Transcript shows Perry likening office to pulpit

[douglas9]

Employing deeply religious language that national experts say affords both power and peril for his political career, Gov. Rick Perry in late May told a group of East Texas business leaders that he was "called to the ministry" at age 27, suggested that the governor's office was his pulpit and that God put him "in this place at this time to do his will."

According to a transcript of the private meeting, organized to raise funds for Perry's Aug. 6 "day of prayer and fasting" at Reliant Stadium, the governor stated that property rights, government regulation and a "legal system that's run amok" were threatening the American way of life and "it's time to just hand it over to God and say 'God, you're gonna have to fix this.' "

Perry spokesman Mark Miner could not verify an Internet transcript of the remarks, but said it contained nothing inconsistent with the governor's belief that "every Christian is called into ministry" whether serving as a church leader or in the workplace, and that "God provides opportunity throughout peoples' lives to do his will." Eric Bearse, a spokesman for "the Response," confirmed the meeting was a fundraiser for the Houston prayer event.

Historians and political scientists say that Perry, who is actively testing the waters for a presidential campaign, may be ratcheting up religious rhetoric to seize the mantel of evangelical candidate in the Republican primary, but could frighten away a more mainstream general election electorate.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7652531.html

[Saphire]

1. So....Perry is just sitting back in his 10k a month Texas

Hill Country rental and let's Gawd run the state? Explains a lot.

[mwb970]

2. So his plan is to give up and pray for a policy?

Yeah, that'll work. What a bunch of fruitcakes these republicans are! Yikes.

[tanyev]

3. That man has been spewing out more God talk in the last year

than he did in the total of his previous 25 years in politics. What a load of newly-found crap.

[Javaman]

4. cement head perry has always been a weather-vein opportunist.

he's just dialing up teh stupid more so because of his Potomac fever.

the very sad part is, those moron fundies, who now believe he's the next repuke sliced bread, are nothing more than the usual run of the mill gullible sycophants.

in other words, when spewing shit, it's easy to catch flies.

frankly, I think this is his high water mark.

[somone]

5. He meant "God, you're gonna have to fix my state budget"