Please, Please, No More Rick Perry

This won't be news to anyone from Texas, but our governor, Republican Rick Perry, is a walking disaster. From The Dallas Morning News:

SAN ANTONIO - Gov. Rick Perry, after a God and country sermon attended by dozens of political candidates Sunday, said that he agreed with the minister that non-Christians will be condemned to hell....

"If you live your life and don't confess your sins to God almighty through the authority of Christ and his blood, I'm going to say this very plainly, you're going straight to hell with a nonstop ticket," Mr. Hagee said during a service interspersed with religious and patriotic videos.

Asked afterward at a political rally whether he agreed with Mr. Hagee, the governor said he didn't hear anything that he would take exception to.

He said that he believes in the inerrancy of the Bible and that those who don't accept Jesus as their savior will go to hell.

Fortunately, there is (some) hope, with all of the other three main candidates in the race criticizing Perry. And, as usual, flamboyant Independent candidate, Kinky Friedman, doesn't disappoint:

"He doesn't think very differently from the Taliban, does he?" independent Kinky Friedman said.

Mr. Friedman, a Jew, said Mr. Perry's comment "hits pretty close to home."

"Being obsessed with who's going to heaven and who's going to hell is kind of a pathetic waste of time," he said.

Things aren't looking particularly good for Kinky or Democrat Chris Bell, the only two people in the race actually qualified to govern the state, but I'll keep hoping until the bitter end. Now, fellow Texans, get out and vote!

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Four more years of Perry. (Sigh.) Best news out of this election was that my local representative in the Texas House was ousted by his Democratic challenger. (By less than 500 votes! I knew it was a tight race ...)

By Scott Simmons (not verified) on 08 Nov 2006 #permalink

I can't help but feel it's a bit ironic to describe Kinky Friedman as 'qualified to run the state'. I'm not entirely sure he's qualified to run a Dairy Queen.

But I'll vote for him tomorrow anyway. :-)

By Scott Simmons (not verified) on 06 Nov 2006 #permalink

Kinky is qualified? The man supports "teaching the controversy" and prayer in public schools (at least, I've never heard him disavow his earlier statements). Wasn't one religious nutcase bad enough? I'd have hoped people would vote early, as (at least in my county) the vote is on a paper ballot, which is a little harder to screw up intentionally. Unfortunately, it probably won't be necessary for them to frak up the election, especially if the talibangelists decide to vote.

About the only good news is that people at work were at least talking of the other candidates, and a few Republicans were not voting for Perry.

I haven't seen any statements from Kinky about supporting "teaching the controversy", but if they exist that would be disheartening. Is this documented anywhere?