Rick Perry officially goes round the bend on the Bush 43 comparisons with his latest admission in New Hampshire: that as Commander-in-Chief, he'd consider sending troops into Mexico to fight the War on Drugs.
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said on Saturday that as president, he would consider sending American troops into Mexico to help defeat drug cartels and improve border security. He indicated that any such action would be done “in concert” with the Mexican government.
“It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and to keep them off of our border and to destroy their network,” Mr. Perry said during a campaign appearance here.
“I don’t know all the different scenarios that would be out there,” he said. “But I think it is very important for us to work with them to keep that country from failing.”
Wow. Just wow. Not only is Perry signing up for another decade-long or more counter insurgency operation on foreign soil where the locals or the government aren't exactly going to be thrilled to have our troops there in the first place, not only would the cost be prohibitive, and not only did a little thing called the Mexican-American War happen last time we tried this, but the real issue here is why Perry's doing this.
In the most recent debate, Perry was brutally attacked for not hating brown people enough. He made the unforgivable error of supporting the DREAM Act (which is good politics in Texas, not so much in a national GOP primary.) Sure enough, a week later he's talking about sending our military into Mexico to counter charges he's too weak on immigration policy.
It's by far the most insane idea out of the Rick Perry camp to anyone not consumed with red mist bloodlust involving our southern border, but then again this is Rick Perry trying to remain in the primary amid loud calls for Chris Christie or in fact any non-insane Republican to save the GOP from the Tea Party in 2012.
Alas, the GOP hasn't figured out yet that the problem isn't finding the right candidate, it's getting rid of the Tea Party that keeps subjecting everyone to hate-based purity tests.
[UPDATE] And if the putative Invasion Of Mexico story doesn't completely sink Rick Perry, the really classy name of the Perry family hunting lodge will. Bring on Chris Christie's 37 minutes of fame driving the GOP 2012 Clown Car.