The flailing attacks on Rick Perry multiply as he pulls easily
ahead of the Republican field. Journalists had rooted for an
exciting figure to parachute into the lackluster race but now
probably regret that hope. Perry scares them. He is, by their
lights, a “terrifying” critic of the New Deal and Great Society, a
“theocrat,” a hater of “science,” and no “compassionate”
conservative.
The same media that portrayed George W. Bush as
ideologically dangerous now hold him up as the measure of an
acceptable Republican. Rick Perry has managed to make journalists
nostalgic for the Bush years. A Perry victory, the Washington
Post reports with concern, would “cement the Republican
Party’s shift away from Bush’s approach to a more libertarian,
anti-government GOP.”
In other words, another “compassionate” conservative from
Texas would be tolerable to the chattering class after all, but not
a Tea Partier from Texas.
Mitt Romney can count on favorable coverage in the coming
months from a media that now sees its mission as “saving America
from Rick Perry.” Those words come from Washington Post
columnist Ruth Marcus, who calls that an “urgent fight.” Perry
represents to this media the dreaded continuation and expansion of
2010 Tea Party success, whereas Romney represents a reassuring step
back to the safety of establishment Republicanism.
The rumored strategy of Romney against Perry will
apparently feed off these media fears. According to Washington
Post columnist Marc Thiessen, “Romney’s campaign will argue
that Perry is against the very idea of Social Security and
Medicare,” and it will use his book Fed Up! to “scare
seniors in early-primary states with large retiree populations,
such as Florida and South Carolina.” Also: “The Romney campaign
will argue that Perry repels independents and can’t win in key
swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and
Michigan — while Romney can.”
And yet if Perry is too conservative for Romney’s taste,
he is also, on at least one issue, too liberal. Thiessen reports
that the Romney campaign “plans to use immigration to drive a wedge
between Perry and his conservative base by highlighting Perry’s
opposition to a border fence and legislation he signed in 2001
allowing the children of illegal immigrants to attend Texas
colleges and universities at in-state tuition…. Romney strategists
believe immigration will be a devastating issue for Perry with Tea
Party Republicans across the country — especially in important
primary states such as Arizona.”
Another line of attack will be that Perry is the
“anti-government candidate who has spent most of his life in
government,” says Thiessen. Romney has already rehearsed this one,
saying in a speech on Tuesday that “career politicians got us into
this mess and they simply don’t know how to get us out.”
Much of this is likely to fall flat. A scenario in which
the Tea Party rushes into Romney’s arms over immigration is
improbable, particularly if he is at the same time knocking Perry
for a dim view of Social Security and Medicare and saying
that Perry is unacceptable to independents. The two lines of
attack will cancel each other out. Lumping Perry in with career
politicians that “got us into this mess” also seems odd, since most
Tea Partiers don’t associate Perry with the national political
class and consider jobs-rich Texas under Perry a contrast to the
mess.
Unmentioned in the Thiessen piece is whether Romney will
engage Perry on any cultural issues. Perhaps this is an area best
avoided by Romney, though one can imagine the media helping him in
this regard, casting the formerly pro-choice Mormon as more
“mainstream” than the “theocrat” Perry.
The media is certainly itching to address these issues. In
a preview of things to come, New York Times executive
editor Bill Keller demands to know if a candidate places “fealty”
to religion over the “Constitution.” What touching concern from
Keller for a document liberals have shredded through fealty to
secularism.
Most of the Founding Fathers wouldn’t have passed Keller’s
vetting. If Perry is a “theocrat” for thinking that America is one
nation under God, so were they. If Perry is “anti-science” for
thinking that the world didn’t create itself through random
processes, so were they. As usual, the media intends to use
politically correct name-calling and mau-mauing as its chief mode
of covering a conservative candidate. Any stick will do in its
quest to save liberal America from Rick Perry.
