Something I Need to Say
I am not one of the folks calling for Rick Perry to step down as Governor and I believe it is a major mistake to do so.
I am a Democrat and therefore I believe in the rule of law. You are innocent until proven guilty. Period. No exceptions. None.
Additionally, we Democrats were all outraged when Rick Perry asked District Attorney Lehmberg to step down. We were right to be angry. We even supported her when she was found guilty and served her jail sentence. Her behavior was unacceptable but we stood behind her. It seems more than a tad duplicitous for us to now call for Perry’s resignation.
Instead, let’s stay true to our core beliefs – something that separates us from the other party – and allow Perry to stay in office until a new Governor is elected. Until then, Perry can be the leader of his party, set the ethical standard for Texas Republicans, be a big help to his current Attorney General by forcing him to make shady decisions, and be the shining example of what Republicans offer the State of Texas. That’s fine with me. After all, he’s awesome.
With any luck at all their nominee for Attorney General will also be indicted next month.
If anyone should be calling for Perry’s resignation it should be Rick Perry himself and his fellow Republicans.
I just needed to say that.
P.S. – Ya think he was disappointed to discover that his magical glasses don’t work?
Thank you, Juanita Jean. That puts you right up on a pedestal, or at least a platform, for all of us to keep in mind.
1Thank you, Juanita Jean. The woman paid the price for her actions. May Perry do the same.
2I agree. Let the legal system do its thing.
Ms. Lehmberg did.
Every person deserves equal justice, under the law.
3I agree with you … since pRick makes his own bed then, by golly, he needs to lie in it until it’s time to change the sheets!! And, no, that’s NOT a KKK reference … however, if you don’t use sheets on your bed, then that’s just tacky! LOL
When I saw pRick had been indicted last night, I almost did a happy dance!! I just knew JJ would be smiling!!!
4In an age of such divisive, partisan politics, it is a good reminder that we truly need to return to an age of civility (if ever there was one).
Thanks, JJ.
5@Marge Wood: Entirely agree. The problem with the right-wingnuts is their moral relativism: Republicans judge the morality of an action not by the action itself, but whether it helps them win and/or hold power.
Unlike the right wing fanatics, we have true morals: an action is right or wrong in and of itself, regardless of whether it is politically useful. Let’s stay true to ourselves, and assume the accused is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
That said, if one wants to state that Rick Perry should resign because of his admitted actions (and not because he was indicted by a grand jury for those actions), I’d say go for it. There is no dispute that Rick Perry threatened to withhold funds from the public corruption office unless the person in charge of that office resigned. Whether that was an illegal action will be decided in a court of law – but there’s no dispute that Rick Perry made that threat, and that undisputed act renders him unfit for public office in my opinion.
6JJ,
7Sometimes it’s hard to listen to the voice of reason when your reptilian brain is just itching for sweet revenge, but darn it child, you’re absolutely right!
As far as the magical glasses go, he needs to get another pair, perhaps with a wider black rim, one that tunnels his vision even more.
8I was drinking my morning coffee contemplating how we got here with pRick in the Governor’s mansion. What a mess! And why doesn’t Texas have a term limit safety valve to prevent a Governor pRick from ever happening again?
9Standards, something I never thought I’d use in a sentence with the name of former President George W. Bush, but here it is: The Bush Standard for Impeachment. If that man didn’t rise to the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors requisite for impeachment, then the rule of law must apply to Governor Perry, President Obama, Ms. Lehmberg and others, be they Democrat, Republican or Independent.
Without a doubt, there have been some scoundrels elected to office in all 50 states, but we must hope are courts have not been so corrupted that justice will not be served.
10I’m not a Texan, just an out-of-state bleeding heart Democrat, so I don’t have a Texan’s stake in Rick Perry; still, I think you’re right. He’s innocent until proven guilty in court. In the meantime, he can continue to provide a horrible example of Texas politics, and encourage sane voters to keep his party’s next nominee out of the Governor’s mansion. I shall continue to tamp down feelings of schadenfreude (mostly) and wait for justice to take its course.
11Excellent points, Juanita Jean.
Our legal system may not always work as well as we would like, but this should be allowed to play out in a civilized fashion.
Also the longer this drags on, the better for Wendy.
12Agree.
13The phrase is more correctly, “…innocent UNLESS proven guilty in court”, but as has been mentioned, the evidence that Perry is guilty is merely waiting for the formality of being entered into court records — then, the verdict and sentencing.
I hope with all these Republican crooks being investigated and indicted and being tried in court, that there’s not some kind of RWNJ supportive backlash this November, entrenching the GOP crooks even deeper in state and Washington DC government.
14Couldn’t agree more.
Repubs hate our laws which is why they break them so often.
I say let our laws break their whole Party.
Have as many Corn Dogs as you can now, Rick. I don’t think they don’t serve them in prison.
(yes, I’m taking the high road here, teehee)
15Agree. Let him keep making a fool out of himself. It scares me though that he’s so reckless with the taxpayer’s money as with the latest border
16Fiasco with the National Guard…let’s hope he doesn’t get carried away and leave us in a bad place like Bushie did while in the Whitehouse.
Well….I just hope the same guillotine of indictment falls on the necks of Ken Paxton and Greg Abbutt in the near future, prior to election day. Unfortunately, those rabid rightwing nutjobs probably won’t have an epiphany and change their (R)obot voting habits.
@ Kallie: We’ve been footing the bill for pRicky’s extravagant dog and pony shows, forays into bigger political circles, and God only knows how many dollars we spent on his little rental unit while the Gov’s Mansion was being renovated. This National Guard Fiasco is standard operating procedure… kinda like Abbutt’s BS about not releasing info on chemical storage facilities after receiving a big Koch Bros contribution.
Some leadership, huh?
What a load of toads.
17He’s “aw”-something-or-other, but I’m not sure it’s “-some.” It’s more like “-ful.” You’re exactly, 100% right about not piling on, but letting him hang himself. That’s one thing he’s perfectly capable of doing.
18“Thesis: Rick Perry is a fundamentally honest man who is just too dumb to understand ethics.”–a tweet.
19@Texans: Who is his Lt. Governor, and is he/she as bad or worse?
20Teh Gerg, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has received mentions here at the WMDBS, Inc. Can’t recall if any of the mentions were “honorable.” General consensus seems to be that the Dew is a tool.
21If you don’t demand his head on a platter,it will be taken as a sign of weakness and only fortify wingnuts perceptions of Dems as gutless wimps. Just saying and no offense.
22His head on a platter AFTER conviction.
I do not think he should be allowed to remain governor when convicted, but apparently that’s the way the law is. It needs fixing in that case. First, term limits. Then, “cannot get salary and retirement both.” Then, “cannot continue to serve in office after felony conviction.”
23I could almost agree..How much more damage can he do the bext few weeks? Until…..I don’t have skin in the last game he is playing. UNLESS as he has threatened, the US taxpayers foots the bill for his dishonest stunt. Then the whole country has “skin”. Twelve million is NOT the real cost.. And that is not taking into consideration the men whose lives, families, jobs will be disrupted for nothing but stupid grandstanding. Wonder how many will lose their jobs and have nothing to come back to while he will have private jets and busses to run around the country making Texans look like fools…again. Look at the money he wasted the first time. Look how much his private political ambitions have cost working class Texans the last few months. How many have died with bad or no health care while he rides high on Public money?
24There isn’t time to go through the charade of even talking about impeachment but he SHOULD go to prison. Too bad all the dishonest things he has done can’t be added to the sentence. He is not worth the pain of even one hungry child.
Elizabeth, unless the law has changed, disabled veterans who are convicted of a felony can be stripped of their benefits. If it’s still true, that is demonstrably unfair, as veterans have earned their benefits and often their incarceration is related to their military service such as PTSD, homelessness, drug addiction from the ‘mere’ treatment of their wounds.
Politicians and the word ‘earned’ are not easy to fit into a sentence. pRick Perry has never held a real job, yet became a millionaire as a result of being elected. The Grand Jury indicted him on 3 charges; he bears further investigation along the lines of “follow the money,” specifically his money and the plethora of potential crimes he committed to feather his nest.
“Elected” officials when convicted of crimes need to have every tax payer benefit stripped from them. Let them do their time and learn to earn a living. Maybe then they’ll learn some compassion for the many sent into the Prison Industrial Complex and legislate some real reform.
In keeping with JJ’s fairness doctrine, all politicians, Democratic and Republican, who leave office and benefit financially, should be taxed at a minimum of 50% for what they earned as exploiters of our time.
25e platypus onion #22 said: “If you don’t demand his head on a platter,it will be taken as a sign of weakness and only fortify wingnuts perceptions of Dems as gutless wimps. Just saying and no offense.”
I agree with the political reality of what e platypus said, but I also agree with Juanita Jean that Perry should go through the legal process before we demand his resignation. Wendy Davis is breaking along these lines with the Texas Dem Party too, apparently:
“State Sen. Wendy Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor, passed on the opportunity Saturday morning to call for Gov. Rick Perry’s resignation following his indictment by a Travis County grand jury.”
“That puts her at odds with the state Democratic Party, which said the governor should resign shortly after the indictment was revealed.”
Houston Chronicle: Davis declines to call for Perry’s resignation over indictment
26http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2014/08/davis-declines-to-call-for-perrys-resignation-over-indictment/
All the good little wingnut commenters are saying that DA Lehmberg should have resigned,but Perry doesn’t need to because he has done nothing wrong. Let the courts decide that issue. Lehmberg paid her fine,did the jail time and was found to have done nothing seriously wrong. She doesn’t appear to have an ongoing relationship with booze,like SOH Boner who can be found to be be lit up like a christmas tree at any hour of the congressional day. As I have said many times before,being nice to wingnuts is a zero sum game for Dems.
27PS-after the way the minority wingnuts have been allowed to gerrymander the state of Texas,they are the last political party that should be complaining about partisanship.
28“We don’t settle political differences with indictments in this country,” Perry said.
Tell us Rick what Clinton’s impeachment was all about!!
Like Nixon, you don’t understand – none of us is above the law!!!
29I totally agree; all to often, court cases are tried in the media and this does a complete injustice to all of us. Let the justice system work.
30I have mixed feelings on this. Certainly any legal consequences should happen only after due process. However, elected officials should be held to higher standards than the merely legal.
In California right now we have one state senator, Leland Yee, who has been arrested for gun-running and bribery, among other things. I don’t see how he can possibly do his job with that hanging over his head. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/27/calif-state-senator-arrested-for-alleged-gun-running-was-gun-control-advocate/
There really is no good solution.
31Perry wants to misuse the law to protect his friends from these same laws. If Lehmberg resigned she would have been replaced by an extremely partisan wingnut who wouldn’t know an ethic if it bit his butt.
32Totally agree!!
33We, the Democrats, need to support the Law no matter what!
Perfect. You said everything that needed to be said.
34@MISSPRISSYBRITCHES: THANKS for stating the many ways pRick has misused our state funds, obviously the only things he cares about are himself and lining his pockets. I shudder to think of him being anywhere near the whitehouse.
35I don’t want him to resign. I want him to squirm and twist for the next two years as a warning to the voting public. This is what you get when you vote out of fear and hate. You get the TeaPublican Party.
36