Rick Perry: “They Made Me Do It”

Don’t you just love our Texas governor? A big man armed with a big laser-sighted gun to kill varmints on his executive jogs, but completely whipped when it comes to his DPS security detail.

And, apparently, the state legislature.

In the video below, Rick Perry explains to a KENS news reporter why it is that he, a self-described fiscal conservative, is spending 10,000 tax dollars a month to keep himself in some very fancy suburban Austin digs while Texans from El Paso to Beaumont are suffering from the excesses of GOP-inspired kleptomania on Wall Street.



Get it? His security detail made him do it.

And the state legislature.

The state legislature? Since when does Rick Perry know or care about what the state legislature thinks? This thought, I think, occupied the mind of State Rep Jim Dunnam who drafted a letter that was hand-delivered to Perry – and released to the public – yesterday.

The main parts of which you may find below.

I saw your June 3rd interview with KENS 5: San Antonio regarding the already $600,000 taxpayer dollars spent on your rental mansion. I was surprised to hear you attribute the selection of the $9,000 a month mansion, plus utilities and upkeep, to the Department of Public Safety and the Texas Legislature. As I have no recollection of participation in that discussion I respectfully request the following information:

(1) Specific citation of support for your claim that the choice of your rental mansion was decided or debated by Members of the Legislature, including names of Members or staff.

(2) Any evidence of legislative and/or DPS approval of your heated outdoor pool, employee salaries for your full-time chef, part-time chef, and full-time maid, your Neiman Marcus window dressings, the cost of “emergency repair” for your filtered ice machine, and your two-year subscription to Food & Wine Magazine, including names of Members or staff in the House, Senate or DPS who authorizes these expenditures.

Food & Wine Magazine?

I’ll bet even Barack Obama hasn’t ever read an article in Food & Wine Magazine let alone allowed taxpayer dollars purchase a two-year subscription to it.

Teabaggers are going to have an interesting choice this fall. All of those folks who voted for Debra Medina in the March primary may just have to swallow their bile and vote for a silk stocking wearing taxpayer-hating, chardonnay-drinking governor for an unprecedented 3rd term.

It’s either that or flock to the banner of the Libertarian Party of Texas who will convene next weekend in Austin to choose their candidates for governor and lieutenant governor.

I am liking the odds that Bill White has in taking the governor’s place this fall better and better all the time.