. . . the failed presidential candidate, as a wastral son who burns through his inheritance, then returns home to a grand reception.
My faith tells the story of a prodigal son who squanders his capital and sleeps with the pigs, yet is greet warmly when he returns home as a wise and better person.
(Bill White, "Perry needs to regain credibiliity with his Texas constituency," Houston Chronicle, January ___, 2012). Mr. White implicitly offers himself . . .
. . . as the kindly father who kills the fattened calf to welcome home the wayward son.
By ignoring his most recent lapses and treating Rick Perry as the governor we want him to be, just maybe we can get more of the kind of leadershp Texas deserves.
In fact, Mr. White's op-ed is a rather bitter told-you-so, kick-him-while-he's down, shoot-the-wounded essay about the flawed Texas governor, who, inexplicably, defeated the flawless Mr. White in the 2010 Texas gubernatorial race.
. . . performance was embarrassing . . . could not survive close scrutiny . . . governor's limitations became obvious . . . many would not vote to re-elect Perry . . . is paid a generous retirement pension while still drawing a large state salary . . . personal and partisan agendas . . . relentless climb up the political ladder . . . state employees who had never seen Perry . . . should set a higher standard of ethics . . . state-funded state grants to a few privileged companies . . . dividing voters and taking credit for the work of others . . . .
Many, perhaps most, perhaps all, of charges made and implied here are righteous. But in making them, Mr. White positions himself, not as the forgiving father in the story of the prodigal son, but as the jealous brother -- the one who stayed home and did everything right.
["]Meanwhile, the older brother was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come," he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'
"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of your who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you killed the fattened calf for him!"
(Luke 15:25-30 (ESV))
Mr. White also proposes "three simple actions" by which Mr. Perry could restore his credibility with Texans. You can read them yourself, but the three simple actions boil down to one simple principle: Be more like me, the good brother, and less like your perfectly awful self.
Let's accept that Mr. White's reform proposals, though largely unexceptional, are good ideas. In this op-ed, however, they are also little more than vehicles for Mr. White to weave in yet more nasty-spirited criticisms of the man who denied him his rightful place as Texas governor.
To have urged Mr. Perry "to let go of personal and partisan agendas" in such an such an op-ed -- seething with personal and political anger -- demonstrates, if nothing else, that Mr. White lacks a sense of irony.
For all his faults, Mr. Perry understands one thing that Mr. White resolutely refuses to admit: That Barack Hussein Obama is visiting great harm on Texas and needs to be opposed and stopped. Even by -- or especially by -- Texas Democrats. One who can't see that, and say that, can't be governor of Texas, even running against a man who squanders his capital and sleeps among pigs.
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