WASHINGTON - To some conservative Jews, Texas Gov. Rick Perry would make an excellent presidential candidate. He’s been to Israel more than any other candidate in the field and has said he loves it. And Perry creates jobs.
But other Jewish conservatives seeking the anti-Obama candidate look at the three-term governor and see something arresting: He believes he’s on a mission from God.
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Bachmann wins Iowa Republican poll, Perry joins race81 congressmen to visit Israel in coming weeksPerry has nonplussed longtime Jewish supporters by claiming that he has been “called” to the presidency and by hosting a prayer rally this month that appealed to Jesus to save America.
Jennifer Rubin, the
Washington Post’s Right Turn columnist and a bellwether of Jewish conservatism, took liberals to task on her blog for treating the event as “a spectacle” - it was borne of deeply considered worries about the country’s parlous state, she said - but Rubin also expressed caveats about the rally.
“His words at the event were restrained but not ecumenical,” she wrote.
“And his use of public office to promote the Christian event was, to me,
inappropriate. The event, while scheduled last December, is still
reflective of the man who would be president. Would he do this in the
Oval Office? Does he not understand how many Americans might be
offended? Is he lacking advice from a non-Texan perspective?”
Fred Zeidman, an influential Houston lawyer who has known Perry for
decades and has hosted him at his home, said that “None of us remember
him being quite as devout as he seems to be now, but we wouldn't
necessarily have known.”
Zeidman, who for eight years served as chairman of the board of the US
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, supports Mitt Romney. But
Zeidman told JTA that before endorsing Romney, he checked with Perry
last December to ask whether he would be running. At the time Perry said
no.
On Saturday, Perry threw his hat into the ring.
"A great country requires a better direction," he said, declaring his candidacy. "A renewed nation needs a new president."
Perry has been a conservative since before he switched parties in 1989
to became a Republican. A cotton farmer and former Air Force pilot, he
led efforts in his first five years as a Democrat in the Texas
Legislature to pare the budget.
Perry, a devout Methodist, was attracted to Israel from the launch of
his career. One of his first acts after being elected agriculture
commissioner in 1991 was to create the Texas-Israel Exchange, which
promoted information and research sharing.
In a 2009 interview with
The Jerusalem Post,
when as governor he led a delegation to Israel, Perry - who at about
the same time flirted with Texas secessionist rhetoric - said the
alliance was a natural one.
“When I was here for the first time some 18 years ago and I was touring
the country, the comparison between Masada and the Alamo was not lost on
me,” he told the
Post. “I mean, we're talking about two groups of people who were willing to give up their lives for freedom and liberty."
As much as Perry’s heartfelt love for Israel makes him attractive to
Republican Jews, it is the other reason that he was in Israel at the
time - seeking out job creation initiatives, as he has across the globe -
that has been the basis of his Jewish support.
“I became intrigued by Rick Perry when I read his book
Fed Up! because
it was exactly what I was feeling,” Robin Bernstein, who heads Perry’s
fundraising in Florida, said in an interview. “His economic success in
Texas is a model for the entire country.”
Texas has managed to weather the recession comparatively well, and the
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has reported that half of all US jobs
created from June 2009 to April 2011 were in Texas.
Published last year,
Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington
blames America’s woes on an arrogant power elite in Washington. In the
first chapter, Perry accuses this elite of “chutzpah” - music to
conservative ears seeking relief from what they see as government
unbound.
“We are fed up with being overtaxed and over regulated,” Perry wrote.
“We are tired of being told how much salt we can put on our food, what
windows we can buy for our house, what kind of cars we can drive, what
kinds of guns we can own, what kind of prayers we are allowed to say and
where we can say them, what political speech we are allowed to use to
elect candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what kind of food we
can grow, what doctor we can see, and countless other restrictions on
our right to live as we see fit.”
It’s a message that resounds with Jewish conservatives - save, perhaps, for its defense of public prayer.
By the same token, Perry’s declaration last month that the presidency is
“what I’ve been called to” sent a shudder through some among the
conservative Jewish establishment. This month it was Perry’s leadership
in organizing the massive Houston prayer rally, dubbed The Response, and
his insistence that “we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide
us through unprecedented struggles" that led some Jewish conservatives
to go on the record with their discomfiture.
"My response to The Response: No, thanks," wrote Jacob Sullum, a
syndicated columnist. "My people have managed without Jesus for
thousands of years. Why start now?"
Sullum also criticized Perry for seeming to abandon his previous
let-the-states-decide view on social issues in favor of amendments to
the US Constitution that would outlaw abortion and same-sex marriage
everywhere in the country.
Sixteen rabbis were among 50 Houston clergy members who urged Perry not
to host the rally. National groups like the Anti-Defamation League also
opposed it.
“He called this rally as a governor,” Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national
director, said in an interview before Perry’s formal declaration of his
candidacy for president. “He didn’t try to camouflage anything. He's
pleasant and he's smart, he has good relations with the Jewish
community, but this is a conscious disregard of law and authority. What
troubles me most is this is his perception of where America is at.”
Bernstein, Perry’s Florida backer, said such concerns are overstated.
“Nobody criticized Moses for being ‘called,' ” she said. “The fact that
he upholds the Ten Commandments is very important. I like to believe a
man of faith has a moral compass.”
Jewish Democrats are eating up the controversy. In a statement, the
National Jewish Democratic Council said it was “encouraging” Perry to
run, “given that his record will help repel American Jews and remind
them why they support Democrats in historic numbers.”
Zeidman wondered if, with the rally, his old friend was miscalculating.
“I don’t know that he has not gone too far in his appeal to the
conservative wing of the party,” Zeidman said. “That could prove harmful
in a general election.”
Still, Zeidman said, it would be a bigger mistake to underestimate a
governor who in 11 years in office has wrested much power from the
Legislature, where it had been concentrated for decades, and who knows
how to win.
“He should never be underestimated in terms of his campaigning ability,” Zeidman said.