Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

$300 worth of haircuts in one photo

With the fiery rhetoric of a prairie populist, Gov. Rick Perry calls on “Texas patriots” to protest against “bailouts, all this stimulus, all this runaway spending” in the nation’s capital.

For weeks, the Republican governor has ratcheted up his railing against the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress. Perry’s call for “states’ rights” and a suggestion that Texas could leave the union if it wanted to made national news this week.

Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh gave Perry an “Amen, bro,” and host Glenn Beck said he was “thrilled” by Perry’s stand on states’ rights.

The last time Texas did this was when they joined the Confederacy in secession from the Union – opposed to the freeing of slaves.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Republican ticket in 2012?

But the truth is, Perry’s administration already is expecting to take federal stimulus dollars, and the House today is set to debate a budget that uses $11 billion in stimulus funding to help cover state government operations for the next two years.

The governor has signed off on Texas accepting about $16.5 billion from the federal stimulus package, including $101 million that his office would administer in grants to local law enforcement and crime victims.

Perry is against only the $555 million for unemployment insurance that the state can receive only by changing Texas unemployment law.

But the Senate, rebuffing Perry’s opposition, tentatively agreed to change the law and take the unemployment money.

I think Perry knew what the Senate vote was going to be when he made his populist plea. He was just adding secession to the usual list of mom, apple pie and the Dallas Cowboys as sacred topics. He knows his market.