He thinks that loose monetary policy is “almost treasonous.”
Rick Perry thinks another round of monetary expansion would be “almost treasonous,” says of Fed Chair Ben Bernanke “I don’t know what you all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas,” says that Bernanke (a Republican appointed by a Republican) may be manipulating monetary policy to re-elect Barack Obama.
Now, as it happens, “treason” is defined in the Constitution. Monetary policy isn’t mentioned.
I don’t know what you all would do to Rick Perry, but here in California we’d call him a fool and a scoundrel. Of course his threat to “treat” Bernanke “pretty ugly” has no actual meaning, but its sheer … well, ugliness … is a reminder that this man can’t be trusted with any power at all, let alone letting him within handling distance of the Football.
As President, George W. Bush made us nostalgic for the good old days of Ronald Reagan. Perry could easily do that for George W. Bush.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
Didn’t similar things get said about Bill Clinton by some (R) while he was president?
A few years into the GWB era, a colleague told me he had seen a bumper sticker “I miss Nixon”. Somehow hearing this in a Russian accent (he emigrated from Ukraine) made it even funnier.
Perhaps - perhaps - the antichrist is less the remarkable emergence of a single individual than a certain worldview increasingly distilled and refined over time and repetition. Perhaps it would be foolish to not acknowledge that the surest path to uber-authoritarianism in this country is through simplistically puerile, christianist distortion of dominant religio-mythology. Perhaps a country, increasingly and numbingly stupefied by endemic cognitive pollution, could be forgiven for allowing the male Palin equivalent - pretty, shallow, venal, petty, predatory, and surprisingly stupid - ascent to the secular throne. Perhaps fall of empire must be accompanied by concomitant fall in figurehead, from statesman and hero to States-man! and zero. Perhaps America’s untended and unregulated id has devolved, has putrefied beyond rescue and seeks its proper voice, its perfect representation. One thing’s for sure - in ADHD land movement is everything, consistency is nothing, blatant and remorseless hypocrisy is an implicit, structural sign of congruence.
Perry has the whole package. Will ObamaCo repeat the mistakes of the Gore campaign? Will the US continue its horror-movie-obvious fall into tragedy? Will the clueless, oversexed, stunningly retarded and wildly overconfident adolescents continue to trust their incredible lack of wisdom, judgment, and, well, awareness to protect them from their own damn selves as they stumble into the darkness? Perry 2012, baby. It’s a wrap.
Mark,
Perry is an alumnus of Texas A&M, where he earned singularly undistinguished grades. Fortunately for the Great State, he’s their Governor and not someone with some real power, like the Railroad Commissioner or the Light Guv.
I fear that expecting him to understand that the crime of treason is actually defined in the Constitution is asking way too much. His transcript showed C’s in U.S. History, although he earned one of his handful of B’s in American National Government, a sophomore level Poli Sci course. His economics grade was also pretty dismal: a D in Principles. Frankly, looking at his transcript, I’m amazed he was able to graduate. Nine (9) D’s, and an F. One (1) A. He was apparently commissioned in the Air Force, despite having only one B and one A in his eight ROTC classes. Nine courses in “hard” sciences (Biology, Chem, Physics), no grade higher than a C.
Just for grins, I computed his overall GPA. It is 1.878 on a 4 point scale. That’s academic probation territory on most campuses, there’s no note on Perry’s transcript that he was ever on academic probation. If you want to see the sad record for yourself, check http://www.scribd.com/doc/61684192/Rick-Perry-s-Texas-A-M-Transcript.
Perhaps the reason he said “almost” treasonous is that, unlike O’Hare, he IS aware it has a definition. And wished to be clear he was resorting to a metaphor.
I will say this: Perry must really scare you gents, if you’re going after him like this. Perhaps I ought to look into him.
Of course he scares us. He should scare anyone who cares about the US. Despite our frontier myth, no one should want to go back to the bad old days of the wild west-which is what Perry offers us. Rick Perry imagines an America that looks very much like Somalia, where everyone carries a gun, there are no rules, and people pray, speak in tongues, and throw sticks on the ground to make life decisions. He’s not only scary, he’s terrifying-because he’s completely insane, utterly dumb, and incredibly ambitious.
Brett Bellmore says:
“Perhaps the reason he said “almost†treasonous is that, unlike O’Hare, he IS aware it has a definition. And wished to be clear he was resorting to a metaphor.”
So Bernanke is ‘almost’ making war on the USA?
As for looking into Perry, you don’t fool us - you like that guy, with a serious crush. You’ve gladly cast off that threadbare libertarian cloak you flaunt, free to fly your Dominionist flag.
The record was abundantly clear in 1999: George W. was a coward, thief, bully, bungler, and liar though and through. The liberal media ignored these brute facts (talking up W’s “emotional intelligence” instead) because they interfered with the horse-race narrative that sells better and keeps people paying attention to the news-bringers. It should have been an absolute landslide for Gore, but the couch-spuds change the channel when the game gets too lopsided. There is every reason to expect that whichever abomination the Tea Party excretes, it will get as much lipstick from the media as is required to make the race close. And the dirty tricksters of the GOP will do the rest. President Perry, QED.
“We would treat him pretty ugly in Texas” sounds suspiciously like a threat made against the chairman of the federal reserve. Anyone want to bet that if Perry were a middle-rank blogger he’d be getting a visit from a couple guys in dark suits?
Brett notes that Perry scares us gents, but only insofar as there is a possibility that he will gain access to genuine political power. Saying that the Fed Chairman is “almost†treasonous for doing his job is the mark of an authoritarian mentality. Running for governor in 2010 on a platform which calls for sodomy laws not subject to judicial review is the mark of an authoritarian mentality, as is the proposal to make it a felony to perform a same-sex marriage.
Think Perry, think authoritarian. To lovers of liberty, Perry is an abomination. That includes us gents.
Brett, isn’t ‘almost treasonous’ similar to ‘almost pregnant’?
It’s easy to just say ‘Yup, what a moron’ about Perry. We say it about Obama - try it for your guys sometimes.
think again about Perry’s statement- its not important (or intended) as a comment about policy. It is a naked and hardball threat that if the Fed acts in the next 18 months (QE3 anyone) then the Fed and the board members will be publicly attacked as taking obama’s side in the election and harassed by the the republicans either in the house or the next admin.
This threat is (a) not being noticed since all the commenters & press are talking about it as though it is a policy statement or personal gaffe about Bernanke and (b) it is going to work and work well to block any QE3 since the Fed Board members who don’t want to do anything anyway will say “its to close to the election, we can’t act without taking sides…”
Since Perry is currently the governor in a state that does not allow the governor to submit a budget to the legislature nor to remove officials without having them impeached by the Senate, he really has no power other than the ability to stand up and make speeches. Since that is true, it may be that he has decided that he must be ridiculously flamboyant in what he says just to get a response.
With luck he will simply come off as being as ridiculous as Bachmann, Angle, or Christine O’Donnell. Luck for the rest of you, anyway. We Texans need to get rid of him somehow, but his lock on the evangelical vote has kept him in office way too long.
The last time a Texas governor ran for president, it was known that the governor of that state does not do much governing; this was not widely emphasized in the campaign, but seems relevant to the question of a candidate’s qualifications. Any chance that this time will be different?
Yeah, as state governors go, the Texas governor has a relatively weak position. Unless perhaps contrasted with Obama’s pre-Presidential executive branch positions…
when rick perry was head of the texas dept of agriculture, I was an aeriel applicator in Texas, and i had a spray drift charge filled against me by the dept of agriculture, I knew I was innocent and challenge the charge, I represented myself against the high paid state attorney, spent a full day in front of an administative law judge, and at the end of the day I was declaired innocent by the judge, this did not set well with the high classed attorneys who were not supposed to be beat by a person representing themselves,, they challenge the judges dicision on some technicalites and I spent a second day in court,, the ruling for me,(innocent).. I went home and in a few day I recieved notice that rick perry had overruled the judges ruling and I was declared guilty and fined, that clearly showed me that perry had no respect for due process if it did not fit his agenda.. He does not qualify to be elected to county dog catcher.. Not a person of such low esteme..and complete disregard for law…