Kay gets Baker...

James Baker has thrown his exhalted name and reputation behind Kay's candidacy (link). Excerpt follows...

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, trying to arrange a move back to her home state by unseating a fellow Republican, Gov. Rick Perry, just picked up a big endorsement.

Former secretary of State Jim Baker, confidant and right-hand man to former president George H.W. Bush, told the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club today that Hutchison "has the record and the vision to lead this state into the future, and that is why I am endorsing her bid to be the Lone Star State’s first female Republican governor."

Political junkies may remember Baker as the spokesman for then-candidate George W. Bush during the interminable 2000 presidential election recount. Baker camped out in Tallahassee to captain a Bush legal effort that ultimately made his good friend's son the nation's 43rd president.

According to a release from the Hutchison camp, Baker in his speech to the Houston pachyderms emphasized Hutchison's ability to beat leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White. He's the former mayor of Houston who served as deputy Energy secretary during President Bill Clinton's administration. "We can trust Kay to keep the governor’s office in Republican hands and remain true to our conservative Texas values," the release quotes Baker as saying.

Hutchison and Perry face off in a March 2 primary.

This is starting to feel like a presidential primary... all the big guns on each side...

Another Bushie with Kay... the Texas Tribune opines on what this means (link). Excerpt follows...

First Karl, then Karen, then Margaret Spellings, then Dick Cheney, and now the Bushiest Bushie of all. This morning, former Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff James Baker, who's closer to 41 than 43 but worked with both, endorsed Kay Bailey Hutchison in the GOP governor's race. I'll repeat a question I've asked before: Other than Joe Allbaugh, Are there any prominent old Bush hands who are for Rick Perry? And what are we to make of that?

I think that was a rhetorical question... I think we are to make that some of the Bush team and Bush family doesn't want to see Rick overshadow Bush in legacy terms...

If Rick wins another term he will be not just some guy who rode in on Bush's coattails... if he is given four more years Rick will be the most prominent and impactful governor in Texas history...

I think the Bush family and Rick also did not always see eye to eye on policy issues... Rick was a critic of Bush at times... and I think some of the Bush team believes the race is closer than it maybe actually is so they see a chance to play king maker...