Mitt Romney vs. Rick Perry 2012: It's personal

In 2006, Romney was already trying to take out Perry with the help of Bush 41 and Rove.   It didn't take a genius to figure it out when Romney hired the same consultant as Rylander who was the Texas Comptroller  running as an independent against Governor Perry.  Carole Strayhorn Rylander was the Mother of the Bush 43 White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan who served from 2003 until May of 2006. Why McClellan was picked as the Press Secretary wasn't hard to figure out either with his Mother a close friend of the Bush Family.

Whenever the name Romney comes up, you can be sure that Bush 41 and Rove are not far behind.  Cannot fathom a Chairman of the Republican Governor's Association choosing a consultant who was working for an independent who was trying to take out a fellow incumbent Governor.  Romney was a bad choice for the Chairman of the RGA as we lost a lot of Governors races on his watch.

Romney poured money and consultants into Oklahoma for fellow Mormon Ernest Istook who didn't stand a chance against Governor Henry.  At a primary debate hosted here in Norman, Istook refused to answer a question that was asked saying to ask someone else first.  The best candidate to run against Henry was taken out in the primary by our State Chairman who later endorsed Romney when he ran for President in 2008.

During the 2006 Governor's race, Istook did on the job training for some young consultants from the San Diego area (La Jolla?) who were the worst I had ever seen (one of them was the Foley aide who made national news) as they knew nothing about Oklahoma.  They did know dirty tricks though.  The consultants went on to help the Romney campaign for President after Istook came close to losing by a 2-1 margin.

Romney stiffed the Oklahoma Republican Party's State Convention in 2008 after first saying he would speak and then pulling out at the last minute so no one else could come in and speak.  At his Town Halls in Oklahoma in 2006, he would only take questions from his Oklahoma staff or fellow Mormons dissing our State Chair and others who wanted to ask questions.

If he couldn't beat Sen McCain in 2008 in the primary, why is he running again because 2008 exposed a lot of his problems and now 2012 is exposing more because of the way he ran Bain Capital not to mention while Governor of Massachusetts, they were number 49 in job creation.

Mitt Romney showed as head of the RGA he was not a team player so why would people support him to President.  We need someone who is not afraid to take on the establishment instead of being from the establishment.  Romney is a non-starter in my book.  I have not been shy since 2008 saying anyone who ran in the 2008 Republican primary should not run this time and that means the whole group of them.  We need someone new to run not any retreads!

Bush 41 and Rove will say and do anything for Romney as we have been witnessing in order to take out Rick Perry who will shake things up in Government and not hire the same people who have been working in Republican Administrations starting with the Nixon years.  Hiring new people in Government is the only way we are going to get this economy turned around and put America back to work.  

Mitt Romney vs. Rick Perry 2012: It's personal
By MAGGIE HABERMAN | 8/28/11 7:08 AM EDT 

It’s the worst-kept secret of the GOP presidential primary: Mitt Romney and Rick Perry have never liked each other very much. 

And the past animosity could play out on the national scene in the coming weeks when Romney, the precarious front-runner, and Perry, who is rising in the polls, take the stage together for a series of fall debates.

The tension between the two goes back at least five years, tracing back to a 2006 blow-up when the two Republicans served together as governors. At the time, Romney, then the Republican Governors Association chairman, hired veteran media strategist Alex Castellanos to do work for the national group — a direct affront to Perry, since Castellanos was working for Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who was running as an independent against the Texas governor.

There was a big blowup” between Romney and Perry over it, said one Republican familiar with the situation. 

“It’s not like [Castellanos] was working for a Republican, he was working for an independent,” said the Texas Republican. “If that had been Rick Perry running the RGA, he’d have fired his ass and made sure he got no work anywhere. You’re trying to grow your ranks, not shrink your ranks.” 

A source close to Romney who was familiar with the event said, “I think from [Romney’s] perspective, he felt he was doing what was right for the RGA.” 

Some say the relationship never recovered. 

The following year, Perry endorsed Rudy Giuliani over Romney in the presidential race, in which Castellanos was a Romney adviser. Not only did the Texan pick the New York City mayor over his former gubernatorial colleague, he went the extra step of jabbing at Romney in a book he wrote in 2008 about the Boy Scouts, suggesting the former Massachusetts governor had excluded Scouts who had wanted to volunteer for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City because he disagreed with a Supreme Court decision allowing the group to ban gay Scoutmasters. (Salt Lake officials reportedly denied that anyone who wanted to pitch in was turned away). 

Phil Musser, a Republican operative and former executive director of the Republican Governors Association under Romney, acknowledged the two have a history but insisted the reports of animus are being exaggerated and that their relationship has improved.

Excerpt:  Read more at Politico