OPEN THREAD: GOP Kids' Table Debate

Watch along and weigh in here during the Kids' Table Debate, which begins at 5PM eastern. This and the later debate at 9PM will be streamed live at Fox News, but you'll need your cable system login to watch.

Top GOP Million+ Donors So Far

That's just the top four. There are dozens more.

Dick Size Battle: Rick Perry Challenges Donald Trump To Pull-Up Contest

Rick Perry Confirms For Duggar Fest 2015

That makes six of the GOP presidential candidates: Perry, Walker, Huckabee, Santorum, Cruz, and Carson. So far. Who will say no?

Rick Perry: People Should Be Allowed To Bring Their Guns Into Movie Theaters

Mediaite reports:

“I think that it makes a lot of sense to send a message across this country,” Perry said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning. “If we believe in the Second Amendment, and we believe in people’s right to protect themselves and defend themselves, and their families.” “I believe that, with all my heart, that if you have the citizens who are well trained, and particularly in these places that are considered to be gun-free zones, that we can stop that type of activity, or stop it before there’s as many people that are impacted as what we saw in Lafayette,” he added. Perry also said the Lafayette shooter, who had a history of mental instability and criminal activity, was able to procure a firearm because the existing gun laws weren’t being enforced. How he squares this with only “well-trained” people in movie theaters having guns was left to the winds.

GOP Field Denounces Donald Trump

The Hill reports:

Republicans of all stripes spent Saturday hammering Donald Trump for his remarks mocking Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over his time spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Many of the GOP’s most visible members are suggesting the outspoken billionaire and presidential candidate went too far taunting McCain during a speech Saturday afternoon. “He was a war hero because he was captured,” Trump sarcastically told host Frank Luntz during the 2015 Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa. “I like people who weren’t captured.” The quip came after Luntz challenged Trump’s criticisms of McCain’s political career. The pollster questioned his verbal attacks on McCain, calling him a “war hero.” “I supported McCain for president,” Trump said. “He lost and let us down,” he added, arguing he spent $1 million supporting McCain’s Oval Office bid. “I’ve never liked him as much after that,” Trump added. “I don’t like losers.”

Ted Cruz won't condemn Trump:

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), who considers himself a friend of both McCain and Trump, refused comment on the bitter feud. "I recognize that folks in the press love to see Republican-on-Republican violence, so you want me to say something about Donald Trump or bad about John McCain or bad about anyone else,” he said, according to The Washington Post. “I’m not going to do it.” “John McCain is a friend of mine,” Cruz added. “I respect and admire him and he’s an American hero. And Donald Trump is a friend of mine.”

Rick Perry To Announce 2016 Bid Today

CNN reports:

This time, Rick Perry has nowhere to go but up. Four years after his first presidential campaign was crushed by the weight of his debate gaffe and stump speech mishaps, the governor who spent 14 years presiding over Texas is launching his second bid for the Republican nomination on Thursday. He's ditched the signature cowboy boots and added black-rimmed glasses. He's spent the intervening years recovering from health problems and boning up on policy. Now, Perry will ask GOP primary voters for a second chance. He'll formally launch his campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination at Addison Airport, outside Dallas, in an 11:30 a.m. speech.

Perry posted his first campaign video today on his website.

Rick Perry To Announce On June 4th

Via the Dallas Morning News:

Former Gov. Rick Perry has chosen Dallas to officially declare his second run for the Republican presidential nomination in three weeks. For months Perry has said that he would announce his decision in May or June. But his constant travel to the early contest states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida has left little doubt of his intentions. Perry joins a burgeoning field of contenders, including fellow Texan Sen. Ted Cruz. The announcement was made via the Twitter account of his wife, Anita. Unlike four years ago, when he rushed into the contest after seeing he could raise quick money and was leading in polls, Perry enters this contest as an underdog. He is polling in single digits, but again unlike his last run, he has spent more than a year in preparation.

Things are wide open now that John Bolton isn't running! (Tipped by JMG reader Adam)

Rick Perry: I'd Probably Attend A Gay Wedding But That's A Gotcha Question

I've included Perry's infamous anti-gay ad from 2012.

Sarah Palin To Headline CPAC 2015

Sarah Palin yesterday confirmed her headlining appearance at CPAC 2015 despite not-quiet grumbling from the far right after her bizarre, rambling speech at last month's GOP 2016 Clown Car Revue in Iowa. Also on board for this year's CPAC are Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum, Ben Carson, Sean Hannity, Scott Walker, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Laura Ingraham, and Brent Bozell, who infamously called President Obama a "skinny ghetto crackhead" during an appearance on Fox News. CPAC launched in 1973. Ronald Reagan delivered 12 speeches at CPAC, including after he left the White House.

LIVE VIDEO: 2016 GOP Clown Car Revue

Rep. Steve King is holding his 2016 GOP Clown Car Revue in Iowa today and pretty much every right wing crackpot contender is there. The Des Moines Register is running a live stream and things are just now kicking off.

Today On Matt Barber's Site

What really happened is that some joker at Dartmouth distributed a list of prank questions to ask Perry during an appearance there last week. All of the questions dealt with anal sex and three of them were posed to Perry while he was onstage, although he declined to respond. LGBT ally Lulu Chang denounces the prank at Bustle:

Questions about anal sex are not subversive — they are insulting. They make light of the very serious discrimination faced by LGBT Americans, and reduce the entire notion of sexual liberation and independence to a joke that 8-year-olds find funny. What, exactly, was the desired goal, or rather, the expected reaction from Rick Perry? Was he intended to turn red in the face and suddenly realize that his stance on marriage equality was wrong? Was he expected to be so flabbergasted that he would turn tail and leave the cold of Hanover, New Hampshire for the humidity of College Station, Texas, never to return to the national spotlight again? Did anyone actually think that was going to work? And if not, what were these questions meant to achieve? No one in the audience laughed, for the record. Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike let out a collective groan when both the first and the second questions were asked.

The prank was also blasted by the president of the student Democratic club. See the list of questions at the link above.

Texas AG Greg Abbott To Fifth Circuit: Gay Marriage Will Lead To Fewer Babies

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a reply brief to the Fifth Circuit Court in which he declares that same-sex marriage will lead to straight couples having fewer babies. Via the Houston Chronicle:

The new filing largely reiterated the same “responsible procreation” argument Abbott made in July, when the state first appealed a a February district court’s ruling overturning the Texas gay marriage ban. In it, Abbott argued marriage among heterosexual partners is more beneficial to society because it encourages married couples to have children and provides an example for other couples to do the same. “First, Texas’s marriage laws are rationally related to the State’s interest in encouraging couples to produce new offspring, which are needed to ensure economic growth and the survival of the human race,” Abbott wrote.

He added, “Second, Texas’s marriage laws are rationally related to the State’s interest in reducing unplanned out-of-wedlock births. By channeling procreative heterosexual intercourse into marriage, Texas’s marriage laws reduce unplanned out-of-wedlock births and the costs that those births impose on society. Recognizing same-sex marriage does not advance this interest because same-sex unions do not result in pregnancy.” In the brief, Abbott concedes that same-sex marriage might have some positive effects for society, like increasing household wealth and adoptions or providing a more stable environment for children raised by gay couples. While there might be benefits, however, he said it’s for the Legislature, not the courts, to decide whether to expand the right to marry.

Read the full brief.

Tweeted By Rick Perry

Last night Texas Gov. Rick Perry tweeted out the above graphic and then deleted it with a follow-up claim that he had nothing to do with it. The Houston Chronicle slammed Perry instantly:

Lehmberg did not indict Perry. She and other officials in solidly Democratic Travis County recused themselves from the case against Perry. Bert Richardson, a Republican judge from Bexar County, appointed San Antonio lawyer Michael McCrum to serve as a special prosecutor. McCrum brought forth charges against Perry, and on Aug. 15, a Travis County grand jury handed up an indictment alleging Perry abused his official capacity and coerced a public servant. The tweet drew an almost instant backlash from Perry’s political opponents, many of whom have accused him of purposely blurring the details of the case from the get-go to rally public opinion in his favor. The graphic featured the logo of the Patriot Post, a website that offers news and commentary for a conservative audience. The website’s coverage of the indictment has been sympathetic to Perry and included similar illustrations poking fun at Lehmberg. Although the tweet came from Perry’s personal account — as opposed to the ones run by his staff — it was unclear Sunday evening whether he actually sent it out.

Perry is expected by some to run for president again.

T-Shirt Now On Sale By Rick Perry PAC

Reported by the Texas Tribune.

#Smugshot

Happening Right Now In Texas...

Details.

Ben Carson Prays For Rick Perry

Texas Gov. Rick Perry: My Indictment For Abuses Of Power Is An Abuse Of Power

TEXAS: Gov. Rick Perry Indicted On Two Felony Charges Of Abuses Of Power

Via the Houston Chronicle:

A grand jury indicted Gov. Rick Perry on two counts of Friday, accusing him of abusing his veto power by threatening to withhold funding from the Travis County's public corruption unit if the district attorney did not resign following her drunken driving arrest. The Travis County grand jury, led by special prosecutor Mike McCrum, indicted Perry on one count of abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony, and coercion of a public servant, a third-degree felony. The punishment range for the first count is 5 to 99 years in prison and on the second count, 2 to 10 years in prison,McCrum said.

"I'm ready to go forward," McCrum said. Asked about the effect on Perry carrying out his duties or eyeing higher office, McCrum said, "I took into account we're talking about the governor of a state... When it gets down to it, the law is the law." Grand jurors for months have been looking into whether Perry violated the law last year when he said he'd kill funding for the Travis County district attorney's public corruption division unless District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg resigned after a messy drunken-driving arrest.

Perry carried through on the veto threat when Lehmberg stayed on the job. Austin watchdog group Texans for Public Justice filed a complaint with prosecutors last year over Perry's threat. The group, which tracks money in politics, contended that with the threat, Perry violated laws against coercion of a public servant, abuse of official capacity, official oppression and, potentially, bribery.

The Texas Observer has posted a fascinating dissection of the scandal. Highly recommended to understand the full backstory.