Apparently, the antipathy goes back a ways. Elsbeth Reeve runs it down at the Atlantic.
More recently, Tony Fratto, a former George W. Bush official, tweeted that Gov. Perry's remarks about Treasury Secretary Ben Bernanke--the word "treason" was used--were "inappropriate and unpresidential."
Karl Rove chimed in as well: "Governor Perry is going to have to fight the impression that he's a cowboy from Texas. This simply added to it.”
Today, Bruce Bartlett, another former Bush official, said, "Rick Perry's an idiot, and I don't think anyone would disagree with that."
The reason this is so remarkable is that Republicans never squabble publicly like this. Sure, a lot of them can't stand each other, but they're usually pretty careful to be politic in public.
The bad blood between Bush and Perry must run so deep that the Bush faction is willing to break with this long-held practice and go out of their way to try to stop Perry.
The Bushies aren't very nice, and they seem to regard Perry much as the Kennedys regarded LBJ, as the hick country cousin. None of it appears to reflect badly on Perry, a far more effective governor, for better or worse, than Bush. Bush did spend money, No Child Left Behind is a disaster, and as far as I'm concerned Perry can kick Ben Bernanke's butt as much as he likes and more power to him.
Posted by: Hypatia | August 19, 2011 at 06:21 PM
Well put!
Posted by: John Petty | August 23, 2011 at 09:07 AM