with former presidential candidate John Edwards, the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party tried to turn the Perry apocrypha into a political advantage. Charles Soechting was on stage killing time until Edwards arrived and he alluded to the unsubstantiated stories of Perry’s sexual orientation.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Soechting said. “I ask you to stay tuned. There’s a lot of things happening in Texas. For those of you that know, there’s a lot of stuff happening at the state capitol. And you’re going to be excited when you learn more and more about it. So I wish I could tell you more, but I think if you’ve got someone sitting next to you knows what’s going on, just get them to whisper it to you.”

A number of political websites, including the The Burnt Orange Report, popular among progressive Texas Democrats, had already written about Perry’s alleged personal problems. The story had, in fact, been dancing across the Internet for several weeks when Soechting let it fly to the Houston crowd. “How many of you all know? Raise your hands up. That’s right. They had a rally up there in support of the governor today. Some of his friends said, ‘Come out, Rick, and we’ll support you.’ Anyway, it’s a good time for us,” (Actually, it was not such a good time for John Edwards, whose personal life unraveled in subsequent years as he tried to help Democrats).

Gay jokes tend to attach to handsome well-dressed men in public life. Rick Perry has to understand how Tom Cruise feels when he watches Family Guy. The notion has dogged the Texas governor like a rabid coyote as he rose to political prominence. Part of it is his fault. During his campaign for Agriculture Commissioner he affected the pose of the Marlboro man on election posters, which drew equally on the iconography of the western cowboy myth and The Village People. He was also a cheerleader in college at Texas A and M University. Although A and M is a Tier One research institution and not a military academy, a large portion of the student body joins the Corps of Cadets and dresses up in sleek leather boots and form fitting uniforms. Rick Perry was captain of the Fighting Texas Aggie Yell Leaders when he was in college. How is it that tough and macho Texas has had two former cheerleaders (yell leader, whatever) as governors in the modern era? Bush cheered at Andover prep school.

A few Texas political reporters had called the governor’s office to ask if he wanted to comment on what everyone knew was being discussed in the public. The offer was politely declined but the more Rick Perry contemplated how his reputation was being harmed, the more difficult it became for him to remain quiet. His son Griffin had heard the rumors while attending Vanderbilt University and his daughter Sydney had been forced to confront them while at her high school in Austin. Eventually, the governor had a staffer call the Austin American-Statesman’s Pulitzer-winning reporter Ken Herman, who had been covering Texas politics since the late 70s and had been assigned to the White House during the George W. Bush administration.

The story Herman published made no substantive mention of the gay aspects of the story beyond quoting a protestor’s sign outside of the mansion. The reporter concentrated instead on the possibility of divorce from first lady Anita Perry. The governor told the newspaper that he thought he was the victim of an organized smear campaign by political opponents making use of the Internet to spread baseless information.

“It is a cancer on the political process that is deadly,” Perry said. “They [rumors] are not correct in any shape, form or fashion. These are irresponsible. They’re salacious. They’re hurtful to my family.”

Perry also avoided talking about the gay part of the attack on his reputation but he suggested it was clearly an organized effort to destroy him. “I don’t think a rumor can just get to critical mass by itself,” he said. “I think you have to have a well-thought-out, organized effort to disseminate that kind of information and keep it going day after day after day after day.” That’s not necessarily true, of course. All it really takes is cheap drinks at happy hour and the urge to gossip. Things can go viral on and off of the net.

Perry had already dealt with the allegations of a pending divorce during an appearance in San Antonio. A reporter for KSAT-TV caught up to him after a speech and asked the governor about the status of his marriage as the camera was recording.

“I also understand that there are rumors about your wife and whether there is talk of separation, talk of divorce. Do you have any comment on that?” the TV reporter asked.

Perry responded that the story was absolutely and totally false and when he left the room his press secretary jumped all over the reporter for asking an irresponsible question. The TV station never aired the exchange but the matter had become viable enough that the governor decided to contact the Austin newspaper, executing a tactic that probably made him the first politician in American electoral history to ask a reporter to interview him and write a story about how he is not gay. The governor did use the space in the newspaper article to accuse Democrat Soechting of crossing the line of “everything decent” by publicly repeating the rumor. Soechting told reporter Herman, “What crosses the line of everything decent is the utter hypocrisy of Rick Perry injecting his mean-spirited politics into everyone else’s personal life while insisting his own personal life is off-limits.”

In this instance, Perry is also a victim of a new process in journalism that has only manifested itself with the maturation of the Internet as an information source. Blogs, which tend to often be little more than websites where people express opinions and share gossip, are not held to normal standards of proof and corroboration. A blogger has a right to say whatever they want on their page just as a private individual can say what they choose in personal conversations. Web surfers, though, can discover the blog, and the information can be passed off as accurate. Bigger, more heavily trafficked websites can post the story and increase their number of visitors and, eventually, mainstream journalists decide they are freed to write about a specific rumor as a kind of cultural phenomenon. The target of the original unfounded piece of spurious information is then cornered into responding and the story is finally legitimized in a way that was never possible before the Internet.

Except Rick Perry did this one to himself by talking to the newspaper.

Tales of sexual indiscretion involving Rick Perry surfaced almost as soon as he showed up in the Texas legislature all shiny and pretty and new. If even one of them is true, no one has ever spoken convincingly in public about the experience. Nonetheless, as the Texas governor launched his presidential campaign the population of Austin increased with numerous national reporters chasing down former staffers and friends and possible lovers of Perry to break the story of his sexual profligacy. They may very well end up as annoyed by the dearth of information as the late Texas Governor Ann Richards, who grew tired of hearing people repeat Perryphernalia regarding both sexes.

“Oh come on, y’all,” she said. “He can’t be fuckin’ all the girls and all the boys.”

Robert Morrow disagrees. Morrow is an Austin libertarian trafficker of unsubstantiated allegations and he is convinced Rick Perry has special sexual capacities for men and women. He spent theearly months of the governor’s presidential campaign zapping out emails to journalists in the mainstream and beyond. He cites nameless sources he claims are strippers who are his friends and he insists have had sex and drugs with Rick Perry. No names are ever given, though. A three-time delegate to the Texas Republican Party State Convention, Morrow’s emails contain salacious, unproven allegations regarding Perry.

“Recently a local Austin reporter was telling me that they had heard about Rick Perry and the strippers in 2006,” he wrote in one of his more restrained dispatches. “But they never could nail it down. Well, consider it confirmed. Additionally, there are many people in Austin who are convinced that the man is a homosexual or has had gay affairs in the past. I have never met a man who has had sex with Rick Perry, but I have met women who have had direct dealings with Adulterer (sic) Rick Perry and his enabling entourage. Perry has most definitely been living a double life.”

The 47-year-old Morrow is not your standard crackpot. He is a millionaire Princeton graduate who also holds an MBA from the University of Texas. Nonetheless, he has been a guest on the radio show of Alex Jones, a man who sometimes appears to believe day and night are conspiracies cooked up by the sun and earth. Morrow, like Jones, appears to believe President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary had opponents murdered in Arkansas, George H. W. Bush was a cocaine smuggler, and in general, nobody is up to no good, especially Rick Perry, who Morrow says is sitting on a “slut fueled tank of nitroglycerin” that will destroy his image.

Morrow attracted a lot of national attention when he ran an ad in the Austin Chronicle, which asked in large black letters, “Have you ever had sex with Rick Perry?” He was hoping to make contact with “strippers, escorts, or “young hotties” and help them publicize their encounters with the Texas governor. Morrow’s ad was presented as an effort by an organization he founded and called CASH: The Committee Against Sexual Hypocrisy.”

The governor’s office finally decided it was unable to ignore Morrow and once again his staff reached out to Ken Herman of the Austin American Statesman. Perry chief of staff Ray Sullivan sent the reporter an email that Herman included in his story about Morrow.

“Morrow’s allegations are more false rumors, with a different story line,” Sullivan wrote. “The fact is that decades of intense media scrutiny, political opposition research and more than $100 million in attack ads have proven nothing other than Perry’s solid and stable family, financial and political life. Unfortunately, the current political environment and exponentially larger number of media/information outlets allow crackpot conspiracy theorists like Mr. Morrow to run amok in cyberspace and in some cases traditional media outlets.”

The Perry stories have been around almost as long as he has been in Austin. None has ever been confirmed and there have been some fairly capable Texas journalists examining the accusations for more than two decades. There is, of course, more at stake in a presidential election and the fight for power is boundlessly fierce. Perry’s presidential campaign told Politico it is prepared to address the sexual stories if they are used as a tactic. There should be little problem for Perry’s team to shout down an accuser since any such individual is not likely to be publicly associated with another candidate and will have limited resources to protect their own integrity. As John Edward’s life has ably demonstrated, however, it is not impossible to prove indiscretions by public figures. The only thing that’s readily verifiable in Texas, though, is that when it comes to screwing people with statutes, Rick Perry’s strong preference is for homosexuals.

But even that has had some unintended consequences.

The Texas governor and the author of the constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage in Texas had no idea there were people like Therese Bur and Sabrina Hill. They are a same sex couple living in poverty in a humble plywood structure built in the Chihuahuan Desert east of El Paso. When Warren Chisum, the wildly conservative Republican state legislator from Pampa in the Texas panhandle, drew up the amendment he was operating on a basic premise. Chisum and Perry believe that god doesn’t make mistakes and your gender is determined at birth. Transgender complications probably didn’t come up when Chisum and his staff began to draft language to keep homosexuals from getting married. But they ought to have given it some consideration if they truly wanted to stop the horrors of gay marriage. There’s a loophole in the law that has allowed little “cells” of legalized gay love to pop up around Texas.

Therese Bur and Sabrina Hill realized Rick Perry’s state was the perfect place for them to legitimize their marriage. Hill was born a hermaphrodite but her father wanted her to be male and had her vagina surgically closed. Even though she had genitalia of both sexes, Hill’s birth certificate identifies her as a male. She always felt like a woman, though, and during an ultrasound at age 28 discovered she had female internal organs. Sabrina had already realized, in spite of the fact that she was anatomically a man, that she was attracted to women. Sabrina met Therese and they fell in love. Sabrina’s male sex organs, however, continued to offend her and mock who she knew herself to be.

“I went to this guy in Mexico,” she told El Paso TV station KVIA. “He was called ‘the butcher.’ I just had him cut it off. I didn’t want to look at it any more.”

Sabrina and Therese had been together for more than 15 years and decided they wanted to be married. The reasons were more practical than spiritual and legal. When she served in the U.S. military, Sabrina was known as Virgil, the name given to her by her parents, and she wanted to get the health care she had earned from the Veterans’ Administration. Therese was sick and because they were poor she could not afford visits to the doctor. If they were married, Therese would be eligible for VA health care as Sabrina’s (Virgil’s) spouse.

But two people of the same sex can’t get married in Texas, can they?

“Well, it says ‘male’ on my original birth certificate,” Sabrina explained. “The birth certificate you were given when you were born is the only one that matters. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a problem. It doesn’t matter what my name is now or what someone’s done with their surgical wizardry. I’m a boy and she’s a girl and we can get married.”

And that probably disgusts Rick Perry and Warren Chisum, the West Texas lawmaker who wants to wipe out even the idea of gay marriage. (Chisum believes homosexuality is a “lifestyle choice,” like being a ski bum or joining a motorcycle gang). When he was drafting the amendment, Chisum undoubtedly would have never imagined a world in which a hermaphroditic person made surgically male might actually feel female and also be attracted to that gender. He also clearly overlooked the fact that a Texas appeals court had ruled that gender was determined at birth by nature and there were certain situations that would not be covered by his new law.

“You can’t have it both ways, and I know that’s what they’re trying to do,” Chisum told the Texas Tribune. “I can’t write the law for what everybody changes themselves to. That would be even more confusing. You’re either born a man or you’re born a woman and you can’t change that.”

He actually doesn’t know what they are trying to do because all they are trying to do is live their lives as enjoyably and comfortably as possible regardless of their gender, genetics, or economics. Sabrina and Therese wanted a little happiness and some health care, which is not always easy to get in Rick Perry’s Texas, especially if you are gay, lesbian, or transgender. Ultimately, Perry and Chisum discovered their belief that god doesn’t make mistakes, and that a person’s gender is an immutable act of nature at the time of birth, made it possible for a transgender female to marry her lesbian lover and get VA health care to live happily ever after under the Lone Star skies. Sabrina is a man on her birth certificate. Therese is a woman.

“Let me just tell you that that little short chubby half Mexican is the most beautiful woman in the world,” Sabrina said as she looked at her partner Therese. “And if god chooses to take her home before me, well, I’ll live with it and understand. But that’s it for me. There won’t be anyone else for me. I’ll wait until I can be with her again.”

Such horrifying sentiments surely must send shivers down the spines of Rick Perry and Warren Chisum. But there’s something else that should worry them to the edge of panic: They don’t realize yet what their anti-gay marriage paranoia has accomplished. The determination by the court that your true gender is the one that is on your birth certificate has had an unexpected economic bonus for the state that Rick Perry has not yet claimed.

Texas has turned into a marriage destination for post-op trannies.

The departure of Mr. Cain, who is apparently being besieged by lying women who are puppets of Democratic operatives afraid he will win the White House, will not make things any simpler for GOP primary voters. Cain’s surge happened after Perry mentioned that he supported in state tuition for the children of undocumented workers. As Cain has been hammered by revelations involving his personal life, Gingrich has acquired enough support to lead the race, most of which likely came from Cain. Perry’s numbers did not tick back up and Romney’s stayed frozen in the high teens and low twenties. All of those voters who began dating other people when Perry faltered ended up also leaving Cain but still hadn’t forgiven Romney for being Romney or Perry for being a dumbass.

What do they do with Cain gone?

The Gingrich team wants everyone to believe he is now inevitable. But there are two forces in control of most of the GOP primary and they have issues with Newt. What will the values voters and evangelicals make of a man who has had mistresses and three marriages? The Tea Party certainly can’t be very excited about a candidate who has made millions advising participants in the scam that fueled Wall Street’s mortgage collapse, and even though he claims he’s never been a lobbyist and has only sold access to his inordinately large brain, Gingrich has made millions more getting his clients in front of members of congress. The Tea Party is not likely to favor his full resume’. Gingrich’s baggage fills up three boxcars on the campaign train, and one of them is for Tiffany jewelry containers.

Mitt Romney is probably one of the leading GOP candidates with an actual statistical chance of beating President Obama but he seemingly cannot win his party’s nomination. Romney is moderate enough to do well in the general election but not sufficiently right wing to win the primary. His problems, already deconstructed a million times, center around convincing GOP voters that just because he approved a state health care plan in Massachusetts doesn’t mean he wants one for the rest of the country, and just because he said he’d be stronger on gay rights than Teddy Kennedy when he ran against him for the U.S. Senate doesn’t mean he believes in gay marriage now, and just because he refused to sign the pledge to end federal funding to hospitals that provide abortions doesn’t mean he supports woman’s right to choose, and just because he said he thinks global warming is real doesn’t mean he thinks humans are the cause. Romney’s political cravenness approaches Senator John McCain’s, who pegged the needle when he called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson “agents of intolerance” in one election and then ran to seek their endorsements the next time he chased after the presidency.

Romney’s other problem, of course, is his religion. He doesn’t talk about it; except for a speech he gave in Texas four years ago, which he hoped had put the matter to perpetual rest. But it hasn’t. Various surveys show that white, southern, Christian evangelicals will not vote for a Mormon because the overwhelming majority does not view the religion as part of Christendom. The hypocrisy in this position is both entertaining and harmful to Republican presidential aspirations; apparently Moses tablet(s) brought down from the mountain are more believable than the Angel Moroni’s golden tablets delivered to Joseph Smith. Regardless, no Republican will win the White House without successfully sweeping the south in the general election in 2012 and a Mormon candidate will apparently reduce enthusiasm and turnout among white, Christian voters. Mitt will stay stuck at about twenty percent regardless of how many GOP power brokers urge the voters to rally around his flag.

Which brings us to the wretched remainders.

Bachmann and Paul have undeniable electability issues, Rick Santorum is barely worth mentioning, and Jon Huntsman is too sane, considerate, well informed, capable on the issues, rational, analytical, thoughtful, and Mormon to have a chance within his chosen political party.

That leaves only the dumb one.

When the bright lights reveal more of Newt’s warts than voters want to see, there will be no place left for GOP voters to seek sanctuary. The unfaithful and undecideds will have to reconsider Rick Perry. The values voters will realize again that he is with them on gay marriage and Jesus and global warming and abortion and government health care. TP-ers will conclude he’s their best chance to show they have the power to destroy government. These voters don’t care that Perry is a bit of a dolt on issues; they love him because he thinks like they do and there is no one else on the GOP primary ballot who completely fits that description. Unfortunately, every time a reporter considers writing a comeback narrative for Perry, the Texas governor begins talking and prompts second thoughts about how convincing such an article might ever be for readers.

Republicans must be frustrated as hell. They are facing an incumbent president who most polls show is mortally wounded and yet the GOP cannot find an acceptable, unifying candidate with prospects of victory. The fact that Herman Cain and Rick Perry have survived this long is an indication of the desperation of Republicans. They ought not to worry, though. Sarah Palin has taken up residence in Arizona.

And word is that she is tanned, rested, and ready.

On August 6, 2011, he was billed as just Rick Perry from Austin, Texas. He didn’t want it to look too obvious that he was using his office, the state’s image and authority to promote his particular brand of religion. It was kind of hard to hide, though. The 32,000 people in Houston’s Reliant Stadium knew they were hearing from the governor of Texas. His title may have been absent from the three giant TV monitors hanging behind him on the stage but Perry was the second most important person in the room, (the other one, Jesus, was invisible; well, to most people). Playing as the opening act for the messiah was okay with the governor. The lord was just a bonus on this day for Rick Perry. Jesus wasn’t on the Jumbotron; the man from Paint Creek was and while Jesus discreetly gathered up souls Perry was secretly looking at the sea of faces and envisioning legions of voters to take him to the promised land.

The Response: A Day of Prayer for a Nation in Crisis was a chance for Rick Perry to strut his Christian stuff and it became the opening gambit in a primary campaign that was designed to rely on what was described by analysts as “dog whistle politics.” Although not yet formally a candidate at the time, the governor was doing more than being an evangelical exhibitionist. He was sending simple messages to GOP primary voters that he was not a Mormon. He might as well have hung a banner from the stadium ceiling that said, “Rick Perry: 2012 – Not a Mormon.” The early frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, Mitt Romney, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a religious faith that many, many evangelical and fundamentalist Christians view as a cult. Rick Perry was setting up the Republican Primary as his Neon Jesus versus Mitt the Mormon. “How,” he seemed to be asking, “can we take seriously as a candidate a man whose religious beliefs require him to wear long underwear year around?” (Look it up, people. Not time to explain here).

“He’s a good man, I think, Romney is,” one prayer rally worshipper said. “But I just can’t vote for a Mormon. They got a story I can’t believe. The Bible tells us all there is to know about Jesus. Anyway, don’t use my name in your story.”

In a few dozen interviews, Perry’s people sounded ready to follow him through whatever economic or cultural desert he could find, (or create after he was elected). As Christian bands jumped for Jesus, the devout raised their arms in the air like prayer antennae better tuning in to their god. A youth pastor with spiked hair, who had traveled hundreds of miles in a van with his group of teens, stood with his head tilted skyward. The hands of about a dozen young people were placed on his body as if he were an amplifier to more efficiently send their pleadings heavenward. A few worshippers lay on the floor flopping their arms and legs while others closed their eyes and danced in delirium to a beat unheard by non-believers. Parents, meanwhile, sent their toddlers to be watched over at Reliant Stadium’s Jose Cuervo Family Area, where they were not, one hopes, taught to count, “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor!” For what was believed to be the first time in the big football venue’s history, beer was not for sale. When that news came unto reporters, they were “sore afraid.”

Rick Perry had arrived on this big stage in a football stadium for reasons other than his faith. He had built a political career with relentless campaigning, hard right conservatism, and a government power structure that was filled with thousands of appointees who were unfalteringly loyal to his career and conservative political agenda. Texas history had been made when the governor was reelected three times after he had succeeded George W. Bush. Perry ran the state on a protocol that demanded reductions of already austere budgets and the privatization of any government service where there was money to be made by a corporation or one of his lobbyist friends. Although he had denied every inquiry about whether he intended to run for president, Perry was convinced that what he had done in Texas, or had done to Texas, had built a platform for a national campaign. He had gone from a state representative from a small rural community to Texas agriculture commissioner and then Lieutenant Governor before he took over as governor for the departing president-elect Bush. Perry had never lost an election and had become the longest-serving governor in Texas history.

The Texas governor did not think his political achievements were pure luck. Everything to Rick Perry is providential and he was standing before the fervent crowd of Christians in Houston because he was being moved by the spirit, and, according to his wife Anita, summoned by god to run for president of the United States. Perry’s faith raises interesting questions about him as a politician and a man. As he was introducing himself to America as a potential president, he used his Christianity to define his character. But few of his friends or associates recall religion being integral to his personality as he moved up the political ladder in Texas government. Most descriptions of Perry have always included “regular guy” and “likes to have fun,” which might be code for partying behavior when he was younger but can’t be mistaken for outwardly devout. Nonetheless, here he was, stepping into the glare of TV lights to introduce himself as an unwavering Christian, committed to converting all non-believers, before he launched a more formal effort to win the GOP nomination for president.

Organizers insisted that Perry was participating in a strictly religious event, but The Response was about as apolitical as a candidate who drops out to spend more time with his family. It was an agreed-upon fiction. Before Perry came to the stage, James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, compared the U.S.’ situation under President Obama to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, but he said this in a very loving and forgiving Christian way. Dobson, whose radio show potentially reaches hundreds of millions around the globe, has been using his organization since 1977 to affect conservative political change. He is paranoid about the future of heterosexual marriage and is convinced the messages about diversity are really “designed to promote the homosexual agenda.” This was red-letter Republican dogma. By playing the three-note chord of gays, Nazis and Obama, Dobson sneered at claims The Response had nothing to do with politics.

The presumed election of President Obama in October of 2008 had prompted the least reverend to write “A Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America,” which was clearly designed to frighten Christians into rising up against liberal oppression. Dobson’s dark warning to the future predicted an Obama administration would pay mandatory bonuses to gay soldiers and order a gay curriculum in every American school. Boy Scouts and guns were going to be banned; prime time and daytime television were to be rife with explicit pornography (which would free up more disposable income for a lot of families paying for porn subscriptions), Tel Aviv was to be destroyed by a nuclear bomb, Christian school groups and adoption agencies would be illegal, and health care would disappear for all Americans. Full frontal irony, then, that trying to provide health care has been Obama’s biggest political curse. Clearly, this preacher needs Prozac. James Dobson was making the Mayans’ prediction of 2012 being the end of time look like an optimistic vision.

And this was just the opening act.

The governor, though, kept trying to sell his apolitical nonsense, if not to the right wing conservative crowd, then to the 300 journalists and the TV cameras sending his image onto satellites for broadcast. As convinced as he is that god thinks like a Republican, Perry suggested his deity doesn’t vote in Republican primaries.

“He is a wise, wise god,” the governor said. “He is wise enough not to be associated with any political party, or for that matter, he’s wise enough not to be affiliated with any man-made institution.”

He’s also apparently wise enough to avoid Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, and Buddhists. The sponsors of The Response said that all faiths were welcome to the god gala but, well, they didn’t really mean it. The American Family Association (AFA) spent a million dollars to rent the stadium, and they weren’t investing in anything other than creating more Christians and forcing their belief system into the institutions of the U.S. government. The AFA has such a long record of vitriolic attacks on gays and lesbians and non-Christian religions that the Southern Poverty Law Center had categorized the organization as a hate group along with Aryan Nations and the Ku Klux Klan. Donald Wildmon, AFA’s founder, his employees and publications, have claimed that, “Jews favor homosexual rights more than other Americans,” deftly smearing two groups of people with one brief declarative sentence, and that “homosexuality gave us Adolf Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine, and six million dead Jews.” Obviously, Wildmon and his minions teach religious fealty and not history since under Hitler gays were, in fact, rounded up, made to wear a pink triangle, and, eventually, killed by poison gas. Bryan Fischer, who is in charge of issues and policy analysis for the AFA, once wrote that welfare caused black women to “rut like rabbits.” Wildmon’s son Tim, who is AFA’s president, told the Texas Tribune that Jews, Muslims, atheists, and all non-Christians would “go to hell” if they did not accept Jesus Christ as their saviors. Perry supporter Robert Jeffress, a pastor in a Dallas mega church, seemingly holds the same belief regarding Mormons; he described the religion as a cult when introducing Perry to a values voters’ convention in Washington, D.C. He did not back away from his assertion, either, and went on a media tour to push his idea. Perry never moved to denounce Jeffress but said he disagreed with his characterization of Mormonism as a cult. The Texas governor did not say he thought Mormons were Christians.

Going to the prayer rally scared the hell out of at least one Jewish reporter. “Yeah, they had a circumcision pat down to get in here,” he joked. “Was kind of nice. I went back through a second time so they could be sure about me.”

There wasn’t actually much funny about Rick Perry’s prayer gathering, (well, except for the long lines at concession stands buying cheesy nachos, peanuts, popcorn, and hotdogs even though it was billed as a day of prayer and fasting). The unnoticed was what became unnerving. By attending the event, Perry had aligned himself with a radical religious movement called the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), which is built upon a concept called “Dominionism,” and amounts to a coup de god. Dominionists are convinced they have an obligation to serve god by taking control over all of the institutions of government and daily life in order to prepare the earth for the return of Jesus. According to the teachings of their living prophets and apostles, god lost control of the earth when the devil tempted Adam and Eve and the only hope for humankind is to wage warfare against the demons running governments, churches, schools, and probably also your favorite corner pub. NAR is conducting what it refers to as a Seven Mountains Campaign to take over American culture by defeating the demons in charge of arts and entertainment, business, education, family, government, media, and religion. The business thing might be right; there is something demonic about the price of an iPad or a gallon of gasoline, and polling suggests that many liberals would rejoice if Dominionists got Jersey Shore cancelled.

As Rick Perry looked out across the dancing, swinging, swaying, and chanting people arrayed from about the 40 yard line to the Houston Texans end zone (which is otherwise rarely occupied), the people at his side, two leaders of the Dominionist movement, were pleased by his presence. Alice Patterson, who is one of the apostles of the New Apostolic Reformation movement, had been traveling Texas since 2002 trying to convince voters that the Democratic Party was composed of “an invisible network of evil comprising an unholy structure, which was unloosed by the biblical character Jezebel.” Forrest Wilder, writing in The Texas Observer, indicated that Patterson claims to have seen these Democratic demons around the ankles of Jezebel during a 2009 meeting of prophets in Houston. She saw “Jezebel’s skirt lifted to expose tiny Baal, Asherah, and a few other spirits. There they were, small, cowering trembling little spirits that were only ankle high on Jezebel’s skinny legs.” Sure, you’re thinking, “tiny Baal beneath a lifted skirt?” But that’s just too easy.

The African American minister standing just to Rick Perry’s left on the stage, C. L. Jackson, joined Patterson in her exultations. Jackson, who Perry embraced before he left the stage, is not one of the NAR’s apostles but is spending his time trying to convince other African Americans that this Christian movement must infiltrate government and they need to be a part of that effort. Jesus just isn’t coming back until all of the protestant religions have been united, abortion and homosexuality are eliminated, and all Jews are converted to Christianity, all of which makes Jesus seem kind of high maintenance. According to extensive research and reporting conducted by Rachel Tabachnick and Frederick Clarkson of the Talk to Action website, at least eight of the planners of The Response were apostles in the New Apostolic Reformation movement to prepare the world for the End Times. But there is much work yet to do for NAR. Jews won’t convert easily and the Demonic Dems keep fighting for a woman’s right to choose and equal rights for people born with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual. It’s going to be a while before there will be nothing left for anyone to do but find a place to sit and wait for Jesus.

As awareness increases of Perry’s alignment with the New Apostolic Reformation, Jewish voters will likely be troubled. The Texas governor is embracing a theology that envisions its fulfillment of prophecy with the conversion of Jews to Christianity and the destruction of Israel in the Battle of Armageddon. He was not questioned about the Dominionists when he made his first campaign to trip to New York to give a speech about Israel. The language he used was rife with political insensitivities and blamed the Obama administration for “appeasement” of the Palestinians. Perry said that he favored continued construction of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and that as a Christian he had what he described as a “directive” to protect and support Israel. The terminology was an inexact expression of an evangelical belief that Israel’s fate is connected to the return Christianity’s messiah at the end of time. Perry, consequently, supports the Dominionists who want to convert all Jews. At the same time, Perry expresses support for Israel, which the Dominionists and evangelicals envision being destroyed as part of the fulfillment of prophecy.

Robert T. Hughes, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Religion at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, said the Texas governor’s position is impossible to intellectually reconcile. “These fundamentalists like Perry, who appear to be supporting Israel, in fact don’t, because the theology calls for the full destruction of all Jews who don’t believe. That’s the script they believe in. It always surprises me that the state of Israel welcomes these fundamentalists as friends because they aren’t Israel’s friend. They are about Jesus. Everybody else gets annihilated in the end.”

Israel may exercise caution with Rick Perry but he is the prophet that the New Apostolic Reformation has envisioned to take over the “mountain” of government. Perry loves them, too, but not just for their rockin’ radical Christianity. Tabachnick describes this movement as a kind of religio-political hybrid with Prayer Warrior Networks in all 50 states, and that’s probably a part of what gets the spirit to moving in Perry. In secular terms, that’s a pretty healthy GOTV, or “get out the vote,” operation. The prayer networks are direct conduits to church congregations and ministries all across the country.

“I believe it’s [Perry’s and other politicians’ interest in NAR] because they’ve built such a tremendous communication network,” Tabachnick told The Texas Observer. “They found ways to work that didn’t involve the institutional structures that many denominations have. They don’t have big offices, headquarters. They work more like a political campaign.”

President George W. Bush’s political strategist, Karl Rove, made effective use of religious groups to win re-election in 2004. The Bush campaign organized churches and ministries and urged them to use their membership directories to register voters and get their souls to the polls on Election Day. The general assumption, when approaching certain denominations, is their vote will be conservative, so if they vote, they’re probably voting Republican. The challenge for Republicans with Christian voters isn’t persuasion; it’s motivation. In 2000, the Rovian construct of “compassionate conservatism” left these voters cold, and hundreds of thousands stayed home. In 2004, Rove used gay marriage and abortion as issues to motivate Christian voters, and their numbers helped Bush in swing states like Ohio. Although The Response said all the right things about there being nothing political about its assembly of worshippers, the signup list of more than 30,000 attendees got an email a few weeks later from Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association (AFA), the event’s sponsor.

“Today, I want to introduce you to Champion the Vote, a friend of AFA, whose mission is to mobilize 5 million unregistered conservative Christians to register and vote according to the Biblical worldview in 2012,” Wildmon wrote.

Even a small percentage of that number of voters can turn a presidential election. These people are not going to cast their primary ballots for a Mormon, and Michelle Bachman (plus being a female, she has a more “traditional” role to play, according to NAR) didn’t make it to Houston for The Response. Champion the Vote is pushing attendees from The Response to register and talk to other Christians, get them to register, too, and then vote for a candidate with a Biblical approach to government. (Any idea who best fits that description for the New Apostolic Reformation?)

There is always something unsettling to people without religion when they see a crowd of worshippers demonstrating their faith in a great public exhibition. As Rick Perry and the religious leaders stood before the podium and the cameras, the rapt, glassy-eyed look on the faces of so many in the audience suggested scenes from one of the History Channel’s black and white films from pre-war Germany. The description may be harsh but the perception was unavoidable, and certainly more on point than Dobson’s slander of Obama. A creepy kind of Christianity emerges, which may be why one of Jesus’ apostles taught that god did not want anyone to pray in public. The practice was denounced in Matthew, 6:5-7, a long, long time before anyone had ever thought of launching a presidential campaign by having a prayer rally in a football stadium.

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you they have their reward. (This, reward, presumably, is not the presidency). But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

Obviously, there was nothing secretive about The Response or Rick Perry’s involvement in turning Reliant Stadium into a public prayer palace. There were websites and video promotions and email campaigns and numerous marketing efforts by the New Apostolic Reformation. Maybe Perry had an oil lobbyist find them a loophole or two in their Bible so they could pray publicly without sin.

The rampant hypocrisy made an uglier mess than the Texans football team’s defense usually did when Peyton Manning visited that stadium. The governor of Texas and his prayer pals at The Response might have widely proclaimed they are in favor of religious tolerance but the goal is one, gigantic Christian family running the world. They say they don’t hate Jews or Muslims; they are simply sad for non-believers and are praying for them to see the light and convert, which the apostles think is inevitable. If Reliant Stadium had been filled with Muslims on prayer rugs, though, the tolerant Christians would have been parading in protest outside, regardless of the 100-degree Houston heat.

At a news conference the day before the prayerapalooza, members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations made a tenacious grasp at the abundantly obvious. “If it had been a Muslim governor, head of state, and he elected to have Muslim prayer, and opposed bringing other people in, that would have been a big issue,” said Mustafa Carroll of CAIR, a comment to which most observers responded, “Duh, this is Texas.”

The prophets, apostles and followers of the New Apostolic Reformation have operated as if they were invisible from the scrutiny of the general culture. They resist any attempts to label their endeavors and dismiss suggestions they are making progress with their plans to infiltrate the seven “mountains.” In fact, the mainstream media have almost universally failed to notice the movement or its importance in religion and politics. After Michelle Goldberg of Salon wrote about Dominionism and the NAR, CNN’s anchor Wolf Blitzer and analyst Jack Cafferty admitted they had never heard of the term, what it meant, or the NAR, which likely indicated that the hundreds of journalists at The Response had little idea of what was transpiring right in front of their notebooks: Rick Perry was firmly aligning himself with a Christian reform movement whose leaders have told the governor they see him as a divine prophet to take over the government for god and lay the foundation for Christianity to become the planet’s only religion. They actually do want to take over the world. Jesus is still coming, apparently, but not until Rick’s work is done.

“I like him,” a large prayer rally woman said between her loud exhortations of “Amen!” “I think he’s a good Christian man who can get our government back to god.”

Perry was so focused on the adoring throngs of worshipers at Reliant Stadium that he didn’t notice the suffering people he was elected to serve. If he were more closely adhering to the scripture of the faith he was parading as the guiding force in his life, the governor might have facilitated policies to help the disenfranchised in his state. Instead, he had made life more difficult for the unfortunate, whom he has barely ever seemed to notice. A little more than 5 miles distant at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, police estimated that 100,000 people showed up for free school supplies, immunization shots, and fresh fruits and vegetables. The Houston Independent School District (HISD) had expected about 25,000 and was forced to close the doors on most of the needy families waiting in the morning sun. Regardless, 60,000 pounds of food were distributed as well as nylon backpacks for carrying school supplies and vouchers for haircuts and immunizations. Even in the energy capital of America, which Rick Perry claims is booming, school administrators and a few generous oil companies knew there was great need and organized the clinic and the distribution of school supplies.

Fortunately, additional help was expected to arrive for everyone in financial trouble. Just back down the road at the godathon, Governor Perry was praying to improve the situation of those enduring hardship. He had tried the same thing to end the drought but temperatures continued to rise in Texas toward hellish levels. The air conditioning bill the good Christians paid for the use of Reliant Stadium would have likely changed the course of many lives if the money had been spent instead on the needs of the poor just down the road. The million dollars to rent the stadium for The Response would have certainly eased the troubles of every one of those families turned away from the school supply and food giveaway at the convention center.

Instead, they got Perry’s prayers and lamentations.

“Our hearts do break for those who suffer,” he said, “those afflicted by the loss of loved ones, the pain of addiction, the strife that they may find at home, those who have lost jobs, who have lost their homes, people who have lost hope.”

Celebrants did not appear to be speaking in tongues, though Perry’s did sound forked. During the course of his decade long administration, the governor of Texas has been more accomplished at praying in public than helping those in need. In both his personal life and government policy, Rick Perry has shown virtually no interest in giving or providing services to assist his constituents who have “lost hope.” He completely ignores the teachings of Jesus and his instructions to assist “the least of these brothers and sisters.”

Hughes, the religion professor at Messiah College, finds the Texas governor’s public image regarding the poor to be hypocritical. “Rick Perry really bothers me,” he said. “If he were truly a Christian, he wouldn’t be worrying about gay marriage and the other issues that motivate the evangelicals he’s trying to enlist. What has he done as governor, for the poor, the dispossessed? I cannot think of even one fundamentalist leader who has in any meaningful way stepped up in behalf of the poor. They never put poor people or the sick or dispossessed at the center of their agenda. It seems like the louder they talk about Jesus the less they do for the poor. That’s what I find very disturbing about Rick Perry.”

And there is an abundance of clues Perry does not notice the poor.

The best evidence comes from his federal income tax returns. In his three most recently reported filings from 2007 to 2009, Perry’s charitable giving to his church ranges from paltry to non-existent when compared to his income. In 2007, his adjusted gross income, due to a lucrative real estate deal, was $1,092,810; his donation to his church that year was $90. The next year, the governor’s earnings totaled $277.667 and his gift to his church rose to $2,850, which remains the most he has ever given during his ten-year term. He must have been unsettled by sharing that much of his money because in 2009, when he reported earning $200,370, Perry’s charitable contribution to his church was listed as $0. His cumulative adjusted gross income over nine reporting years is $2,694,253 and his sum for church giving is $14,293.

The figures paint the picture of a publicly religious man who stopped reading the Bible before he got to 1 John, 3:18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” Mitt Romney’s Mormon church requires that their congregants “tithe” 10 percent of their annual earnings, which might be another reason Perry wants people to understand he’s not a Mormon; he’s not giving away 10 percent to a church. Perry’s donations reach just over a half of one percent (.53%) of his accumulated yearly income during those nine reporting years. When he gave, the governor also did not miss a chance to make the most of a deduction. Clothing and household items donated to Goodwill were listed individually on his gifts to the charity (with Perry’s liberal assessment of their value). The deduction reached $30,768.

Hope and faith are more politically useful to Rick Perry than charity.

The governor’s charitable spirit appears as little as that “tiny Baal” one of the NAR apostles saw under Jezebel’s skirt. Perry’s personal disposable income is also much higher than the average Texas taxpayer’s because he does not have similar monthly obligations. He has no mortgage payment. In fact, since 2008 when a Texas terrorist threw a firebomb at the mansion and destroyed the historic structure, Perry has been living in a $10,000 a month mansion taxpayers rent for him in the hills of West Austin, which includes a subscription to Food and Wine magazine. The Perry family does not pay utility bills, property taxes, nor do they need to purchase food, home insurance, buy gasoline, or make car payments. The governor’s six figure annual incomes don’t get stretched quite as thinly as the lower wage earners he remembers in his prayers.

The manifestations of Rick Perry’s true attitude toward the less fortunate is much more profound and harmful in his government policies. Texas is no place to be if you are poor, unemployed, elderly, or in need of health care that you cannot afford. His philosophy is best articulated by an opening monologue from a movie Blood Simple, which was filmed in Texas by Ethan and Joel Coen. The character Loren Visser, played by the late actor J. T. Walsh, is explaining how whining about problems does nothing to fix your situation.

“And go ahead, complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help, watch him fly. Now in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else, that’s the theory, anyway. But what I know about is Texas. And down here, you’re on your own.” Any poor, sick kid in Rick Perry’s Texas can testify to that fact.

But Perry still turns to Jesus to help him get elected. During one reelection campaign he sat on a golden throne in the church of Pastor John Hagee in San Antonio. Perry’s custom-made Luchesse cowboy boots (about $2,000 per pair, one named “Freedom,” the other called, “Liberty”), were shining in front of him as Hagee urged his TV congregation and the 5,000 assembled in his gigantic sanctuary to get out and vote. Hagee, round in the face and square in his thinking, issued a dire warning to the 90 million people who are exposed to his broadcast ministry.

“Listen to me,” he said. “I’ll tell it to you plainly. If you do not believe in Jesus Christ and seek his forgiveness through his blood you are going straight to hell with a non-stop ticket.”

Perry didn’t flinch. From his ornate perch in the church’s throne on a red carpet, he was comfortable with the fact that there aren’t a lot of Muslims or Jews in Texas. Christians tend to choose the Republican Party’s nominees, and also winners on Election Day. Hagee had condemned to eternal oblivion less than one percent of the state’s electorate. Perry could live with that, which was proven by the Houston prayer rally.

“There’s nothing he said that I could really disagree with,” Perry told reporters. “My Christian faith teaches that the way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.”

“So Jews and Muslims are going to hell?” The question came from a Jewish reporter.

“I said I don’t disagree with Pastor Hagee,” Perry answered.

Perry might be a little light in his Luchesses on public policy and his interpretations of the Bible but there is something politically and personally calculated about his religious fervor. When his behavior suggests that he believes Jews and Muslims are bound for hell in a gasoline suit designed by Jesus, Perry might be making another kind of statement. “My sins are not big sins. I’m a good Christian man. I’m not like they say I am. Don’t believe what you hear. I’m godly and spiritual.” Is he overcompensating for something by spiritually thumping his chest like Jimmy Swaggart and Ted Haggard?

There is, of course, the possibility that Perry, like many politicians, suffers the additional sins of vanity and ego. His motivation for seeking public office has never been clear. Does he like the attention and the accumulative power? His political career has been marked by opportunism for himself and the wealthy individuals and corporations that have provided him financial support. Each time Perry has acquired a higher office, he has used his influence to add to his power structure and benefit his associates, which raises the essential question of what he might do if elected president. Rick Perry has a vision that has very little to do with the principles he espouses in the public forum.

And he has left a record that can be used to predict a troubling future for America under a Perry administration.