Incessantly trolling liberals was working for him. Tacking hard to the right on immigration was working for him. Being a martyr to evil liberalism might work for him, too.
Will
indictment help Perry's chances in 2016 – at least in the GOP
primaries?
I've
recently begun to think that the Republican party, in its current
form, has moved beyond win-at-any-cost; now even winning seems to
lose some of its fizz for them unless they win
dirty. Going there
is no longer a tactical last resort; it's become both proof of one's willingness to
play "hardball" against the enemy, and evidence that one
buys into the post-Reagan ideology that government-created laws are
part of the problem (or the post-Nixon article of faith that, if the President does it, it isn't illegal).
Both working historian Rick Perlstein and working journalist Charlie Pierce agree that there's a strain of Republicanism that judges its candidates by how underhanded – if not flat-out felonious – they're willing to get. Once that happens, something like Perry getting indicted for putting the screws to a Democratic-led ethics investigation of his own administration's shady doings becomes less of a political embarrassment to be covered over and more of a sacred rite of passage to be celebrated:
Both working historian Rick Perlstein and working journalist Charlie Pierce agree that there's a strain of Republicanism that judges its candidates by how underhanded – if not flat-out felonious – they're willing to get. Once that happens, something like Perry getting indicted for putting the screws to a Democratic-led ethics investigation of his own administration's shady doings becomes less of a political embarrassment to be covered over and more of a sacred rite of passage to be celebrated:
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