First print publication to break the story has more.
In a ... story by Ken Herman, the governor excoriated unnamed "political foes" for engaging in a "smear campaign" that Perry insisted must have been masterfully organized – and that had all but disappeared until the governor opened his mouth.
Having been subjected to versions of the Perry rumors for weeks on end, Naked City is compelled to report that "well-thought-out" and "organized" are not adjectives that leap instantly to mind in discussing them. But Perry said his decision to speak out is an attempt to "expose" the "vicious nature" of the rumors, because left unchecked they "could be devastating to public service, to people coming into this business or running for office." After declining, in Herman's words, to "point fingers at particular political foes," Perry singled out (apparently without using his digits) Texas Democratic Party Chairman Charles Soechting for coyly referring to the rumors at a John Edwards rally in Houston last week.
Soechting responded by denouncing the "utter hypocrisy of Rick Perry injecting his mean-spirited politics into everyone else's personal life while insisting his own personal life is off limits." Soechting didn't elaborate, but Democratic wounds are still healing from the 2002 gubernatorial campaign, when Republicans were happy to suggest that Perry's opponent Tony Sanchez might have mysterious ties to money launderers and drug smugglers.
Statesman Editor Rich Oppel sniffed mightily, "We don't report rumors. We report facts." (That would no doubt explain the paper's enthusiastic dissemination last year of White House "facts" concerning Iraqi weapons.) On Sunday, Oppel further speculated that Perry had spoken out because the scurrilous rumors had reached his conservative political base outside Austin. More likely is that Soechting's impromptu public mention of the rumors (in the wake of a satirical "Rick Come Out" rally at the mansion) foolishly gave Perry precisely the opening he needed; the governor could climb on his moral high horse in a friendly "mainstream" venue and blame the entire sordid episode on the Democrats (and a few defenseless bloggers).
The Republican loyalists who spent the last several weeks responding (tastefully, off the record) to the rumors most often pointed at Republican opponents of the governor as the likely culprits.
el - I have a backlog of posts and reader responses but new design template will only be ready late tomorrow at the earliest.
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