Rick Perry wrongly accused
August 22, 2014
Under normal circumstances, politicians try to wait until election season before they begin their heaviest mudslinging, but trigger-happy Texas Democrats have decided to jump the gun this cycle and have had Governor Rick Perry indicted for “abuse of power” and “coercion.”
You might think these are heavy charges levied against the possible 2016 presidential candidate — many have jumped the gun, including Huffington Post blogger James Moore, and are calling it a closed case with a definite conviction.
Unfortunately for these political pundits, Rick Perry is clean as a whistle. For those who don’t know what’s been happening in the Lone Star State, here’s the breakdown.
It began with Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg operating a vehicle at almost three times the legal blood alcohol content. Ironically, this same district attorney’s office runs the Public Integrity Unit (PIU).
Governor Perry, unamused with this occurrence, called for her resignation; backed by a threat to veto $7.5 million in funding to her office should she refuse to step down, according to The Washington Post.
Lehmberg didn’t take kindly to this, and now Craig McDonald, founder of Texans for Public Justice, has come after Perry with abuse of office complaints.
McDonald is quoted as speaking to KVUE, “We think any governor, particularly Rick Perry, should consider stepping aside. Any governor under indictment for multiple felonies should step down.”
Perhaps that would be a more compelling argument if those same indictments hadn’t been started at the hands of Mr. McDonald himself.
It’s also a little telling of Mr. McDonald’s political affiliations that he specifically targets the Republican governor for trumped-up charges rather than calling out the found-to-be guilty district attorney who somehow still heads a Public Integrity Unit.
Take a second to also consider each side’s motivations: Lehmberg won’t step down because Austin, Texas is a liberal haven and she won’t have Perry appoint a right-wing district attorney there.
Her actions were verifiably illegal, irresponsible and unethical, and the case against Perry is petty revenge.
Perry, on the other hand, saw the ridiculousness of a criminal running the PIU and only threatened to veto funding to the unit should Lehmberg not step down.
However, those looking to besmirch the Texas governor point to Perry’s threats as the use of coercion. Coercion is illegal when used against a public servant and attempts to influence a public servant in a specific exercise of his official power or performance of his official duty, according to Texas Statute Section 36.03. Coercion is also illegal when it attempts to influence a public servant to violate the public servant’s known legal duty.
Unfortunately, it appears the grand jury forgot to read the exemption at the end of section 36.03, which exempts those who are “a member of the governing body of a governmental entity.” In other words, Rick Perry’s supposed “coercion” was completely legal, just as his veto of the PIU’s funding had been.
This is not a purely polarized conflict; even Democrat David Axelrod, President Obama’s former senior adviser, called the indictment “pretty sketchy,” as reported by The New York Times.
There’s not much left to be said. Mr. McDonald and the grand jury have indicted Rick Perry on bogus charges and are playing dirty in the political arena.
This sort of behavior is pathetic, but with Perry’s name out in headlines alongside the words “indictment,” “coercion,” and “abuse of power,” Texas Democrats may have got exactly what they hoped for: the chance to tarnish the governor’s reputation before he is a presidential candidate.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/17/rick-perry-indictment_n_5685735.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/why-rick-perry-will-be-co_b_5686664.html
