posted at 3:15 pm on February 26, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
If anyone has any experience with “fleebagging,” it’s Rick Perry. When Texas Republicans proposed a redistricting plan in 2003, Democrats in the state legislature fled to Oklahoma rather than participate in governing when they knew they would lose. The governor faced down the Texas fleebaggers, and they ended up returning ignominiously, both to immediate defeat on the proposal and to long-term defeat in the state.Republicans now have supermajorities in both chambers of their state legislature, and Perry won his third term as governor last year.
My friend Rob Bluey of Heritage interviewed Perry for Big Government to comment on the circus in Wisconsin, and needless to say, Perry doesn’t have a high opinion of the state Senators who fled Madison for Illinois. He calls them “immature” and “juvenile” and predicts that the outcome in Wisconsin will be very similar to the outcome in Texas:
In 2003, Gov. Rick Perry was only beginning to make his mark on the Lone Star State. Eight years later, the experience gives him a unique perspective on Walker’s situation. During an interview Friday in Washington, D.C., Perry had nothing nice to say about the 14 Wisconsin senators who ran for Illinois to prevent a quorum in the state Senate.
“Instead of respecting the democratic process, they run off and somehow or another think that’s going to be productive,” Perry said. “I don’t think it is. I think people, they look at this like, you know, the kid who takes his ball. I can’t win, I can’t play, then nobody else is going to.”
He added: “That is immature, is juvenile and at the end of the day, I’ll betcha the folks of Wisconsin, they punish those senators rather than heralding them as heroes.”The Republican Governors Association launched its petition this week, Stand with Scott, for people to express support for Walker’s stand on public-employee union reform.
Hot Air
