Texas delegation laughs off talk of secession

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — There has been an almost universal reaction in the halls of Congress to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s suggestion that Texas maybe, oughta, secede from the union.

Laughter.

“It’s known as a joking matter up here,” said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, who chuckled when he was asked about it earlier this week. “It doesn’t present Texas in the best way.”

Congress just returned from a two-week Easter recess, so this was the first time that members could trade information — or jokes — about secession.

Perry said at an Austin anti-tax “tea party” April 15 that “we’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, said of Perry’s secession talk. “We are interdependent. To secede; it’s the wrong thing. Politically, it’s going to hurt him.”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, guffawed when he heard that liberal commentator Bill Press had said that Attorney General Eric Holder should prosecute Perry for treason.

“Governor Perry has the right to express his opinion,” said Doggett, laughing, as he headed into a meeting in the Capitol.

“I think the governor got carried away,” said Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas. “You see posturing in preparation for the Republican primary. It serves no useful purpose.”

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is all but certain to challenge Perry in the 2010 gubernatorial primary, and political analysts say that the governor is playing to the party’s conservative base with his anti-government stance. Perry is one of a handful of Republican governors who have refused part of the federal stimulus money; specifically $555 million for Texas in additional unemployment funds.

The secession suggestion isn’t playing well with one Texas conservative, however: Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a former state Supreme Court judge.

“Well, I don’t think it’s particularly useful,” he told reporters during his weekly phone interview. “The legal response is ‘You can’t do it.’ We fought a Civil War. You can’t do it.”