WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Gov. Rick Perry
is drifting further and further away from his own rhetoric and record
in Texas as he seeks a respectable showing in Iowa's Jan. 3 presidential
caucuses.
Perry made "states' rights" one of the mantras of his
2010 re-election as governor, arguing repeatedly that states could come
up with their own solutions to problems the federal government is trying
to solve. But Perry, who is talking increasingly about religion these
days, told Fox News Sunday that he would push for a constitutional
amendment that would "allow" prayer in school. It's unclear exactly what
form that would take, but his is undoubtedly a federal approach to an
issue that many governors might like to handle themselves, just as Texas
lawmakers did in 2003 by passing a law that called for a moment of
silence at the start of the school day.
Campaigning later that day
in Ames, Iowa, Perry talked about Solyndra, the now-bankrupt energy
company that got a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama
administration. Perry-watchers were quick to notice that Perry referred
to Solyndra as a country. But Christy Hoppe of The Dallas Morning News
was there and caught something more important, which is that Perry said,
"We got to get the government out of deciding everything — picking
winners and losers." As Hoppe noted, hundreds of millions of Texas
taxpayer dollars have flowed to companies through Perry's
economic-development funds. Many have called this picking winners and
losers.
Then, on Tuesday, Perry released a new ad saying that members of Congress should not become lobbyists.
Perry
says in the ad: "Washington is the capital of political correctness,
where doublespeak reigns and the truth is frowned upon. You can't say
that congressmen becoming lobbyists is a form of legal corruption. ...
You and I know it's true — but not politically correct."
If
lawmakers becoming lobbyists is a form of legal corruption, Texas is an
awfully corrupt place. Legislators regularly become lobbyists, sometimes
even quitting in the middle of their terms to do so.
Perry has
not moved to stop this in his 11 years as governor. The Center for
Public Integrity found in a 2006 report that Texas had more
legislators-turned-lobbyists than any other state, although the
percentage of lobbyists who had been legislators was higher in some
states than in Texas.
More to the point is Perry's willingness to use lobbyists on his own staff.
According
to a forthcoming report from the left-leaning watchdog group Texans for
Public Justice, 43 people who worked on Perry's gubernatorial staff
between December 2000 and August 2011 also worked as lobbyists at other
points during Perry's gubernatorial tenure. Their average income from
lobbying work ranged from $1.2 million to $2.3 million. The list
includes some of his highest-ranking aides, including former chiefs of
staff Mike Toomey and Ray Sullivan.
Asked about the
Texas/Washington discrepancy, Perry spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said
the system cannot be gamed in Texas the way it is at the federal level.
"Unlike Congress, Texas lawmakers are part-time, we don't have earmarks
and we must have a balanced budget, so we can only spend what we take
in," Frazier said.
On the other hand, I've heard more than one
part-time legislator in Texas talk about needing to take a high-paying
lobby job because serving in the Legislature had hurt them financially.
Either
way, we'll soon see if Perry's message is working. Some polls indicate
that he is creeping back up in Iowa, where he began a 42-town bus tour
Wednesday, while Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney show signs of slipping.
Of
course, Romney and Gingrich have aimed their fire at each other, taking
most of the media attention with them. Perry doesn't appear to be
anyone's primary target.
But if Perry makes a comeback, the
scrutiny from the national media and his opponents will again intensify.
And both groups will have plenty to work with when comparing Rick Perry
to Rick Perry.
jembry@statesman.com
