Texas Gov: States will 'assert their independence'

from Politico.com
By ANDY BARR
5/15/09

Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he expects to see a number of states follow his home state of Texas in pushing resolutions that will “assert their independence from the federal government.”

“If this administration gets its way, we’ll all be the same. We’ll all be the way Washington wants us to be,” Perry said on a call with Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and roughly 20,000 callers, which was sponsored by the Republican Governors Association and billed as Tea Party 2.0.

Asked by a caller about his support for a Texas state House resolution reaffirming the state's sovereignty under the 10th amendment, Perry said that the issue “goes right to the heart of what the tea parties are all about.”

“You are going to see more and more laws like that across the country where states assert their independence from the federal government,” he said on the call, which lasted for more than an hour.

The governors spent the call answering questions selected from more than 700 that callers submitted.

The number of participants was off from the 30,000 who signed up for the call, though the RGA explained that a surge of calls at the beginning proved too much for the conference system to handle, causing the system to disconnect some callers.

“I think we would have had a higher number without the technical problems,” said RGA spokesman Mike Schrimpf.

Both governors blasted the Obama administration and credited last month's anti-tax Tea Party protests for reviving grass-roots energy in the conservative movement.

“I am horrified with what is going on with inflation and the printing press they are running in Washington,” Sanford said.

Perry said that “the Tea Party movement is an example of the growing frustration among hardworking Americans, and it is just going to get bigger.”

The rallies were a “great moment in American history,” the Texas governor added, recalling that he watched “Ted Nugent at the Alamo riffing with Glenn Beck.”

“We’ve been watching this liberal love fest that has taken over our country for about a year now,” he said, “and we need to take back our country.”

Both governors stressed that the Republican Party should not become more moderate as a way to regain power in Washington.

“If you look at this notion of what we are really about I would liken the Republican Party to nothing more than a brand in business,” Sanford said.

When great businesses face down times, Sanford explained, “they don’t expand the tent…they go back to what made those companies great.”

“I don’t think it is in the Republican Party’s best interest as some people have said to tack to the center,” Perry said. “I don’t make any apologies to anybody about being a true-blue conservative.”

Perry and Sanford conceded that the party is in a tough spot at the moment but expressed hope for the future and excitement over the grass-roots energy that spawned the tea parties.

“It was really invigorating for me, to see them to see their passion,” Perry said of the three rallies he attended across Texas. “There isn’t anything more important than having this movement succeed.”

Sanford, meanwhile, urged those on the call to remain persistent in their opposition of the Obama administration and patient for incremental signs of progress.

“What matters in politics is sustained pressure over time on one specific area,” he said.
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