Governor 39% shows why he's Governor 39%

Rick "39%" Perry spoke in Mexico City this past Tuesday. Talk about not getting it.

Leading a large delegation of Texas executives trying to drum up business in Mexico, Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday criticized the U.S. Congress for failing to pass an immigration bill that would legalize millions of workers.

"I don't think this is that difficult an issue if Congress would have the maturity to sit down and really discuss it and cut out all the mean rhetoric," Perry said during a break in the third day of meetings with Mexican officials and business executives.

"We need those individuals to continue to grow our economy," he said of Texas' undocumented workers, most of whom hail from Mexico. "The vast, vast majority of those individuals want to come and work and take care of their families."

Perry made the remarks in Mexico City, where immigration is nearly as big a hot-button issue as it is in Washington. He spoke at a press conference shortly before meeting with President Felipe Calderon who, like past Mexican presidents, has lobbied for changes in U.S. immigration law that would include a guest-worker program.

Perry's statements seemed to put him at odds with many in the Republican Party's base who regarded the immigration overhaul bill that collapsed in the Senate in June as nothing more than an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

You know you're on the wrong side of the debate when the Houston Chronicle mentions your conservative opponents, even if it is in the fifth paragraph.

But wait, there's more! Now remember, we live in Texas. When people in this state commit heinous crimes, we execute them. As Ron White has so eloquently stated, "other states are trying to abolish the death penalty...mine's putting in an express lane."

Consider the case of Kenneth Eugene Foster. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996. He drove the getaway car for a botched robbery that resulted in the murder of Michael LaHood. He participated in the needless extinguishing of a human life. What did Rick 39% Perry have to say about it?

"Foster sought to have his death sentence commuted to a life sentence arguing that he did not shoot the victim, but merely drove the car ... that the actual killer was riding (in)," Perry's office said in a statement.

"After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendations from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment," Perry was quoted as saying.

If you have the time, please read the entire article. Let me know if, in the eight paragraphs that form the article, you read a mention of Foster's earlier arrest and probation for shooting two men in 1994.

Worst of all, it might be that Rick 39% Perry commuted the sentence in response to pressure...from the European Union. (see: picante made in New York City)