( - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Governor Perry, you had a chance to secure your legacy today.
With the state budget almost 30% short on money, you could have presented a plan to bridge the gap and provide stability in future budgets.
That's what a great leader would have done. In moments of peril or in the face of great injustice, real leaders act boldly and become profiles in courage.
Roosevelt gave us the New Deal, Truman desegregated the military, Kennedy set our sights on the Moon and LBJ jammed through the Voting Rights Act. Even the most recent President Bush performed admirably in the days after 9/11.
Governor, you were a profile in cowardice. That's right, cowardice.
You're a coward because you shrank from the moment and instead trotted out -- for the umpteenth time -- your hypocritical attacks on the federal government. It was the same old phantom threats, the same old dog whistles to racists.
And you're a coward because you failed to take responsibility for your role in creating your shortfall in the first place.
That's right: Your shortfall.
It was you - not Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi or anyone else in Washington - who in 2003 played a starring role in creating the structured state budget deficit that so burdens our state. This is your $27-billion baby, yet you keep trying to leave it at somebody else's doorstep.
Hell, couldn't you have at least acknowledged your lies? After all, you told a big fib when you said we didn't use stimulus money to balance the 2009 budget. And you told a real whopper when you said this year's shortfall would be only $12-$14 billion.
A cynic might say it took a lot of guts to tell the people such big fat lies. But Governor, even you know that's not courage. No, that's only gall, and Governor you've got it by the gallon.
It's a damned shame you can't use some of that gall to be a great governor. This state has never seen a better campaigner, and it'll be a long, long time before we do. You can get elected, but you can't lead.
You're afraid of being held accountable, aren't you? You want to let somebody else fire the teachers and furlough the state employees. You want somebody else to jack up college tuition and close colleges. You want somebody else to get their hands dirty and bring casinos to Texas.
It won't be Rick Perry, will it? Your eyes are elsewhere, and you're not going to do anything to risk that.
You're going to stay on message while Texas remains a mess. |
