Pull up a chair and grab some nachos! This could be worth watching. Our Secessionist-in-Chief is once again wrangling with two major forces who determine his political future: the Tea Party, and his deep-pocket corporate donors. Anyone from Texas can predict the outcome here, but if you’re in doubt, follow the money.
As I discussed last month in Perry's Immigration Paradox Perry's got a major headache: maintaining the porous border, cheap labor, and "business friendly" conditions that allow his corporate donors to profit, while concurrently convincing the racist, xenophobic Tea Party rabble that he's "tough on immigration".
Today's Houston Chronicle notes that...
Texas Tea Party leaders are unhappy with Gov. Rick Perry’s immigration-related positions and want him to call another special legislative session to give state lawmakers a third opportunity to ban sanctuary cities.
“This is an issue that is simmering and bubbling up to the surface … We are tired of lip service. We are fed up. We are fed up, too, Gov. Perry,” Texas Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee chair JoAnn Fleming of Tyler said Monday.
Perry declared sanctuary cities an emergency issue in January and put it back on the legislative agenda in June after lawmakers failed to approve legislation during the regular session. Legislation to ban so-called sanctuary cities – and subject anyone stopped for a traffic violation to document their citizenship – also failed during the special session.
Tea Party leaders said they thought they had Perry’s support following a June 28th meeting in the governor’s Capitol office.
“I left the room with the impression that a second special session would be an option,” said Katrina Pierson, founder of the Garland Tea Party and a member of the Dallas Tea Party steering committee.
Do Tea Party leaders actually think Perry will temporary sideline his presidential campaign to preside over a contentious special session on illegal immigration?
“I think there’s a possibility. There are so many calls from people from other states. People really want to know what’s going on in Texas,” Pierson said.
The response from the governor’s office is not likely to satisfy Tea Party leaders.
Read on below the hole in the border fence for more...
Maria Martinez, executive director of the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas, and others believe that legislative leaders conspired to ensure that sanctuary cities legislation would die. Several business leaders in the home building and food industries opposed it.
“We witnessed the use of tricks, delays and special deals to (help) cheap-labor advocates,” Martinez said.
More than 40 immigration-related bills were introduced this year, but only 21 got a hearing and all but two died, she complained.
“He needs to address whether he is serious about illegal immigration,” Martinez said.
Tea Party leaders told Perry during their June 28th meeting that it “wouldn’t look good” if he tried to run a national campaign with a failed illegal immigration policy hanging around his neck.
Ooohhh... that sounds kind of like a threat. Nice touch, Teabaggers, using that "hanging around his neck" terminology, just in case we're too stoooopid to figure this out. Don't get me wrong; Rick has nothing against threats, as long as he's the one making them. You don't want to be the one threatening him, though. Things could turn out badly.
The Teabaggers have the solution all ready to go:
In addition to calling a special session, Perry also has the option of issuing an executive order to address some of the immigration-related problems, said Ken Emanuelson, Dallas Tea Party coordinator.
For example, Perry would direct Department of Public Safety troopers to ask motorists about their immigration status after making lawful traffic stops, Emanuelson said.
He blames ”crony capitalism” for defeat of the sanctuary cities bills.
“There is a cheap labor lobby in this state that is getting rich off of this,” Emanuelson said.
Maybe these Texas Tea Party folks are getting peeved because they're just not getting their fair share of the "Texas Miracle". By now, they should know better. Nobody gets to be one of Perry's "cronies" without a hefty donation to his campaign. That's why it's called "pay to play". Perry made it clear that he can't be bought for a measly $5K. That's insulting.
If you want Rick Perry to get "serious about immigration", you're going to have to convince him to throw his corporate donors under the bus. It's never going to happen. He'll do a couple of photo-ops with law enforcement personnel near the border, talk tough at some campaign events, and laugh all the way to the bank. His corporate donors won't be spending any sleepless nights worrying about Rick's loyalties.