because your points are primarily opinions

“Perry and U.S. Senator John Cornyn opposed Smith’s candidacy and he eventually lost the primary to Green. Green was unopposed in the 2004 general election. A controversial email that Smith sent out responding to Green’s attack that Smith was short on credentials may have backfired and cost Smith some support. While touting his own academic achievements at the University of Texas School of Law, Smith disparaged Green’s academic achievements, namely that Green had graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, a smaller and less well known law school. Senator John Cornyn is a St. Mary’s alumnus. Dean Bill Piatt of St. Mary’s blasted Smith, saying that it was inappropriate for a sitting Supreme Court justice to belittle one of the law schools in the State of Texas.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Wayne_Smith

my point is that I don’t know why I care about that story. It is small beer. It happens daily in state politics. Crap, how about Bush trying to put Harriet Miers on the court. Who cares.

Anyway, this story is about Romney’s appointments so this threadjack is at an end.

“His signature appointment was Wallace Jefferson as chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Perry made the point in nominating Jefferson that merit not color was his watchword when it comes to race.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2788063/posts

“His appointment as chief justice was confirmed unanimously by the Texas Senate on March 9, 2005. He was elected chief justice in 2006 and re-elected to a full term in 2008. His term ends December 31, 2014.”

http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/court/justice_wjefferson.asp

“…why volunteer to the the first president whose judicial nominees don’t get lifetime tenure?”

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/94461/rick-perrys-smart-court-

Steven Wayne Smith’s claim to fame was winning the Hopwood case.

How Smith won and later lost is known in Texas. reggie182 is correct on this. Smith was an independent conservative who took on a Perry appointee and won. Texas GOP ‘establishment’ went after Smith in 2004, supporting a judge named Green.

I recall this particular race because this race had collateral damage. Perry and Cornyn had pre-primary robo-calls telling people to support Green for Justice prior to the primary. Another guy named Green jumped into the 3rd court of appeals race (Texas court) against a real Republican, and Hispanic, Ernest Garcia. I was shocked on primary day when canvassing that even ‘informed’ people were voting for Green instead of Garcia. Despite being a snake-in-the-grass, the phony candidate Green beat out Garcia. So ironically, the race to take out a guy who defeated a Hispanic Republican led to the defeat of another Hispanic Republican downballot.

Texas Supreme Court justices are elected, not appointed. Smith ran in ’04, lost to Green, ran again in ’06 and lost.

Try again, still no cigar for you.

You should be concerned, it was not a good appointment, and they took a good conservative Judge down going after Smith. Perry’s overall record is good though.

Yes, Justices are elected in Texas, and its a great thing.

But any vacancy that opens up between elections get filled with an appointment by the Governor. And the ones Perry has appointed have won re-election.

6 of the 9 Texas Supreme court Justices initially got their through appointment by Gov Rick Perry.

Overall, Perry has appointed very good folks.

I agree that a person should not form opinions and a world view based on a single website. I never said the Wikipedia article was accurate. Rather, in response to the above comment “I’m still scratching my head as to why politically active folks still promote this falsehood”, I was simply showing why some people may believe that Perry was Al Gore’s Texas campaign manager.

Politically active people should also not form an opinion about candidates without seeking out both sides of the argument. Unfortunately, a lot of people have knee-jerk reactions to incorrect claims about many candidates (whether it’s Perry, Romney, Cain, etc.) without seeking to understand the issue fully. If a person only seeks for information and understanding from sources that are mostly antagonistic or one-sided, that person will never form a correct opinion.

and he never called conservatives racist. Have you ever said something you regretted and wished you had said differently? I have and I appreciate it when I am forgiven and given another chance.

We are buying into the liberals strategy when we exaggerate the meaning behind words spoken in haste–and I mean that about all of the candidates gaffes.

he is correct. I say that from someone who has been quite heartless when it comes to illegals and their offspring.

My beliefs were that A) the reason they are here was because of a crime and B) their children while not guilty of the crime should not benefit because of the crime.

It has taken the words of many here and on the outside to make me rethink my heartless belief system and here is why.

States are limited as to what they can do to stop illegal immigration. So they have a problem that they can not cure, so they have to make the best of it. About the only thing states can do is limit the protection of illegals within their own state such as sanctuary cities but even then, without the feds doing their job to deport illegals, their ability to do anything is limited.

So now states have the children of those who broke the law in their schools, hospitals, jails, wards, etc. They can either take the screw you route and end up with generations of uneducated law breakers or uneducated wards of the state or they can open the doors within reason to ensure any child of an illegal has every chance to better themselves and become productive to society.

The dream act is not some free ride and when I understood this, my attitude changed. The student, regardless of who they are, has to excel in school and then they are given certain rates in order to be able to afford school. These grants and such are paid via taxes of which even illegals pay their part through sales tax, property tax, even employment tax. These kids have paid into the system, they should get back the same as anyone else if they have worked hard and studied hard.

These kids are not at fault for the parents actions and the ones who benefit from the dream act have earned it just as the white or black kid who receives the benefits has. We either do our best to reward hard work so that these hard workers become great citizens or we stay heartless and pay the price when our homes are robbed, kids are beaten, someone is murdered, etc or pay an even higher price via welfare and incarceration.

Something must be done about illegal immigration and the first step would be to end anchor baby status as this would give less incentive to come here. But until the feds do their job and stop the parents, there is financial and social benefits to encouraging the children of illegals to work hard and letting them know if they do, they will receive the same breaks kids of citizens get since both kinds are paying for the benefits.

It costs a state a hell of a lot more to constantly pay welfare benefits or pay for someone to be locked up then to grant citizen rights to the hard working children of tax paying illegals.

Did he? Well, DID he?

Why don’t you go look and see exactly what he said and then come back here and apologize for either LYING or being IGNORANT.

Take your pick.

Perry never said you were racist. He said you were heartless. They are not one and the same.

I know a lot of people who are heartless, but they aren’t racist. They hate everybody.

has done. I’m not aware of any flops back to liberal on an issue. Do I trust his instincts on big government? No. But I would trust his word if he can be pinned down to make pledges.

As of now, I lean to Cain and Perry over Mitt.