Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Rick Perry Indicted
Hot off the wire from the Associated Press:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A grand jury indicted Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday for allegedly abusing the powers of his office by carrying out a threat to veto funding for state prosecutors investigating public corruption — making the possible 2016 presidential hopeful his state’s first indicted governor in nearly a century.
A special prosecutor spent months calling witnesses and presenting evidence that Perry broke the law when he promised publicly to nix $7.5 million over two years for the public integrity unit run by the office of Travis County Democratic District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. Lehmberg was convicted of drunken driving, but refused Perry’s calls to resign.
Perry’s general counsel, Marry Anne Wiley, defended the governor’s action.
“The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution,” she said. “We will continue to aggressively defend the governor’s lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail.”
I am not a lawyer, and I assume there are Texas-based attorneys amongst the members of Ricochet, so I will let them address the legal details of what is going on here.
My quick take: this is an outrage. Those of us who are native Texans of a certain age will remember the false indictments brought against then-Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in 1993 and 1994 by Travis County prosecutors, all of which were thrown out of court. It is, yet again, an instance of Democrats trying to criminalize political disagreement, revealing the essentially Stalinist attitude that so many in that party take toward dealing with their political opponents.
While I often give the Republican Party a hard time in my comments and Member Feed posts, this particular matter underlines why I so despise the Democratic Party and have never voted for anyone associated with it.
What say you?
Published in General
Battlefield prep.
Because it works. Because the Left has poisoned all the mediums for dispensing information and values: education, news media, entertainment media. Because the American people are so ignorant and credulous, more than half of them have come to believe in a free lunch. And because Republicans seem incapacitated in the face of the progressive onslaught.
But, other than that, I plan to “have a nice day.” And pray for Rick Perry.
Saw the show when the touring company came to Buffalo. Laughed so much it hurt. Parker & Stone have mastered the art of lampshading offensiveness: when someone does something offensive, there’s at least one person on stage with an appropriately horrified expression. I right now have several songs stuck in my head, not a single one of which I could recount here without violating Ricochet’s terms of service.
This is the lesson we failed to learn about Palin. Like her or not, when one of ours gets unfairly rolled in the media, the right thing to do is defend ours against damaging attacks. You don’t have to agree with or support (for office) one of ours in order to provide real value in maintaining a “defensible border”. By sacrificing Palin, joining in the attacks, the GOP played into the left’s hands, and went a long way toward splitting the party.
Until the GOP stops chasing the approval of leftists and the mush-headed middle, nothing will change. Our base is much larger than theirs, and wants nothing to do with a party that won’t fight, but instead tries to get everything done through negotiation and compromise. That’s a memo’s job, not a man’s, and it disgusts those whom the GOP needs most of all — the energized people who will fight for America, and whom the coffe-shop commentariat has no use for.
Exactly what I was thinking.
I have no idea what the legal reality is here, or for that matter the real reality. I am neither a Perry fan nor detractor, so that’s not it for me. But the average voter has little tolerance for lawyers or legal technicalities, and I think it would be pretty easy for Perry to flip this around, because aside from child predators there is nothing the public likes less than a drunk driving politician/lawyer.
Do you have any recommendations for how Perry ought to accomplish that reframing? A good number of the people who learn about this will do so from an aside about corruption charges with no context.
As I said earlier, the footage of the awful woman is helpful, because some people will see that, but it’s not such comedy gold that tens of millions will see it.
The real issue is how the MSM will play this. Disgustingly, I think we know the answer.
ROFL, nearly.
People Magazine has linked to the video. Their article on the indictment was surprising not anti-Perry, and many of the comments were pro-Perry. If People is handing out this video, lots of ordinary people WILL see it, and it will cause other similar sites to link to it. I think this could end up going well for Perry, but there will be a fight. I have no doubt Perry and his team are equal to it. Is the rest of the GOP? Lord, I hope so.
Yes, great point. That list earlier should have read Palin, Walker, Christie, now Perry.
You don’t win a war by preemptively surrendering at every battle.
Yes, and the way to play it is the honest way: this is what the Democrats do to a politician who tries to make sure we have a clean government.
That footage of the DA needs to be in television ads from the Abbot campaign. Now.
Was she elected or appointed?
Didn’t Pres. Obama usurp the House’s constitutional authority to fund or not fund government programs, by threatening to veto the entire budget if the House defunds Obamacare?
Where are the Travis County lawyers when we need them?
Okay, people, here’s my free legal advice for the day: don’t expect a lawyer to solve this problem, quit treating it like a legal matter, quit parsing statutes, and quit wondering how this is going to wind its way through the courts. This is nothing more than a political attack gussied up as a criminal matter, so start treating it as such. A lawyer won’t solve this problem; a bare-knuckle political brawler will. Someone in Travis County has started a bar fight, so pick up a bar stool, start swinging, and finish it. Perry or his supporters need to cut that footage into a series of ads and broadcast them all over Texas (a kid with iMovie with an hour of spare time could produce an effective spot). Send the ads out over YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Don’t sit back and hope media outlets pick up on it. Engage in a little self help and get it out there.
I repeat in conclusion: don’t ask lawyers how to handle this.
Amen to that. Treating this like a game of croquet at the country club will not work at all.
MAAAAN, this is just getting better and better! This is going to be one of my favorite stories of 2014 :-)
Axelrod is trying to signal the democrats off this ledge. Ix-nay on erry-Pay! My guess is there might even be some Republicans who could be coaxed into not trashing Perry. Glory Be!
Yep, Axelrod’s reaction is very telling, for he’s as partisan as partisan gets.
Also, given her drinking habits, it seems that Ms. Lehmberg is either a one-woman distillery or an aspiring rapper.
Perry comes alive!
http://youtu.be/oJHdUEv0Mnk
Piss off a liberal…. vote Gov. Perry for President!
After the events of this weekend, I just may do that!
She was elected.
Re : Mike LaRoche’s comment (#49)
The video that needs to get out there is the one in which Ms. Lehmberg is eventually staggering about refusing to take instructions to take 9 heel to toe steps. (Second one at link at comment # 49.) No one watching can miss that she was driving drunk off her posterior. (By the way, the two officers dealing with her are incredibly sharp, patient professionals. People driving there are very fortunate to have them watching the roads.)
I’m praying for Rick Perry.
Please, people. We must dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. Lehmberg was the District Attorney heading up the Public Integrity Unit. Those words need to be overlaid on every ding-dang video clip of her staggering around and abusing police officers. And Perry, when he talks about losing confidence in her, needs to specify “as the head of the Public Integrity Unit” every ding-dang time!!!
It’s not because she’s a Democrat. It’s because it’s painfully obvious she’s unsuited to the position she holds in government!
The Left may have just scored an own goal here.
People all around the country are going to see these videos of her acting like a fool, and sympathize with Perry.
This gives Perry street cred. That’s why so many on the Left realize their mistake here: they’re demonstrating what fools they are, and Rick Perry takes the sort of actions the American electorate wants out of their politicians.
The problem with this is Democrats don’t realize that democratic politics allows us to be a peaceful society. Once you start using the law to punish your political enemies, people who disagree with you no longer feel like the law is blind, which leads to anger and rage. This in turn makes people feel that they have to then take law into their own hands because they perceive the law is never used to support them and their view points, only against them. This in turn leads to an escalation of violence. I am afraid we are on a path to destruction of peace and freedom and feel totally helpless to do anything about it. This must be how many Federalist and Whigs felt in the mid 19th century.
Congratulate Rick Perry, because if he plays it right he just became the GOP frontrunner.
The big question: will Perry have to declare this to the FEC as an in-kind contribution to Perry 2016?
I agree with everything you say. The Democratic Party is basically an organized crime syndicate.