While it may be entertaining to watch Rick Perry dress like Liberace and talk like a slightly more coherent Palin, it's costing Texas thousands of good-paying middle-class jobs. And thanks to the GOP, it's going to get a lot worse. In a front-page article, the Houston Chronicle discusses the growing political impotence of the Lone Star state.
One of Tom DeLay's Rorschach-like districts is (vaguely) represented by Michael McCaul (R-Clear Channel Communications, Inc.). In a district which was carefully made to ensure a safe Republican seat for decades to come, McCaul actually had to campaign in '08, to avoid a challenge from a democratic challenger best known for a local-market "people's court" type show.
Republican Texas governor Rick Perry has had quite a year. While the historic governors mansion burned while his security staff were distracted by more important tasks - perhaps responding to phony arrests, hiding expense reports, or watching mexicans on webcams, a theater-going (socialist!) pedestrian (liberal!) alerted the (socialist!) fire department, who put out the blaze. No word yet on whether they made the firemen wait for a creepy pastor to give an inspirational prayer.
Gov. Perry may have confused the actual arson in his own house with the non-arson at another house, a non-crime for which he ordered a man to be executed.
But I digress. While Gov Perry was prancing around in front of the teabaggers with promises to secede, protected Texans against any assistance from the government, Representative McCaul did... well, not much, from what anyone can tell. Other than rake in a lot of money from Rush Limbaugh and Clear Channel.
So you can understand why this pair of political irrelevants was completely taken aback when a Wisconsin company undercut their largest military contract by 10%, thanks to help from a job-friendly democratic representative.
When asked how this happened - how a multi-billion-dollar deal supporting thousands of jobs in a state with the the lowest percentage of people with health insurance in the county - Republican Governor Rick Perry seemed almost insulted that someone would think he's supposed to worry about such things. Really.
Elected officials in Texas assumed the contract would remain in their state, relied on networks of support built up during Republican control of the White House and Congress and did not provide BAE Systems any state assistance.
Katherine Cesinger, Perry's deputy press secretary, said BAE Systems "did not ask our office for any assistance prior to the recent decision."
Well, the governor was busy pallin' around with terrorists and teabagging. So the job fell to rep McCaul, who apparently still doesn't realize that Tom DeLay isn't doing his homework for him anymore.
Only a couple months before word of the massive job and revenue loss, McCaul had abandoned a run for Texas Attorney General, possibly indicating that even Perry doesn't have a lot of confidence in him.
Texans are still paying the bill for George W. Bush, and perhaps it is only fair for the state to fade into political irrelevance, but the communities watching jobs vanish to other states with competent and serious governments, will suffer the real damage.