Rick Perry trips himself up on Prez "non-run" run

I've blogged before about the lies and myths that are the reality of the "Texas miracle" of economics. Those include, besides the new fees that aren't "taxes," the recession, including the housing problems part of it, hitting Texas later than elsewhere, as it now seems Dallas and other Texas big cities still have a year or so of housing value slide left to face.

(T)he damage is now spreading to areas that had long escaped the worst of the crisis. They include Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis and Cleveland. Economists regard them as housing bellwethers — metro areas that are reliable indicators of where national prices are headed.

Denver and Dallas are on pace to hit post-housing bust lows in the next few months.

That said, Tricky Ricky has always fallen back on the "lean, mean efficiency" of Texas state government, lead his "his truly," although he modestly doesn't say that.

Maybe there's a good reason for that modesty.

All Perry had to do was pull, oh, $2 billion out of the $9.4 billion in the state's Rainy Day Fund and spend it on education. But, nooooo, he had to play hardball.

And now, his hardball (not to mention, possibly, his hypocrisy, are coming back to bite him.

Gov. Rick Perry often cites the state budget as the only thing Texas lawmakers have to do. And, when asked before the legislative session what the state's top spending priorities should be, he named education.

But when the GOP-led Legislature adjourned the 140-day session on Monday, it did so without a budget for Texas classrooms, an omission that prompted Perry to call lawmakers back for an immediate special session to try again.

Looks like education was actually about ... uh ... 9.4 billion spots below being his top priority.

That said, maybe this is proof he's not thinking about running for president.

A supermajority in the House, a lt. gov. who failed, though he had done it before, to use parliamentary tricks in the Senate, and "poof," it's special session time.

That said, even though I'll be voting again, for political theater, I'd love to see a Perry-vs-Obama steel cage death match.