Rick Perry Kinda Sorta Maybe Threatens Ben Bernanke with Violence

Wow! Looks like Texas Gov. Rick Perry is even less of a fan of the Fed than Ron Paul is. I mean, unless Ron Paul has as some point implied that he would beat the hell out of it with a cattle prod…

 

"If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion."

First of all, just so we're all on the same page, when Perry talks about "print[ing] more money between now and the election," he's talking about Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's plan for quantitative easing, which people who are smarter than I am explain as "creating massive amounts of money out of thin air with the hope of getting the economy back on track." That action is, to Perry's mind, "treasonous," as in a "violation or betrayal of the allegiance that a person owes his sovereign or his country." (As opposed to threatening to lead a state to secede from the union, which is just good ol' fashioned common sense.)

Anyway, all that said, Perry was probably just letting his Texas-sized mouth get the better of him, right? I'm sure that his campaign would welcome a chance to walk back the comment at their first available opportunity…

[Perry] spokesman, Mark Miner, emailed [Greg Sargent] this: "The Governor was expressing his frustration with the current economic situation and the out of control spending that persists in Washington. Most Americans would agree that spending more money is not the answer to the economic issues facing the country."

The important thing here is that this is the Perry camp's official considered response — and he is not disavowing the implied threat in his original remarks. Instead, the campaign's position seems to be that this was a legitimate expression of "frustration" with runaway Washington spending — one that other Americans surely share.

Okay, then. I guess they're not walking it back.

I remain confident, however, that common sense Republicans will repudiate Perry's brand of bullying politics…

[A] new national Rasmussen survey has him taking the lead in the GOP primary, far outside the margin of error. The poll shows that Perry is now the first choice of 29 percent of the GOP voters surveyed, with former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney with 18 percent, and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in third with 13 percent.

I said, "I remain confident," goddamnit!

Tags: Ben Bernanke, Economy, Federal Reserve, Iowa, Money, Rick Perry, Texas