Thread: Perry blasts Bell, liberals on the campaign trail

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 84306.html



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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Politics

Oct. 24, 2006, 3:47PM



Perry blasts Bell, liberals on the campaign trail
By KELLEY SHANNON
Associated Press

LUFKIN — Working to whip up conservative support in East Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry today lumped Washington liberals and Democratic opponent Chris Bell together for criticism during a tour through the region.

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Perry talked up his efforts to fight crime along the Texas-Mexico border, including sending National Guard troops there even before President Bush asked them to go. He said again that he'll ask the Legislature for $100 million to sustain border crime-fighting programs.

Perry said that as a congressman Bell voted against using military troops to patrol the border and for making it harder to deport illegal immigrants.

"If that isn't bad enough, Mr. Bell showed how liberal he is when he voted in support of allowing United Nations election monitors to oversee elections in America," Perry told supporters in Lufkin. "Explain that one to the folks in East Texas."

Some congressional Democrats tried to get U.N. election monitors involved in the 2004 election to avoid the irregularities that occurred in the Bush-Gore campaign of 2000. After the U.N. rejected the request, Bell voted against barring the use of funds to request the U.N. monitors, Bell spokesman Jason Stanford said.

"With votes like that, it's no wonder that Chris Bell isn't running on his record," Perry said, livening up the crowd with another jab.

"Another day, another silly, pathetic attack from a failed governor," Bell responded in an emailed statement from Stanford. "Rick Perry is so worried about this election he can't stop attacking me. If he worried this much about doing a good job as governor, he wouldn't be in this mess."

One Perry supporter, 48-year-old electrician Charles Thomson in Nacogdoches, said immigration and border security are key issues to voters in his region because illegal immigrants are flooding local institutions, like the jail.

"We're getting invaded here in East Texas," he said. Illegal immigrants, he said, are "not paying taxes, and we're trying to support all these guys coming in."

In an interview on his campaign bus, Perry again said that he is concentrating on border security right now rather than immigration reform because immigration laws can't be effectively changed until the border is under control.

Perry was visiting a region that once was known as yellow-dog Democratic territory but in recent years has been a mixed vote. Bell also campaigned in East Texas on Tuesday, visiting Tyler.

"It's a pretty conservative part of the world up here," Perry said in an interview on his campaign bus. "They want government to do a few things, but do those things very well."

Near Perry's event in Nacogdoches, a couple of opponents hoisted a large sign that said, "Had enough? Vote Democratic."

Perry, who also faces independent candidates Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman and Libertarian James Werner in the Nov. 7 election, told supporters he is proud of the school property tax cut bill he signed into law and of his record at creating jobs.

Aside from his dig at Bell, Perry didn't mention his opponents by name at his public events, although he said, "Texans understand that anger is not an agenda for our future and attacking a leader doesn't make you a leader."

In an interview, he made a rare reference to Friedman, the comedian and author, who has cast himself as the anti-politician.

"Unlike Kinky, I don't think this is an easy job. I think it does matter that you have experience," Perry said.

"With all this experience, where the hell has it gotten us?" Friedman, campaigning in Houston outside an early voting place, responded. "People can open their eyes and see how valuable his experience has been for Texas, what it's done for the crime wave in Houston, what it's done for education, the environment. And that's not even talking about how the lottery's been robbed by these guys with fountain pens that we call politicians."

He said Perry previously has been "doing a stealth attack" on him and viewed the governor's acknowledgment of him as "a great sign."

He said he was encouraged that early voting turnout in the state's big cities appeared to be ahead of the pace of four years ago in the last governor's race when less than 30 percent of registered voters went to the polls. Friedman believes a large voter turnout is key to his success.

If the turnout trend continued, Friedman, raising his arms above his shoulders, shouted: "Get ready for an a-- kicking four years!"

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Associated Press Writer Michael Graczyk in Houston contributed to this story.


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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Politics
This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 84306.html

As much as I hate to defend Perry, you can't really ascribe blame to him for the criminality of Katrina evacuees.

The mayor of Houston could have told those freeloaders to screw themselves-or if he wanted, only accepted the industrious, law-abiding Vietnamese refugees from that city-if he wanted to.