Rick Perry Update

[Note: There are a long series of updates below. The whole idea of a Rick Perry gay sex infidelity scandal is rapidly loosing credibility with me.

UPDATE(3/5/2004) 10:01am
In addition, Governor Perry has directly denied the rumors.]

Previous two posts here and here. Both posts, as well as the initial post that got all the search hits have gathered a number of comments over the last few days. They tend to support the rumors, but it's still all heresay and conjecture as far as I'm concerned.

However, some are planning to take this further today by staging a demonstration:

On Tuesday at 10am, come down to the Governor's Mansion and show your support for the man's lifestyle during what must be a very difficult time. Urge him to come out of the closet and not bow to internal party pressure to resign if the rumors are true. It wouldn't make him any less qualified to be Governor than he was before and he, as well as the media, should be made aware that there will be people in Texas who would not condemn him for his sexuality. If the rumors are untrue, then this will give him a chance to deny them in front of the cameras and put the whole situation to rest. During one of the most important months in the nation's history on the subject of gay rights, it is vital to send the right message -- come down to the Governor's Mansion with your "it's okay to be gay" signs and let Governor Perry know that the opinions of his constituents is not contingent on what his preference is. It's a personal issue, but at this point in our nation's history it's also an issue that needs to be addressed, and a figure like Governor Perry could be a very powerful ally on gay rights. Gay or straight, Rick Perry is the same man he was before the scandal got picked up. Let him, and the media, know that we stand by that.

That oughta be interesting, but not everyone in the comment thread supports this idea. Some good remarks worth reading. Link via Burnt Orange Report. This is one way for the story to get published in the media.

Would that be a milestone for the blog community? Taking the barest rumors of a brewing governor scandal, pushing them to the point where people actually take to the streets to make mention of it, thus kick-starting the news into reporting it and getting what they know out into the public? Could be innerestin' as long as there is something to all this discussion. The more I see comments elsewhere, the more people seem to respond assuming it's true, or even more worrisome, responding with the attitude of "I hope it's true."

Anyway, Governor Perry was in Washington over the weekend for the National Governors Association's winter meeting. I watched a two of the events covered by C-SPAN: President Bush's dinner speech and a roundtable on economic growth moderated by Lou Dobbs. I saw and heard nothing regarding the gay sex rumors.

Gov. Perry's wife, Anita, did attend the dinner with him.

Still no mention of this in Google News, nor any of the other sources I posted previously.

UPDATE(9:50am)
Mickey Kaus has picked up on this:

Chatter in the network: Texas Gov. Rick Perry ... a man to watch! ... You could google and find out more. Or go ahead, be responsible! ... 10:57 P.M.

Frontburner also has an good update. The sands are shifting!

UPDATE(3:07pm)
Oh shit.

That demonstration took place, according to Austin's Indymedia (pictures at the link):

About 20 people gathered at the Governor's Mansion today at 10:00 am with signs reading "It's OK to be gay, Guv" and "legalize gay marriage."

The protest was in response to rumors swirling around the capitol that Governor Rick Perry was caught by his wife with another man. Protestors pointed to the fact that Perry, a Republican, has championed anti-gay legislation such as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The protestors said they support Governor Perry's right to any sexual lifestyle he should choose. They encouraged the governor to address the rumors as soon as possible.

As you can see from the photos, the news media did indeed show up.

With this AND Bush's announcement that he backs a Constitutional ban on gay marriage, I doubt this will be a localized Net topic for much longer. As of this writing, none of the major Austin television stations have anything on their news websites. Ditto for Google News.

UPDATE(2/25/2004 8:45am)
Well, I watched News8Austin for more than five hours yesterday and saw no mention of this. Since last night was also a new episode of 24, I wasn't able to surf the stations very well. Gotta have a life beyond politics, man...

However, I did notice News8 used a clip of video from the demonstration in their stock news cycle (there's a video link on that page, but it isn't the full length version broadcast yesterday) when addressing the gay marriage issue and Bush's support for a Constitutional amendment. It was this guy, the one holding the "It's OK to be GAY" sign on the right...but they mixed in the footage with the marriage issue and didn't mention the Governor Perry rumors. Additionally, KXAN did the same thing but in print. They mentioned the demonstration, but tied it to opposition to Bush's gay marriage stance.

More photos of the demo here, from a different source.

UPDATE(2/26/2004 1:55pm)
The Austin Chronicle has picked up the story:

Yes, we've heard The Rumor, too. Many, many times. Despite a complete absence of proof, the personal preferences of Gov. Rick Perry have become the talk of this and many other towns. See p.23.

The Real Sins of Gov. Perry

On Tuesday morning, a small group of protesters (almost outnumbered by reporters and photographers) gathered at the Governor's Mansion for what was disingenuously billed as a "support rally" for Gov. Rick Perry, under the theme, "It's OK to Be Gay." As any Austinite with access to e-mail or a cell phone knows by now, for a couple of months rumors concerning the governor's personal life have been flying furiously around the Capitol, the capital city, the state, and indeed most of the Western Hemisphere. The variations are multiple and quite inventive ? we won't recount them here ? but at their core is the tale that the governor's marriage is in trouble, that his wife Anita has/will/may decide to divorce him, and that the issue is Rick's alleged infidelity, with one or another member of his administration of undetermined gender. (Rumors of this sort, about multitudinous politicians, circulate all the time, but the current Perry rumors are indeed extraordinary in their baroque detail and remarkable persistence.)

There's more, but when they looked into the rumors a few weeks ago they found "no evidence of any truth to any of them, whatsoever."

We continue to wait, but at this point it doesn't look like the story is true.

UPDATE(2/27/2004 9:35am)
The Quorum Report weighs in:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Putting a stop to personal smears

Like most news organizations, we here at the Quorum Report have wrestled with a relentless rumor mill over the last month and a half that has proven to be little more than an enormous distraction.

We are not going to get into all the details of ever-morphing rumors about Governor Perry, but the last six weeks make Monty Python movies seem like serious political discourse.

We break our silence because -- well frankly -- enough is enough.

This publication is as wired into the Texas political scene as well as any other, and more wired than most. We pride ourselves on our breadth of both traditional and non-traditional sources.

We have not been able to find even a scintilla of corroboration for any of the rumors. And since the rumors change every day, the matter is now simply silly.

Harvey Kronberg thinks it's time to move on and ignore this until credible evidence of the rumor(s) presents itself.

The Burnt Orange Report has been at the forefront of this and after all this time, Byron L hasn't gotten anything that proves the allegations.

Posted by Drizzten at February 24, 2004 08:58 AM