About the only campaign that comes close to the disaster that is Creigh Deeds’ campaign in Virginia is the craptacular spectacle of Kay Bailey Hutchison running her Texas gubernatorial primary.

The campaign has thus far been a disaster. Most recently, this morning, KBH showed up an hour late to her own kick off event.

Then, when she got there, she started bashing Rick Perry for being Governor for ten years. She said, “We need results, not politics. And that starts with term limits for Texas governor. For any governor, eight years is enough.”

The befuddling irony is that Kay Bailey Hutchison has been a United States Senator for seventeen years. Pot meet kettle.

Then of course, there is this:

When she first ran for Lloyd Bentsen’s vacated seat in 1993, she pledged to serve only two terms.

I get it with Perry and serving another term. But on the other hand, if a company is doing well, would you ever toss the CEO just because “eight years is enough”? That’s not smart business sense.

Lastly, and put more plainly, Texas has a choice — does it want a conservative or a Republican first?

Kay Bailey Hutchinson is defined by her party. She is notorious in Congress for throwing conservative staffers out of meetings. She is notorious for undermining pro-life legislation because she did not want to deal with. She is notorious for being a capitulating compromiser.

For Kay Bailey Hutchinson, it is all about the party and, consequently, all about holding on to power.

Rick Perry is a conservative before he is a Republican. His foundation, unlike KBH, is not the acquisition of political power, but the application of principles grounded in our Declaration of Independence, i.e. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Texas voters in the Republican Primary may be tired of Rick Perry, but do they want to throw him out for an unprincipled member of the Republican Party establishment? If so, they will get no better than the same Republican Establishment the nation coldly rejected in 2008.