Lukewarm

If you believe the State's news-ish sites, and certain members of the InterLeft, Rick Perry's facing all kinds of heat for his California trip as flash-frozen Texans everywhere wave their icicle-encrusted children angrily in his direction. Oh the humanity! How did this former yell-leader generate the synapses to even spell governor, much less win it with 54% of the vote?

Except, upon closer examination, you realize that it's not "rank n' file" Texans who are angry about Perry heading out to California to meet some businesses, try on an old pair of Ronald Reagan's underwear and work on his tan. It's the Texas Democratic Party that's angry, and that's not news. They're ALWAYS angry.

And doing a mighty fine job of making themselves perpetually irrelevant.

You see, there are plenty of things that Texas' minority party could choose to be angry about: That they've being ignored during budget discussions, that their popularly elected President is being continually rebuffed by the State, that Aaron Peña jumped ship and has since seen his public profile INCREASE, that even Texas Monthly had to look hard to find a handful of them to put on their "power" list. Or even that there's not enough of them left in the House to generate a good tug-of-war match. When your leader in the clubhouse is Rep. Harold Dutton, you've got a lot of mad to vent, I understand that. What I don't understand is why it's being focused in directions that haven't been paying off for you?

Remember the chicken suit?

When some Demo rally-type person dressed up and feathers and made it their personal statement to call Rick Perry out for not debating Bill White the dye was cast. This was then followed up by Steve Mostyn's group who spent a lot of money trying to paint Rick Perry as a "coward". What Democrats didn't realize is that, after hearing Bill White speak a few times, many Texans thought Rick Perry was doing the State a public service by keeping the debate off the air.

"Heat" in political terms means that there's going to be a political price to pay for one's actions. When a politician feels "heat" we typically expect censure, a humiliating primary loss or a tearful apology to follow. None of this is in the future for Rick Perry no matter how hard Texas Democrats, news-ish sites like the Tribune and the InterLeft tap their heels together and wish it were so.

The only heat Rick Perry is feeling is that of the sun as it further bronzes his skin. The Colorado model is a failure in Texas because the candidate roster for its chosen party is weak. No amount of wailing or foot-stamping is going to change that.