Upon Chief Justice Taney’s death, President Lincoln was tasked with replacing the Chief Justice of SCOTUS.  Monty Blair had served as a loyal friend throughout Lincoln’s first administration.  Likewise, Edward Bates had proven his loyalty to Lincoln over-and-over again.  Both were well qualified men.  Both greatly desired the position.  Yet, in the end, Lincoln knew that there was but one choice that would best serve the Union.  He knew that although Salmon Chase had essentially been dismissed from his Cabinet in disgrace and although Chase had been anything but loyal to Mr. Lincoln, Chase was an abolitionist and the one to right the wrongs of the Taney court and their Dred Scott decision.  Lincoln understood that the personal relationships that he had built were not necessary what was best for the country. 

Following the massive 2008 defeat of Republicans from sea-to-shining-sea, Senator Jim DeMint boldly decided that what the country needed was true conservatives willing to stand up to big spending republicans.  He didn’t make a lot of friends when he began endorsing insurgent Tea Party candidates through his Senate Conservative Fund, but he did make a difference.  His Senate colleagues turned their back on him.  But he pressed on and he helped fuel a conservative revolution that pushed the party and the nation in a rightward direction.  He knew that the fate of the country was more important than the job security of some of his DC friends.

If only Rick Perry could grasp this concept.   

During the Texas U.S. Senate primary, Governor Rick Perry was presented with two options – ok he was presented with nine candidate options, but two true options for the republican nomination.  The establishment man, the most powerful republican in Texas, David Dewhurst – big spender, massive appropriator, earmarker, a guy who had more in common with the guys across the aisle, than the guys on his side of the aisle, or Jim DeMint and Sarah Palin backed Ted Cruz. 

Perry chose poorly, he sided with Dewhurst.  As I’ve said a thousand times before.  I don’t have a problem with RINO’s from Maine.  I don’t have a problem with liberal republicans like Kirk and Brown from Illinois and Massachusetts, but I do have a problem with a Mark Kirk coming from to us from Texas.

This isn’t even to say that someone who works across the aisle is not to be desired.  It is however, to say that someone who works with D’s more often than R’s would best serve the American people by staying in Texas.

Democrats don’t nominate a candidate in the mold of Joe Manchin in California or New York.  They nominate a Feinstein or Boxer.  While it is true that a political party should be a big tent and allow moderates in, the moderates can’t come from the conservative states (I’m talking to you Lindsey Graham).  We should elect moderates from moderate states and conservatives from conservative states.  Moderates aren’t the ones looking to save the country by capping the debt ceiling, lowering spending, etc.

But, without thanks to Mr. Perry, Mr. Cruz the law clerk of William Rehnquist and a Hispanic American from the Harvard Law Review will now face off in a run-off election with Mr. Dewhurst.  Again, we have the establishment wing of the party stuck in a different age while the Tea Party continues to find talent in minorities and ideals that win elections.  Rick Perry might want to reconsider his strategy.

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