"Come on down!"

Last week, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy signed into law what advocacy groups are heralding as the strictest gun limits in the nation, including measures that expand the state’s list of banned ‘assault’ weapons and restrict magazine capacities to ten rounds — and it didn’t take long for one of Connecticut’s gun manufacturers to follow suit [...]

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Six of which are in...

I’m starting to think that President Obama should probably drop Gov. Rick Perry and some other red-state governors a quick thank-you note for contributing more than their “fair share” to this economic “recovery” we’re in. As Ed summarized last week, final fourth quarter GDP growth came in at 0.4 percent with overall 2012 GDP growth [...]

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Excuses.

An unsparing piece keying off the same Rick Perry soundbite at CPAC that inspired this post. Perry said that it’s unfair to blame conservatism for the GOP’s losses in 2008 and 2012 because, after all, our nominees weren’t conservative. Emery’s response: Then why did Republican primary voters vote for them instead of for a solid [...]

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Credentials.

Via Ace, skip to 17:00 for the money line. Judging from Drudge, against all odds on a day when both Rubio and Paul spoke, Perry seems to have walked away with the killer soundbite from CPAC. I don’t buy his argument, though. Obama won in 2008 because the public was exhausted with Bush and he [...]

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Open thread.

SPRING BREAK! Well, you know, if you can call conservative politicians, leaders, reporters, and grassroots activists taking a few days to share their thoughts and visions for the Republican party, and more specifically this year, to review the dagger to the heart that was last November’s election — so, wash? Mary Katharine and I will [...]

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Trends.

California Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration yucked it up when Texas Gov. Rick Perry offered an open invitation to California companies to come on down and check out the Lone Star state’s business climate, chiding that maybe Texas should devote a little more of their time and resources to fixing their own domestic troubles and claiming [...]

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Shots fired.

I love federalism. Which is to say, really, that I love competition. When states, like businesses, compete for their desired goals in a free-market scenario, everybody wins in the long run, because the policies that really work and appeal to the most people will come out on top. Texas and California are often compared as [...]

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Giving back.

On the (all-too-rare, harumph) occasion that a particular state ends up with a budget surplus, that state might use the leftover money to pay down debt, add cushion to a rainy day fund, put down payments on infrastructure projects, and etcetera. Several GOP governors are currently looking into their respective states’ tax codes and revenue [...]

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Better to have a gun and not need it than not have one and wish you did.

OK, raise your hands — how many of you are surprised by this? Governor Rick Perry gave Barack Obama a Texas-sized pushback on the new gun-control agenda at the White House: “The Vice President’s committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with [...]

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Federalism.

While we all wait with bated breath for President Obama to figure out if he wants to be more or less of a stickler on domestic energy production, i.e. as he dithers at the fork in the road of letting the economy do what it does best and take fuller advantage of our abundant energy [...]

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Meme-busting.

A couple of days old, but I thought it was sufficiently well-played that it merited a post. So, this (kind of deeply off-putting) “For All” sloganeering Team Obama’s got going on, presumably to try and drum up a little Hopenchange-esque enthusiasm? It seems like the idea is to play off the last “liberty and justice [...]

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Texas toast?

The predicted tight race in the Republican runoff for the open US Senate seat in Texas may never appear.  According to a new PPP poll on the eve of the election, conservative favorite Ted Cruz has a ten-point lead over Lt. Governor David Dewhurst.  If Dewhurst is Texas toast, he can thank Texas tea: PPP’s [...]

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"It was not only inappropriate, but simply incorrect on its face."

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to the NAACP convention in Houston, criticizing Texas and other states currently being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for enacting voter ID laws in an attempt to combat voter fraud. Comparing voter ID laws to Jim Crow-era “poll taxes,” Holder more or less accused Texas, et [...]

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Don't mess.

On Monday, Texas Governor Rick Perry sent a rather pointed letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, explaining why his state will not be taking measures to prepare for the implementation of ObamaCare (specifically, with Medicaid expansion and a state insurance exchange). Burrrrrrrn: In the ObamaCare plan, the federal government sought to force [...]

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Governors' Brawl

[Governor Rick] Perry “has no interest in fast-tracking any portion of this bankrupting and overreaching legislation,” deputy press secretary Josh Havens said. The court’s 5-4 decision upheld most of the controversial 2010 health care law, but gave opponents a minor victory when it ruled that states could decide whether to participate in the Medic­aid expansion [...]

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Showdown

I don’t know if the Pony Express is running behind schedule or what, but somebody needs to pop down to the Lone Star State and let them know that the circular firing squad portion of this year’s entertainment is supposed to be shutting down. And yet, the temperatures seem to still be running well up [...]

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Hmmm.

A snapshot of sentiment among the base as the Dewhurst/Cruz primary run-off approaches. Perry wasn’t booed throughout, of course; he received “roars of approval and applause” during most of his speech. This was the only discordant moment, apparently, and man, is it discordant. Look at it this way, though: Only a pol who’s totally secure [...]

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Proxies.

Actually, Huck endorsed Dewhurst months ago — a minor surprise, since Dewhurst is also supported by Huckabee friend-turned-enemy Rick Perry — but he’s starring in a campaign ad for him that was released just this afternoon. Palin’s endorsement is brand new, though, and will help boost Cruz’s profile with early voting set to start in [...]

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Plus, "people coming out of the woodwork" to donate to Romney.

Remember the kerfuffles over book editions and “vulture capitalism”?  Water under the bridge.  Rick Perry announced his endorsement of Mitt Romney last night, after confirming with Newt Gingrich that his campaign will roll to a stop next Tuesday: Texas Gov. Rick Perry endorsed likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Wednesday after campaign aides to [...]

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Obama's War on Women's Health.

When the Texas state administration first considered a rule to ban Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from participating in the Texas’ Women’s Health Program, which is jointly funded by the state of Texas and the federal government, the Obama administration retaliated by threatening to cut funding to the program entirely. Texas Health and Human [...]

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Floating a Gingrich-Perry ticket for Southern voters?

The critical primaries this week take place in Alabama and Mississippi tomorrow, and we can expect one last flurry of polling in both states as the pollsters make their last bets.  PPP has decided not to bet at all.  In its final surveys in the two contests, they predict a dead heat in both states: [...]

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Don't mess.

At CPAC, Texas Gov. Rick Perry quipped, “I haven’t left the fight; I just went home, reloaded my Mag and am fighting on a different front.” Clearly, he wasn’t kidding. Texas today cut Medicaid funding to abortion providers — even though the administration threatened to cut the state’s funding if it did so. The Daily [...]

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Still no quitter.

Don’t know what it is about the guy, but Rick Perry inspires me. Remember the day after his apex-of-awkward “oops” moment? He hit the morning shows to say, “This ain’t a day for quittin’.” Talk about a motivating moment. Yesterday, he repeated his demonstration of the power of positive thinking. In his first public appearance [...]

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Republican debate -- party of four?

CNN reports that Rick Perry will withdraw from the Republican presidential race today, based on information from two sources in the campaign.  No one who followed the polling can be surprised by this decision.  Perry has not come out of the mid-single digits in South Carolina for weeks, and his debate performance on Monday was [...]

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Endgame.

Hard to argue. South Carolina’s the last stand of the Not Romneys. Join or die. Erickson: For a generation, Rick Perry was undefeated. Now he will go back to Texas and everyone who ever lost to Rick Perry will seek to settle old scores. It will be a tough, bloody fight. He will have to [...]

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