In 2011 Rick Perry Couldn’t Remember Energy Department’s Name – Now He’ll Head It

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:41 pm

It turns out former Texas governor Rick Perry, whom I once called “another in a growing collection of Republican banditti,” is about to inherit the department whose name he once could not remember, the Department of Energy.

Yes, that’s right. Trump met with Perry yesterday at Trump Tower and it is unknown if it was Perry’s utter lack of intellect, his propensity to corruption, or his lying tongue that attracted Trump to him. Or all three.

Bottom line: the selection should come as no surprise as those are a trifecta of the qualities Trump looks for in cabinet level appointees. In a word, Perry’s got it all.

In 2011, during a presidential debate, Perry, never the brightest bulb on the tree of conservatism, was trying to name the three federal departments he would eliminate if he were elected. He managed to get out “energy” and “commerce” but could not remember what the Department of Energy was called:

“The third agency of government I would — I would do away with Education, the –Commerce…Commerce and, let’s see. I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry — oops.”

Prompting Ana Navarro to tweet:

No, you can’t make this crap up. In the annals of stupid, there may well be worse than Rick Perry, and any search would have to begin at #TrumpTransition.

He didn’t get the nomination in 2012. In part, because he proved he was dumb as a box of hammers. He is also as dishonest as the day is long, but Romney proved just as dishonest and just a tad less dumb.

But enough metaphors. There is irony in the fact that Perry, like Scott Pruitt at the EPA, is inheriting a department he wants to see eliminated.

As Elliot Lusztig quipped, “Perry’s qualification for Dept. Energy is that he once forgot he wanted to abolish it,” but then, there is a lot of that going around at Trump Tower.

You can bet neither of them wants to eliminate these departments now. They’ll repurpose them instead, so they can draw a hefty salary + handouts from the fossil fuel industry.

But there is so much irony now as reality slowly tips over onto its head.

Here’s another tidbit for you: Back in May, Perry, while admitting Trump wasn’t his “ideal” choice, endorsed him nevertheless. He’d previously backed Ted Cruz after backing himself even earlier in the race. But you know what they say: like attracts like.

Yes. The Law of Attraction is about to bite us in the butt. And it’s going to hurt.

Perhaps the worst of it is (let’s face it, it would be hard to figure out what the “worst” of anything is anymore), Perry’s appointment is a harbinger of doom to the embattled folk of Standing Rock:

But heck, Trump is invested in DAPL too and if there is one thing we have already learned about the incoming Trump administration, there can never be too much stupidity, too many lies, or too much corruption.

Author
Recent Posts

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

Latest posts by Hrafnkell Haraldsson (see all)