Rick and Al Gore...

Texas political reporter R.G. Ratcliffe sort of sets the record straight on Al Gore (link). Excerpt follows...

Rick Perry was NEVER Al Gore’s Texas 1988 chairman
Posted on August 22, 2011 by rgratcliffe

OK, whack on Republican Gov. Rick Perry in his presidential campaign for having once been a Democrat.
Whack on Rick Perry for endorsing Al Gore in his 1988 presidential run.
But would everyone quit saying he was Gore’s state chairman, because it is simply not true.
Gore in 1988 was viewed as the Southern conservative alternative to Jesse Jackson and Michael Dukakis. The leaders of the Gore campaign in Texas were House Speaker Gib Lewis, Democratic Chairman Bob Slagle and Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby.
On Jan. 5, 1988, Gib brought Gore to Austin to receive the endorsement of 27 state legislators. One of them was Rick Perry. If Perry even spoke that day, his words were so lame that they did not get quoted in news stories. In the Houston Chronicle and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Perry was just listed in alphabetical order as one of the lawmakers backing Gore.
I have tried to find a news release from the event to see if there was any possibility that it said something like: Legislative co-chairs for Gore. But I have not found anything like that. So I recently asked an Austin political consultant who was deep into the Gore campaign that year if Perry was chairman. He told me no. He said Perry did the news conference and then a one-day endorsement fly-around of some of the legislators. And that was it.
But the Texas politician who was a state presidential campaign chairman that year was Democrat John Sharp, who was backing Dukakis. In his 1998 lieutenant governor’s race against Perry, Sharp started telling people Perry was Gore’s campaign chairman. Sharp’s campaign in media accounts started off calling Perry vice-chairman of Gore’s campaign, then co-chairman and finally chairman. Perry and his campaign responded to his backing of Gore, but never repudiated the title.
Here is the simple truth. Rick Perry endorsed Al Gore in an effort to suck up to Speaker Gib Lewis in hopes of gaining a House leadership position in the 1989 Legislature. It didn’t happen. Then in the interim afterward, when the Calendars Committee chairman resigned, Perry wanted that position. Gib snubbed him and gave it to speaker pro tem Hugo Berlanga. About 10 days later, Perry switched parties and said he likely would run against Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower.
From beginning to end, it was pure political opportunism. If you want to criticize Perry, criticize him for that. But he was never Al Gore’s Texas chairman.

I think a little more context is in order... it was pro gun pro life Southerner Al Gore versus far left liberals like Gephardt, Dukakis, and others... endorsing Al Gore was ironically a way for Rick to prove he was a conservative Democrat and not the new breed of very liberal Democrats...

You might even look at it and conclude that Rick decided when Dukakis won the 1988 nomination that liberals had won the internal battle there was no more hope of reforming his party... Democrats were not worth saving or reforming or returning to their Jeffersonian roots...

So he became a Republican... and the rest is history...

More recommended reading on the Al Gore thing (link). Excerpt follows...

Any discussion of the governor's political past should take into account the following context. First, in the early 1980s in rural West Texas, most if not all routes to Austin ran through the Democratic Party, a party divided into liberal and conservative factions. Second, in 1984, the Democratic Party held more than three-quarters of the seats in the Texas House, which in turn was run by a speaker (Gib Lewis of Fort Worth, 1983-93) from the party's conservative faction. Third, Perry's voting record on the House floor placed him in the conservative wing of the conservative faction of the Texas Democratic Party. Fourth, during Perry's short tenure in the House, the space within the Texas Democratic Party for politicians with conservative ideological profiles such as Perry's was rapidly disappearing. In the end, given Perry's conservative ideological position and the evolving nature of partisan politics in Texas, by 1989 Perry had but two choices if he wished to pursue a career as an elected official in Texas: change his political beliefs or change his party. He opted for the latter.

Here is another good read (link). Excerpt follows...

As the Texas Democratic party was slowly taken over by that liberal movement emanating from Austin and increasingly, Houston, millions of conservative Texas Democrats changed parties to remain true to their conservative beliefs. Rather than being cause to question Perry's authenticity, his switch is a testament to the solidity of his conservative principles. As I and so many other Southerners are fond of saying, "We didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Party left us," which is exactly what happened to Rick Perry.

The other thing to remember is that Rick also said he felt Al Gore had "gone to hell" since the 1980s...





I know this "former Democrat" thing must be really baffling for a lot of people outside of Texas... or outside of southern states... but there are still a number of conservative Democrats in the southern states although that number is rapidly dwindling...


If you know anything about Texas politics, you know that former GOP presidential candidate Phil Gramm who is so hated by the left was also a Democrat at one point in his life... 


Ronald Reagan was also a Democrat who loved FDR until somewhat late into his life... Rick switched to the Republican side before Texas really switched several years later... in fact everyone thinks of Texas as this GOP bastion for so long, but Republicans still did not control the Texas legislature until 2003...


When I see the stuff about "Al Gore's campaign manager" I usually just tune out the person saying it because they are obviously not very well versed in recent political history... and if I were to come up with a venn diagram of the people who say that line and some of Ron Paul's nuttier conspiracy theorists, it would look like just one circle... it is the exact same people pushing the Al Gore stuff... 


Read these things. Ask some Texans not affiliated with Ron Paul and not under the age of about 35 or 40 about the old days in Texas politics and you'll realize... again... ironically that Rick supporting Al Gore was an attempt to prove his conservative bona fides... and having once been a Democrat likely makes him a stronger not weaker candidate...