Former RNC chairman Michael Steele visited the Morning Joe crew on Miami Beach, wearing his finest approximation of a Miami Vice costume. Host Mika Brzezinski asked Steele to weigh in on a Washington Post op-ed piece that characterized the nation’s super-rich as “political props.” “For starters,” reads the article, “don’t pretend, as Obama does, that [...]

In not-so-surprising news, this weekend representatives of influential conservative Christian organizations gathered to vote on which candidate they should mobilize behind before the GOP primaries are resolved, and after much voting and discussion, settled on Rick Santorum as their candidate of choice. The event was attended by evangelicals like James Dobson and Tony Perkins, with Santorum triumphing in the final balloting over Newt Gingrich.

Joe Hall, the Henderson County (Texas) Commissioner, is a self proclaimed country boy serving out his last term as an elected official. He’s also probably the last man who wants to be told by a group from a different state to take down a nativity scene.

On CNN’s State of the Union today, Candy Crowley asked Senator John McCain if the Republican party should be worried about courting Hispanic voters in places like his home state of Arizona heading into next year’s presidential election, particularly given the anti-immigration sentiments of many of the candidates. McCain explained the policy of the United States should be “humane” when it comes to dealing with such matters, a word that got Newt Gingrich in hot water with conservatives when he used it about immigration several weeks ago.

Every December on The Factor, with his strong Christmas sense, Bill O’Reilly will kick off his Christmas defense. For the War Upon Christmas comes but once per year, and it fills the Fox hallways with holiday cheer. Today on his program, O’Reilly defended the holiday from secular-progressives who have fought hard to end it. O’Reilly declared, “for the last 15 years” he’s stood up for Christmas and all of its cheers.

In recent weeks, it’s become fairly evident that Rick Perry is a politician who likes to indulge in the occasional rhetorical flourish. While pundits have rated his previous debate performances as sub-par, when the Texas governor speaks in less formal environments, he appears to be on top of his game. (Whatever that game may be.) And he does not disappoint in the video below.

On November 10, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles will hold a vote on whether or not the state will allow special license plates — bearing the Confederate flag — to be issued in commemoration of the civil war’s 150th anniversary. The proposal is sponsored by Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, on behalf of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization that has a man walk onto your screen and speak loudly if your volume is turned up when you visit the website.

With the news finally subsiding– yet again– that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is definitely not a 2012 contender, Bill O’Reilly and Charles Krauthammer took a look at the Republican landscape as it now exists. With Mitt Romney as what Krauthammer denoted “the slow and steady tortoise,” this made it Rick Perry‘s move to scramble back up the polls. With that in mind, O’Reilly wondered why Perry seemed to be avoiding the cameras, something that to Krauthammer indicated Perry was afraid of having a “Katie Couric moment.”

96 percent of schools in Texas school districts teach abstinence-only; it’s not really working, though. Reports from the Lone State are grim: as a state, they rank fifth for most teen pregnancies, fourth for highest rate of syphilis among teens, and third for the most young people infected with HIV. “These are girls as young [...]

Texas governor Rick Perry‘s entry into the 2012 race certainly made Texas Rep. Ron Paul‘s position in the race interesting to say the least, and during tonight’s CNN/Tea Party debate, moderator Wolf Blitzer took advantage of having one of Perry’s constituents on stage to reply to an exchange between Perry and Mitt Romney on job creation. Said constituent was happy to reply, but not so happy to go after Perry, at least cynically: “I don’t want to offend my governor because he might raise my taxes.”

Rick Perry continues to poll well, and a CNN/ORC International Poll released ahead of tonight’s debate shows the Texas statesmen leading in both theoretical votes and general electability, earning the all important “nice guy” vote.

On Thursday’s edition of Morning Joe, in a discussion with Mark Halperin on who performed strongest in last night’s debate, Joe Scarborough questioned Rick Perry‘s strategists’ decision to run what he deemed a “West Texas Campaign”. “They seem to be running a race that would do fairly well in the panhandle of Texas,” Scarborough argued. [...]

The rumored tension between Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry and the the last man to hold both titles simultaneously, President George W. Bush, has made for plenty of headlines– a tension around with many in the Bush camp have been implicated. Hosting The O’Reilly Factor tonight, Laura Ingraham got to speak to one of those in the Bush camp, Karl Rove, and drilled him on the relationship between two of his former candidates. Rove was not too happy to be addressing the rumors.

Texan talk radio host Jim Hightower has emerged as a regular source for Gov. Rick Perry commentary since the latter launched his presidential campaign, not the least because he has some experience running against him. On The Last Word tonight, Hightower explained that the reason he lost to Perry in an agriculture commissioner election was really because his opponent in practice was Karl Rove, and that Perry himself is actually fairly “testy” and “thin-skinned”: “he puts the ‘goober in gubernatorial.’”

That Texas governor Rick Perry is a strongly pro-life candidate for the presidency should come to few as little surprise, though on tonight’s Rachel Maddow Show, host Melissa Harris Perry dove a bit deeper into what kind of legislation results from those beliefs, bills that don’t attack the abortion process itself, but make doctors involve themselves more in the process. Or, as Harris Perry summed up the Texas sonogram bill struck down recently, “Rick Perry wants to get all up in your uterus and take a picture.”

Republican frontrunner Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has been under a glaring media spotlight since entering the GOP field, and while it hasn’t been completely ignored, Perry’s life insurance scheme to open a futures market on dead Texas teachers deserves more attention than it’s getting. Even the liberals who have noted the ghoulish plan have failed to connect it to his new vision of the Civil Rights movement. Perry’s plan perfectly illustrates the need for what he calls “over-regulation,” but what the rest of us call “regulation.”

While people tend to admire politicians who are able to speak bluntly and off the cuff, it seems that’s a quality that’s been working against Texas governor and GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry and, as NPR’s “It’s All Politics” blog points out, it could work for Perry’s opponents — at least in terms of offering them fodder for smear ads.

Not only did his recent comments about Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama create headlines and court controversy, but it would appear that a few less than flattering moments from the Governor’s past are now resurfacing.

The crown jewel of the Gov. Rick Perry presidential campaign so far appears to be the great number of jobs created in the state during his tenure. On his program tonight, Anderson Cooper splashed some cold water on the claim by showing both President Obama and Perry “created jobs,” but, unlike on a national level, Perry benefited from an extraordinary population growth that created great demand for jobs. “The idea that one creates, the other destroys them is a stretch, at best,” he argued.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul can’t remember Texas Governor Rick Perry‘s name. In what is shaping up to be the most contentious intrastate Republican presidential clash since Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Michele Bachmann duked it out at last week’s debate, GOP frontrunner Rep. Paul mocked his governor in front of a crowd in New Hampshire today, noting that, despite his years of railing against the Federal Reserve, he had “never once suggested Bernanke committed treason,” like a certain “Southern governor.”

The Morning Joe panel had an interesting discussion this morning about Texas governor and GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry‘s recent bout of rather inflamed, controversial rhetoric, specifically his decision to call Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke‘s actions “treasonous” and insinuating that President Barack Obama might not love his country. Obama himself gave Perry “a pass” for his comments, but told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that one has “got to be a little more careful about what you say.”

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Texas Gov. Rick Perry‘s no “wizard” when it comes to creating jobs. “He should get as much credit” for the Texas jobs creation “miracle” as the wizard in the Wizard of Oz. “When we pull back the curtain, we’ll see that he’s not the wizard at all.” In a Washington Post op-ed, Harold Meyerson suggests that Perry “either ignores or doesn’t know” how Texas has benefited from investments and regulations of the Federal government. Meyerson concludes that Perry, seeking to unravel the Federal government’s programs, is the “21st Century, homegrown version of the Manchurian Candidate.”

On last night’s Ed Show, host Ed Schultz played an out-of-context clip of Texas Governor Rick Perry discussing a “black cloud” over America, suggesting he was making a potentially racist comment about the President. Tonight, he apologized and played the clip in full, which shows Perry was clearly referencing the national debt, though added that “the full context” of many other clips “show who [Perry] really is,” and it’s not, to Schultz, a pretty picture.

Texas governor Rick Perry has finally tossed his ten gallon hat into the presidential ring, and his campaign has gotten plenty of tongues wagging over whether America is ready for another George W. Bush. Many of those already making the comparison will see much of the 43rd President in Perry’s new ad, but the dark clouds over America, billowing Midwestern fields and cowboy imagery is a lot more Ronald Reagan than pre-presidential Bush.

ABC political analyst and former George W. Bush election strategist Matthew Dowd was very impressed by Rick Perry on This Week today, but he thinks one of Perry’s problems going forward in the election is that he reminds people too much of his predecessor. Dowd described Perry as “an incredible campaigner,” and described the current Texas governor as a better campaigner than his former boss. However, to many voters, Perry and Bush might be just a little too similar.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is officially a candidate to the presidency in 2012.” “Howdy!” he shouted at the crowd, introducing them to his wife and high school girlfriend, promising them he would work to “make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as I can” and set them “free from the shackles of an overbearing federal government.”