The crimes of Rick Perry

ON AUGUST 15, Rick Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, was indicted on felony charges of abuse of official power and coercion of a public official.

The charges come in the final months of Perry's 14-year tenure as governor, during which time he amassed unprecedented political power in Texas and cultivated a swaggering persona to match it.

That Rick Perry chutzpah was on display last month, when he announced his decision to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to "secure the border" against the alleged threat of child migrants fleeing Central America--a move criticized by law enforcement officials at the border as political grandstanding.

Perry has also been preparing for another run for the U.S. presidency, despite his humiliation on the national stage during his disastrous 2012 candidacy.

Now sporting a pair of glasses and claiming that America is "a place that believes in second chances," Perry has set up a campaign and fundraising apparatus for a new presidential bid. We saw a sneak preview of what a Perry 2016 campaign would look like when he compared homosexuality to alcoholism at a public forum in San Francisco last June.

The facts in the new case against Perry are cut-and-dried. They relate to the April 2013 arrest of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg for drunk driving. Lehmberg, an elected Democrat, pled guilty and remained in office despite calls for her resignation. Had she resigned, it would have fallen to Perry to appoint her replacement.

Because Travis County includes Austin, the state capital, the Travis County District Attorney's office runs the Public Integrity Unit (PIU), which is charged with investigating corruption in state government. It is a long-standing gripe among Texas Republicans that the PIU is run out of Democratic-leaning Travis County.

As the Texas Observer's Forrest Wilder put it, "Practically speaking, this anti-corruption unit is one of the few checks on the power and influence Perry has accumulated over 14 years in office."

There's no shortage of cronyism to investigate in Rick Perry's Texas. An investigation by the PIU last year led to charges against a former executive at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, a state agency founded under Perry, for the improper awarding of an $11 million grant to a biotechnology firm.

Following last year's legislative session, Perry publicly threatened to use his line-item veto power to de-fund the PIU if Lehmberg remained in office. Lehmberg refused to step down, and Perry followed through with his threat.

According to the Texas Observer's Christopher Hook, "This kind of threat isn't unusual. Executives use veto threats all the time to get what they want. The difference this time was that Perry had the audacity to do it all publicly."

Has Perry's govern-with-impunity style finally caught up with him?

IF PROGRESSIVE-minded Texans are a little excited over the prospect of Rick Perry facing criminal charges--charges that carry a maximum penalty of 109 years in jail--it's because this is the first time he has ever been called to account in a political career replete with many monstrous crimes.

Texas has become a neoliberal disaster for ordinary people under Perry and the Republicans who dominate in state politics. In 2011, the Texas legislature passed the "cruelest budget in state history," according to the Texas Observer, slashing $27 billion in spending on everything from education to mental health care to fire prevention. Even with a surplus in 2013 buoyed by the oil and gas boom, the "Lege" passed an austere budget and is expected to do so again in next year's session.

While Perry incessantly touts his business-friendly policies as the key to the "Texas Miracle"--the state boasts relatively strong growth and low unemployment--a look at some state rankings shows their social cost.

Child poverty increased 47 percent during the Perry years, putting the state--home to one of every 11 children in the U.S.--among the nine worst states in the country by this index. According to a 2013 report by a legislative caucus, the state ranks first in percentage of people without health insurance and second in percentage of uninsured children.

The 2011 education cuts put Texas near the bottom of per-student spending among the states. It now has one of the lowest high school graduation rates, but ranks fourth-highest in terms of teenage birth rates. Meanwhile, a New York Times investigation found that state the state doles out $19 billion each year in tax breaks and other incentives to business.

Texas has become an environmental nightmare under Perry, ranking first among the states in carbon emissions and hazardous waste produced. The unfettered fracking boom has only contributed to this toxic stew.

The last few years have witnessed a vicious war on Texas women, culminating last summer when Perry signed into law some of the harshest restrictions on abortion in the country. One year since the passage of the legislation, the number of clinics providing abortion services has fallen from 41 to 20--and may fall to as few as six facilities located in just five major cities.

Texas also ranks the fourth-highest in the nation for the percentage of women living in poverty, last among all the states for women with health insurance, and is second-to-last in the percentage of pregnant women receiving prenatal care in the first trimester.

If there's one shocking figure that symbolizes Perry's reign of terror, it is the number of executions over which he has presided: 275--the highest number carried out by any governor in modern history.

That number includes people who were demonstrably innocent. But Perry has expressed little concern over his record, despite the well-documented flaws and racism built into the Texas death penalty. When asked in a 2011 presidential candidates' forum whether he felt guilty about possibly sending an innocent person to their death, Perry replied, "No, sir. I've never struggled with that at all."

A Texas judge recently set a January 14, 2015 execution date for Rodney Reed--a date scheduled literally in the final week of Perry's governorship.

Supporters of Reed, an innocent Black man from central Texas and victim of a police conspiracy, have vowed to fight the execution every step of the way. As Randi Hensley of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty said of Perry, "It is absolutely outrageous that this corrupt man has the power to decide who lives or dies."

IN THE week that followed the indictment, various pundits, partisans and legal commentators have weighed in on the merits and weaknesses of the charges against Perry, who is scheduled to appear in court for his arraignment on August 22. Texas Democratic officials, desperate to gain some ground in the November elections, have called on Perry to step down immediately.

Perry himself wasted no time hitting back against the charges, calling the indictment politically motivated. He has assembled a legal dream team--which includes Ben Ginsberg, the veteran Republican lawyer who represented George W. Bush during the Florida recount battle after the 2000 election that stole the White House away from Democrats--and is stiffing Texas taxpayers with about $80,000 so far in payments to his lawyers. It is expected that they will seek a change of venue from Travis County as the case goes forward.

Perry's legal team held a news conference on August 18, where they decried the charges as an "assault on the rule of law" and played embarrassing video captured on the night of Lehmberg's drunk driving arrest.

While Texas Democrats have rallied to Lehmberg's defense, she is no saint, having a hand in some of the worst local miscarriages of justice in recent memory. Eyes will be on her office again in the coming month, as Travis County moves forward with the case against former Austin police detective Charles Kleinert, charged with gunning down Austinite Larry Jackson, Jr. last summer.

Whether or not the charges against Perry ultimately stick, those of us fighting for social justice in Texas can take some satisfaction from seeing this man who has caused so much pain have to squirm--at least a little bit.