"I think that we have seen negative campaigns run by Governor Perry in the past. Am I concerned? It's not going to dissuade me," she said. "I think that's why we need new leadership. I think people are looking for positive, happy warriors. And I'm a positive, happy warrior."Reversing herself, Kay has lashed out at Rick for the state school abuse tapes that have come out recently (link). Excerpt follows...
"The fight clubs that took place at one of Texas' state schools are a sad chapter in Texas history and further proof of Rick Perry's failed leadership as governor of this state," Wiley says.Rick's spokesman fired back...
He goes on to contend that Perry knew the U.S. Justice Department was investigating allegations of abuse in state schools more than four years ago -- and has done little since.
"Since then, the problem has only gotten worse and Perry has done nothing to address it," Wiley said. "All Texans deserve better than this appalling failure of leadership, but specifically those who are the most vulnerable among us."
Perry spokesman Mark Minor called the Hutchison camp's comments on the Corpus Christi State School situation "a sign of desperation."Kay is on the verge of completely losing me here. There is a comment on the Trail Blazers blog mocking people for blaming Rick for little things... it nearly captures my thoughts on this issue and gave me the idea for this very blog article you are reading right now.
"Sen. Hutchison reached a new low today, using the vulnerable for her own political gain and aspiration," Minor said.
He said the governor reacted immediately to the state school situation, sending his chief of staff down to Corpus Christi hours after the news broke.
Kay went from a big 20 point plus lead in the polls to basically tied over the course of a few months. Now she is taking the tack that liberals used against President Bush, which is to blame every single little thing that goes wrong on the sitting Republican Governor of Texas.
Rick's spokesman is right... this attack from Kay smacks of desperation, and it is not the kind of attack Republicans like to see made by Republicans against other Republicans. Republicans right now want their intra party attacks to be about reclaiming the heart and soul of the party and returning to our conservative roots, not about stupid non political stories like this.
I doubt many people will see much of a connection between thuggish, saddening employee misconduct at a state school in Corpus Christi and anything Rick did or did not do... and based on the fact that these wastes of space have already been fired and indicted it looks like he hasn't exactly been ignoring the issue (link). I even made a blog about how Rick had dispatched his chief of staff down to Corpus to deal with issue two or three months ago (link)...
The same thing happened on a much larger scale with Bush especially after Katrina. Every little thing that went wrong anywhere in the country was suddenly Bush's fault. This line of attack just really makes my skin itch. With Bush though there was I regret to say more merit to the attack than the attack on Rick, but it still didn't make it right. Bush's communications team at that time was also so ineffectual that they not only let it become the story they sometimes fed the story inadvertently. Rick's communications team seems more disciplined and obsessively on message.
As someone whose livelihood depends on getting some action on some conservative legislation at the Capitol over the next three weeks, I can tell you this sniping from Kay is NOT HELPFUL at all. About 20-30% of the so called Republicans in the legislature hate Rick's guts, and every time Kay shoots at him like this they feel empowered to vote with the Democrats and RINOs in the Texas House and Texas Senate. This is not what we need right now with approximately 20 days left before sine die.
It is totally and completely stupid. What happened to Happy Warrior Kay? I guess that went out the door when her double digit lead evaporated.
I disagree. Was just reading about the state schools and what Rick Perry has done and I found this excellent write up.(http://mcnamarablog.blogspot.com/2009/03/texas-state-schools-disgrace.html). Seems as though Perry does have some serious explaining to do. Maybe he's been too busy pandering to the tea party crowd to worry about abuse in state-run institutions for the mentally handicapped.
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