Texas, Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchinson: Conservative, Anti-Washington Tide Rolls On

You may have heard that Governor Rick Perry defeated Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson BADLY in the Republican primary for governor of Texas.


Is this because Rick Perry is such a great "conservative". Not on your life. One of my nightmares is that Perry--ambitious as I know him to be--will run for President. Like George W. Bush before him Perry has been okay as governor of Texas, but would be a disaster as President. He has hardly distinguished himself as a principled advocate of conservative causes. You only have to go to his Executive Order requiring young girls in public schools to have the HPV virus vaccine to know that Perry is not really a principled conservative. Yes, he also was somewhat two-faced on the Obama "stimulus" money, and was--I believe--very glad to get it to avoid any hard decisions on the Texas budget. Both groups supporting Perry and groups supporting Hutchinson were able to run attack ads against the other as not a "real" conservative. Perry supporting ads were right about Hutchinson, and Hutchinson supporting ads were right about Perry.


Yes, Hutchinson has been an okay Senator, but hardly--as Perry--a principled conservative. I think people of Texas saw no reason she should not stay where she was. But there was something more fundamental going on, as conservative commentators have pointed out.


Hutchinson is clearly part of the WASHINGTON ESTABLISHMENT. Even if you can attack Perry's conservative credentials--correctly recognizing that he is an OPPORTUNIST who becomes "conservative" mainly in Texas elections--he is not tainted with Washington. That was a decisive advantage for Perry.


Voters in Texas, and the country, no longer have ANY trust in Washington politicians--for good reason. That is especially true of Democrats--as the party "in charge"--but it is true of Republicans who are part of the Washington establishment as well. There was no way for Hutchinson to avoid that label, and so she had no chance in Texas.


Yes. Perry lucked out because Texas has done well--comparatively--in the recession. In my opinion, that has more to do with Texas being a conservative state than with Perry. Still, Perry did not mess it up--at least not badly. The Texas governor does not even have that much power, which is why many people were surprised that Hutchinson wanted the job. Nevertheless, it is true that the Texas result is another example of a conservative tide sweeping the country. There is absolutely no doubt it was an ANTI-WASHINGTON vote--whatever else it was. No Republican should doubt that. People are ready to vote against the Republican "establishment" in Washington almost as much as they are ready to vote against the Democratic establishment. Republican politicians who like their own power, rather than having any real conservative principles, had better take warning. Otherwise, their days are numbered. John McCain, this means YOU (although it is really too late for McCain, whether he survives the primary in Arizona or not).