True Story: Last night I was on a JetBlue flight to New York. As you may know, one of the great perks of flying JetBlue is that the in-flight DirecTv service for passengers, so I was able to watch the latest episode of my current favorite long-running comedy, the Republican presidential debates. Sitting next to me was an elderly woman who, aside from exchanging an initial pleasantry when we first got into our seats, was silent for the entire flight. She was also watching the debate on CNBC.
The first hour and half of the debate were somewhat uneventful, compared to recent debates in which some of the candidates looked as though they wanted to murder others in between saying ridiculous things. But then Texas governor Rick Perry was asked about his tax and spending plan, to which he responded by going into the three Cabinet agencies he wants to immediately abolish — a mantra he’s been repeating on the campaign trail since he started running for president. He then drew a blank, only recalling two of the three agencies he’s said repeatedly he wants to abolish.
Finally, after about a minute of the most cringe-worthy live television I’ve ever said, Perry just gave up and said, “Oops!” It was at this point that the aforementioned lady sitting next to me almost jumped out of her seat, reaching over to grab my arm as she yelled, “HOLY SH*T!”
Rick Perry, ladies and gentlemen…
Hilariously, the cartoon cowboy’s campaign is today trying to use the gaffe as a fundraising tool. Here’s the text of an email they sent out late last night…
Friend & Supporter,
We’ve all had human moments. President Obama is still trying to find all 57 states. Ronald Reagan got lost somewhere on the Pacific Highway in an answer to a debate question. Gerald Ford ate a tamale without removing the husk. And tonight Rick Perry forgot the third agency he wants to eliminate. Just goes to show there are too damn many federal agencies.
The governor said it best afterwards: “I’m glad I had my boots on, because I sure stepped in it tonight.”
While the media froths over this all too human moment, we thought we would take this opportunity to ask your help in doing something much more constructive: write us to let us know what federal agency you would most like to forget.
Is it the EPA and its job-killing zealots? The NLRB and its czar-like dictates? The edu-crats at the Department of Education who aim to control your local curriculum?
Send your answer to forgetmenot@rickperry.org, and if you are on twitter join us in using a new twitter hashtag: #forgetmenot. And, if you could, throw in a $5 contribution for every agency you would like to forget. We hope you have a long list. And we promise we will write down every last idea. So we don’t forget.
Still standing in our Boots,
Team Perry
That takes balls right there, my friends. Big, Texas-sized balls.