In the lead-up to the Republican presidential debate tonight, the campaigns of Texas hopefuls Rep. Ron Paul and Gov. Rick Perry continue to take aim at the conservative credentials of the other.
Today, Paul’s campaign chairman, Jesse Benton, hit Perry for supporting then-Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., and for supporting Hillary Clinton’s early-nineties health care legislation:
That’s the kind of thinking that has our country teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. We cannot afford to nominate someone who thinks the letter next to their name is more important than what they believe.
This letter from the Paul camp follows up on a fight that Paul started by running an ad that calls Perry “Al Gore’s Texas Cheerleader” while touting Ron Paul’s early support for Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign.
That ad will run nationally during tonight’s debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, even though Perry’s campaign responded by dropping a letter written by Ron Paul in 1987 in which Paul resigned from the Republican Party because he wanted to “totally disocciate” himself from Reagan’s policies.
You can read Benton’s full letter here:
After our campaign’s first ad highlighting your Big Government record and support for liberal Al Gore, your campaign is attacking Dr. Paul – missing the point of why your past is important.
We don’t think the fact that you used to be a Democrat is the big problem here. The real problem is that, too often, you still act like one. Even you yourself, Governor Perry, said of your party switch, “I will still vote the same principles, only with an R after my name.”
That’s the kind of thinking that has our country teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. We cannot afford to nominate someone who thinks the letter next to their name is more important than what they believe.
Governor Perry, let me be clear: It is not that you supported Al Gore that worries us.
It is that you supported Hillary Clinton’s health care plan.
You pushed for federal bailout and stimulus funds.
You support welfare for illegal immigrants.
You tried to forcibly vaccinate12-year-old girls against sexually transmitted diseases by executive order.
You raised taxes twice.
And, state debt has more than doubled in your tenure as governor, pushing Texas to the brink of our constitutional debt limit.
It’s that you supported ALL of these bad ideas that are inconsistent with how most Republicans understand conservatism, yet you now try to swagger your way into the Tea Party.
Governor Perry, with all due respect, you have used great rhetoric. But you will have to answer to the voters of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and across the country as to why that rhetoric does not match your record.
