Rachel Farris

There’s something just plain off about Governor Rick Perry, poster boy for the party of wars and bullseyes and shooting at animals out of helicopters, appearing at a “Texas Rally for Life” on Saturday at the steps of the Capitol.  Yet there he was, wearing a black sport coat with gray pants, pontificating about stopping women “before one makes the biggest mistake of their life,” as if teasing who gets kicked off the next episode of The Bachelor.

Perry’s always been unafraid to go headstrong into a double-standard, but lately seems to exhibit a blinders-on stubbornness that eerily smacks of our former President Bush.  Call it twitching or smoke and mirrors, either way, Perry’s been using his “emergency legislation” powers to tickle Texas Republican sweet-spots in between book tour stops in Vegas.

Declaring the need for pre-abortion sonograms as “emergency legislation,” however, was a gratuitous use of melodrama and the female body to score political points.  The only problem was: his campaign math didn’t quite add up.  The man who has railed against government mandated healthcare and the “unchecked growth” of government is suddenly, unabashedly, doing just that.

“Over the past ten years we’ve passed laws requiring both parental notification and parental consent ensuring parents are involved in the most serious moment…and today I am pleased to announce I’m designating the sonogram bill an emergency item for the 82nd legislative session.”

It wasn’t long ago that Perry was concerned about the government getting ...