This could haunt Hair in the general election

The Senate recently, albeit somewhat reluctantly, passed a defense appropriations bill that includes:

• 
  A 3.4% pay increase for our service men and women.
• Nearly $30 billion for health care for service members and their families.
• More than $100 billion operations and maintenance, and military personnel requirements for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to support preparations to continue withdrawal from Iraq.
• More than $23 billion for equipment used by our service members in Iraq and Afghanistan – including critical funds to accelerate the deployment of new mine-resistant vehicles.
• More than $150 billion to increase readiness and training of our troops.
  

In other words, it was a bill designed to say "If we send young American men and women off to foreign lands to fight in a war they had no desire to start, we should do everything we can to protect and compensate them." Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Especially for defense-conscious Republicans. Which is why Sen. Hutch voted for it.

But why, in heaven's name did Gov. Hair attack Hutch for her vote? The answer: ridiculous, petty, partisan politics.

You, see, Republicans in the Senate and elsewhere, who obviously put a higher priority on sending Americans to their deaths in unnecessary wars in the Mideast than they do on the health of their own constituents right here at home, filibustered the defense bill because the health care reform legislation they oppose could not be considered until after the defense bill passed. Hutch saw through the hypocrisy in this tactic and joined others from her party to block the filibuster.

So Hair launched his attack on Hutch for standing up for American troops.

To me, his actions make no sense and may indeed come back to haunt him in the long run. Hair is going to trounce Hutch in the GOP gubernatorial primary, so he doesn't need to try to continue to outflank her on the right. And tactics like this are going to be a severe liability with the general electorate when he faces Bill White next November. Texas voters, I am convinced, support our troops overseas and they are not going to like someone who opposes the best interests of those troops.

Perry seems to forget that he won the last election with only 34 percent of the vote. That's about the voting percentage of the far-right wingnuts in Texas. This time around he's likely to face only one serious challenger in the general election, not three like he did four years ago. To get more than that 34 per cent, he is going to have to move more to the center. Stupid moves like this one aren't going to help his cause one bit.