Rick Perry's Billionaire Club

[demmiblue]

Source: Mother Jones


The LA Times investigates the big-money culture of Texas politics, which has gotten even bigger and money-er since Rick Perry became governor:

Perry has received a total of $37 million over the last decade from just 150 individuals and couples, who are likely to form the backbone of his new effort to win the Republican presidential nomination....Nearly half of those mega-donors received hefty business contracts, tax breaks or appointments under Perry, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis.

Perry, campaigning Monday at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, declined to comment when asked how he separated the interests of his donors from the needs of his state. His aides vigorously dispute that his contributors received any perks. "They get the same thing that all Texans get," said spokesman Mark Miner.

Nearly half! And this doesn't even include anything about David Nance and the largesse Perry distributes via his $200 million state-managed venture capital slush fund. Doling out political favors in industrial quantities is obviously something that isn't frowned upon by Texas political culture, and Perry has taken it to whole new levels.

Still, as long as all these good 'ol boys get all the same stuff that all Texans get, I guess it's OK.


http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/08/rick-perrys-billionaire-club

[TBF]

1. He totally caters to the wealthy - he's even better at it than Obama

His fundy act is just that, he is actually criticized in Texas for not being genuinely religious.

[demmiblue]

2. Found this interesting tidbit in the 2002 August edition of Texas Monthly (RE: his faith)

<snip>

WHEN I ASKED THE TWO candidates for governor if I could attend church with them to explore the link between faith and politics in their lives, Tony Sanchez agreed but Rick Perry declined. Faith, after all, is one of the last truly personal areas of American life, and Perry felt my going to church with him was too great an intrusion. He did agree to talk about his faith in an interview. I began by asking the governor to describe the origins of his faith. The question seemed to throw him off momentarily, but then he found a foothold in his memory, one of a Sunday morning long ago in a small Methodist church in the West Texas town of Haskell. "I was just a little kid," recalled Perry. "Somebody in the class had a daddy who was a second-generation Aggie. I remember the teacher asked me if I wanted to be a Christian, and I said, 'Nope, I do not. I want to be an Aggie.'" He laughed nervously.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/2002-08-01/faith.php


Flash forward to August 2011 and his over-the-top prayapalooza. Quite the difference, no?!