Gov. Sam Brownback jumped into the GOP endorsement skirmish today, declaring that Texas Gov. “Rick Perry is the right leader for this moment in history.” That puts three governors, including Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal and Nevada’s Brian Sandoval, in Perry’s corner. It isn’t surprising that Brownback favors Perry, given that the two aligned publicly last month in Houston when Brownback was the only other governor to speak on stage at Perry’s national prayer rally. Brownback, who ran for president himself in 2008, also has shown his admiration for Perry by seeking to make Kansas more like Texas in tax policy and job growth. And Brownback (at least in the past) and Perry have shared some pragmatic, compassionate views regarding illegal immigration (others would call them “soft). Brownback’s endorsement, which he’ll underscore by attending the GOP debate tonight in Orlando, will only fuel the speculation that he wants to be more than Perry’s endorser. Brownback said: “I’m very happy with what I’m doing right now and fully occupied.” Then again, the last Kansas governor to endorse in a presidential primary race now has a White House Cabinet seat.
Republicans were for energy-efficient lightbulbs before they were against them. The 2007 bill phasing in cost- and energy-saving lighting “passed the House with 95 Republican votes and was signed by President George W. Bush,” writes Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson. “There were no riots in the streets. Yet by the time Republicans took over the House in January 2011, this previously uncontroversial legislation had become the basis of an ideological war. Between 2007 and 2011, energy waste and pollution seem to have become inviolable conservative principles.” Republicans “increasingly reject the tissue of their own proposals and their own reasonable history,” she noted, citing similar retreats on the individual health insurance mandate, cap-and-trade and federal loan guarantees. “The problem here isn’t hypocrisy, which abounds at all points on the political spectrum. It’s that Republicans have abandoned market-based solutions in favor of no solutions at all,” she writes. “They’ve traded in their traditional small-government philosophy for anti-government rage, generally doing their level best to look like yahoos whenever cameras are near.”
As Daily Kos election watcher David Nir observes, the decision of state Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, to run for re-election next year means she won’t pose a primary challenge to U.S. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, who defeated her and three others in the 2010 GOP primary and went on to succeed eight-term Rep. Todd Tiahrt. But after that bitter primary fight, it seemed possible Pompeo might not get a free ride from his fellow Republicans going forward. “After he won the primary, the second-, third- and fourth-place finishers all held back on endorsing him,” Nir notes. “One, Wink Hartman, even went so far as seriously considering a third-party bid.” Now that Schodorf is out, Nir writes, “I wonder what Hartman’s up to.”
Gov. Sam Brownback jumped into the GOP endorsement skirmish today, declaring that Texas Gov. “Rick Perry is the right leader for this moment in history.” That puts three governors, including Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal and Nevada’s Brian Sandoval, in Perry’s corner. It isn’t surprising that Brownback favors Perry, given that the two aligned publicly last month in Houston when Brownback was the only other governor to speak on stage at Perry’s national prayer rally. Brownback, who ran for president himself in 2008, also has shown his admiration for Perry by seeking to make Kansas more like Texas in tax policy and job growth. And Brownback (at least in the past) and Perry have shared some pragmatic, compassionate views regarding illegal immigration (others would call them “soft). Brownback’s endorsement, which he’ll underscore by attending the GOP debate tonight in Orlando, will only fuel the speculation that he wants to be more than Perry’s endorser. Brownback said: “I’m very happy with what I’m doing right now and fully occupied.” Then again, the last Kansas governor to endorse in a presidential primary race now has a White House Cabinet seat.
