This week, President Obama will be heading to Texas for a day of fun and fundraising. He will not, however, be visiting the border - likely due to an aversion to scabies, tuberculosis, and various poxes. After all, no politician wants to beg for money when they're covered in unsightly, contagious, sores.
Despite this, The White House had assumed that the President would still enjoy his customary gubernatorial "handshake on the tarmac" when his plane touched down in Austin. When you have a petulant President, these sorts of meet-and-greets often result in precious memories like this:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry doesn't feel like being a photo-op prop for Obama
This time, however, it seems that Mr. Obama is out of luck. He's not going to get his precious "welcome to the lone star state" photo-op ...at least not while Governor Rick Perry is in office.
The Governor sent a letter to the President, indicating that:
“I appreciate the offer to greet you at Austin-Bergstrom Airport, but a quick handshake on the tarmac will not allow for a thoughtful discussion regarding the humanitarian and national security crises enveloping the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas.
I would instead offer to meet with you at any time during your visit to Texas for a substantive meeting to discuss this critical issue. With the appropriate notice, I am willing to change my schedule to facilitate this request.
At any point while you are here, I am available to sit down privately so we can talk and you may directly gain my state’s perspective on the effects of an unsecured border and what is necessary to make it secure.
Since first calling the issue of border security to your attention in a 2009 letter requesting 1,000 National Guard troops to assist with securing our border, I have followed up with several further communications inviting you to tour the border and view this crisis firsthand. In addition, I have provided information on how the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety have supported, and continue to support, surge operations along a border, which has become a nexus for criminal activity of all kinds."
Well done, Governor Perry. If only we had more Governors who "got" the idea that you don't have to kowtow a failing - or actively anti-constitutional - President.
According to the Politico, Governor Perry has been granted an audience with our esteemed leader. He has issued the following statement:
“Gov. Perry is pleased that President Obama has accepted his invitation to discuss the humanitarian and national security crises along our southern border, and he looks forward to meeting with the president tomorrow."
