Texas Two Step

Paul Whitefield's snarky little opinion blog post really does deserve some attention, more attention than it gets being buried deep in the electronic edition of the Los Angeles Times. In this little gem, Mr. Whitefield skewers the hypocrisy of Texas Governor Rick Perry, he of the "good hair," when it comes to the role of the federal government.

What do you do when your state is burning?

Texas' Republican Gov. Rick Perry, wanting to avoid any comparisons to Nero, took decisive action: He declared a three-day period, from Friday to Sunday, as Days of Prayer for Rain.

And they call Jerry Brown Gov. Moonbeam?

To be fair, this isn't all Perry has done. With wildfires scorching more than 1.4 million acres of the state, claiming at least two lives and destroying homes and livestock, Perry has asked for federal disaster aid. [Emphasis added]

What's so unusual about a governor asking for federal aid? Well, Mr. Perry, like most of the Republicans holding the governor's mansions, has gone out of his way to decry the intrusiveness of the federal government when it comes to the individual states. He even hinted that his state might even secede. That secession talk got him a lot of attention a while back, but that was then. This is now. His state needs the kind of help that only the federal government can give.

And that's something that ought to be pointed out on the front page of both the print and electronic editions of a major US paper.