Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, should give his opposition researchers a raise. In response to an ad from Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, that attacks Perry for supporting a 1988 Al Gore presidential run while reminding voters of Paul’s support for Reagan, the Perry campaign dropped this bomb: a year before Perry supported Gore as a conservative Democrat, Paul wrote a letter of resignation from the Republican Party that protested President Reagan’s policies.

In fact, Paul went so far as to write that “there is no credibility left for the Republican Party as a force to reduce the size of government. That is the message of the Reagan years.”