Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. That’s exactly what Rick Perry did with his partnerships with Henry Barbour and Steve Schmidt. Rick Perry’s stance on illegal immigration against the Obama Administration in my mind, completely redeemed him from his flailing campaign in 2012 with those infamous words, “I don’t think you have a heart” line in defending signing a 2001 Texas law granting in-state tuition rates at state universities to illegal immigrant students in Texas.

This is the Rick Perry we all knew and loved.  Boldly using the power of his office to defend Texas and the borders and standing up to Obama’s lawlessness.   He also didn’t let a manufactured Democrat invented crisis go to waste with this frivolous indictment.  Many conservatives watched in horror how Democrats destroyed Tom Delay’s career by getting him tied up in court with manufactured nonsense. Democrats have grown over-confident that they can play this game until now. They are seeing Rick Perry take their swords and turn it against them while this incident is clearly helping Perry’s popularity and presidential aspirations.

I was thinking in the back of my mind this is a boldness at a level that I haven’t even seen Ted Cruz project.  He’s going to be the next president of the United States.  Then the Rick Perry parade stopped dead in it’s tracks. Enter stage right Henry Barbour and Steve Schmidt.   One of the hardest hitting pieces I have seen which I believes carries the most weight with Rick Perry’s new found associates has to be Funding Father of the Reagan Revolution Richard Viguere:

“Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are” is an aphorism that many movement conservatives have come to believe through the hard experience of watching establishment Republican candidates for president surround themselves with inside-the-Beltway mercenaries who despise conservatives, run content-free campaigns and lose the election.

This week conservatives got the message loud and clear that Texas Governor Rick Perry is not one of us. He joined the inside-the-Beltway political class when he hired Henry Barbour, the shadowy figure allegedly behind infamous race-baiting ads in the recent Mississippi GOP Senate runoff and Steve Schmidt, the brains behind John McCain’s disastrous 2008 presidential bid and the inside operative who trashed Governor Sarah Palin throughout the campaign – and who has made a point of attacking conservative Republicans at every opportunity since.

A consultant friend of mine who was around and voted during the Reagan Revolution pointed out a couple of observations regarding Rick Perry. Here’s what he says about Rick Perry:

“…like the guy. He has balls. He’s the anti-Obama. I’m convinced he is ruthless and cutthroat enough to dismantle the federal government. I believe Cruz is more intelligent, and understands Austrian economics better, but just as LBJ was the ruthless guy to get passed the liberalism JFK was too inept to get through, Perry is the ruthless guy to dismantle the federal government Cruz is too much the loner to achieve. In my old age, I’ve learned there is something to be said about having experience in these things. Being both an LG and Governor of Texas is good training ground. Just look at the comparison of red meat Texas machismo in your face Christian conservative with the Pajama Boy Islamo-Marxist Golfer in Chief. America is looking for someone to undo what this Communist has done to our country. It’s certainly my top criteria. When Reagan ran in 1980 those of us who were part of the 1976 campaign had to deal with all the Ford supporters who came on board. It wasn’t an easy partnership. Cruz for us will be like JFK was for the liberals. Right on the issues, unable to move the ball on any of them. All the substantial legislation people associate with JFK was all passed after he died. Whoever you support will have some scumbag in their camp.”

I don’t know if I completely agree with all of his sentiments but I respect his perspective and he has a lot of good points. I do think that with what happened in Mississippi there’s “TOO MUCH THERE, THERE” and the rule of law and criminal investigations will eventually catch up to Henry Barbour and it will make everybody in the Republican Party distance themselves from Henry and anyone associated with him.  However, the latest hire from Rick Perry, Steve Schmidt seems even more troublesome.  Steve Schmidt has made a career of bashing conservatives. Tony Lee from Breitbart explains:

After McCain’s poll numbers plummeted after Schmidt’s reckless gamble, Schmidt attempted to re-write history and try to smear former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the mainstream press and blame the 2008 loss on her.   Though that gambit did not work, Schmidt did endear himself to the permanent political class and media, and he soon joined the likes of Meghan McCain in gleefully bashing conservatives on mainstream and even liberal outlets like MSNBC. He also hid in the woods before inviting the New York Times to find him. Conservative scholar and talk radio host Mark Levin simply wondered, “Why would Perry hire this conservative-attacker and Palin-hater?”

Steve Deace gives the most detail on Schmidt’s anti-conservative and anti-marriage record:

Then there’s Mr. Schmidt, who is the ruling class’ favorite kind of Republican. Which is to say he’s really not much of a Republican at all.

Schmidt was the mastermind of John “don’t use Obama’s middle name or you’re a racist” McCain’s failed 2008 presidential campaign, which is one of the main reasons the country has been suffering under Mr. Obama’s Marxist leadership ever since. In typical ruling class fashion, Mr. Schmidt attempted to rewrite the history of that disaster — including his decision to suspend the campaign to go all-in for the still-hated TARP bailout — by blaming the whole thing on conservatives afterwards (namely Sarah Palin).

Last year, Mr. Schmidt was given a $10 million war-chest by the ACLU in an effort to recruit Republicans to join in the effort to “strike down” state marriage laws passed in a majority of the U.S. That means Mr. Perry, who began his 2012 presidential campaign with a national call to repentance (from sin) and the backing of several Christian conservative leaders, is now taking counsel from a guy that wants to celebrate what Christians believe to be immoral.

But wait, there’s more.

Mr. Schmidt on fellow Texas Sen. Ted Cruz: “A lot of Republicans wish Ted Cruz would go back to Canada. We’re following (Cruz) down a policy path that will ultimately lead to the destruction of the Republican Party’s ability to compete as a national party.” Because obviously a guy that ran a presidential campaign that got beat by almost 200 electoral college votes knows all about what it takes to “compete as a national party.”How about when Schmidt said that Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump needed to be “shut down” for actually wanting the alleged party of conservatives to be — gasp! — conservative?Then there’s Schmidt urging theGOP to “dump” Tea Party “kooks.” Last, but certainly not least, remember when Schmidt said the GOP needs to “take conservatism’s good name back” from the Cruz/Tea Party “freak show.” Because if there’s anyone in America attuned to what it means to be a conservative, it’s the guy that ran McCain’s campaign into the ground.

There’s a few people I try to avoid at all costs on social media especially facebook and maybe you do too.  One guy completely litters my facebook with links and comments every time I post anything about Rick Perry. My postings of anything Rick Perry is like a Dog Whistle for him to tell me that Rick Perry is a Rove approved RINO and digs up and rehashes every shred of opposition research that the Michelle Bachman campaign threw at Rick Perry.   After I blocked him on facebook, he sends me a DM on twitter in a raging fit calling me a coward and a traitor so I blocked him on twitter too.  Yeah….you know the type   Now look.  I don’t want to be that guy but I tell you what, the actions of Rick Perry with hiring Henry Barbour and Steve Schmidt actually give trolls like him plenty of ammunition and people start wondering if Rick Perry really is on our side.

I’ve always liked Michael Reagan and I’ve always thought he was a great representative of who is father was and what he believed. Michael Reagan has always talked about crazy purity tests. I would put my Rick Perry troller on facebook in that category.  He’s guilty of purity tests. Michael Reagan on several occasions though has voiced his disapproval for many of the primary battles in the war against the Establishment and I don’t want to put words in his mouth but I wouldn’t be surprised if he thinks Reagan would disapprove of what conservatives are doing with primary-ing opponents.  Perhaps the “Establishment” and even Democrats were more right of center during Reagan’s era and not willing to go to the lengths they would go today.  I don’t know I was 7 years old when Reagan was elected. If someone has some perspective on this I’d love to hear it.  Michael Reagan has always reminded us of Reagan’s support for No Fault Divorce and raising taxes in California and that he would never survive the dreaded “purity test” today.

Well with Rick Perry I would say Perry’s support for in-state tuition for illegals doesn’t disqualify him for president either with this issue and a purity test on this is unnecessary.  But the one thing we must test Perry on like we did Reagan….Is he with us.  If Perry is with us, what redeemable use does Steve Schmidt have?   If Perry is with us why would he hire a man who puts the blame on Sarah Palin for McCain’s lost campaign?   If Perry is with us why would he hire a man who did absolutely nothing to counter the false narratives the media cemented and advanced in the 2008 campaign?   If Perry is with us why would he choose a man who’s become a media darling for the New York Times and a man who’s known for his constant bashing of conservatives and joining the choir of smear merchants like Chris Mathews on MSNBC?   It’s like Gandolf hiring Saramun Political Consultant Services after learning Saramun put a spell on Théoden the King of Rohan.

Please tell me Rick Perry what expertise does someone like Steve Schmidt have to offer that advances the conservative ball forward? Why would you hire someone like Steve Schmidt over others? What set of skills does he bring to the table that others don’t? If you can give us a plausible explanation we are all ears. What do these actions from Rick Perry do for his presidential aspirations?  It unfortunately reinforces the narrative of my “Hate Perry” Facebook troll.   It makes you wonder why Perry endorsed Mitch McConnell over Matt Bevin.   It makes you wonder why Perry seemed less then enthusiastic over Ted Cruz’s Defund Obamacare effort.   Worst of all, it makes you wonder if the Rick Perry of 2016 is still the same Perry of 2012 and hasn’t learned the lessons of 2012. Perhaps all the staunch Rick Perry supporters who tried to convince us there’s another side of Rick Perry in 2012 and we just haven’t seen it yet are just practicing wishful thinking.   Perhaps the blistering POLITICO STORY during the 2012 Perry presidential campaign  regarding the power struggle and shake up within the campaign were true then and Rick Perry hasn’t learned his past errors or has not done a good job at surrounding him with the right people again. Well if this is the path that Rick Perry plans on staying on, 2012 for him will be a repeat of 2016 and he will barely make it out of Iowa again which Iowan and National Talk Show Host Steve Deace is predicting may happen.   National Syndicated Host Steve Deace from Iowa has been a conservative force for the “Hawkeye Cauc-eye” and he plans on asking every candidate about Mississippi and to take a stand on this.   He believes this is a critical issue and what candidates believe on this issue will be a major qualifier or dis-qualifier.

Governor Rick Perry prove to us that you are with us.