Enter stage right -- WAY right -- Rick Perry

Just as former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty -- probably the only guy who's close enough to the centre that he could actually beat Barack Obama in next year's presidential race -- withdrew his candidacy, current Texas governor Rick Perry announced he's running for President.   If you thought Dubya was a nut for believing God actually spoke to him and speaks to him still, fasten your seat belts.

Perry has some really out there beliefs, proven by the fact he hosted a so-called "non-demoninational, apolitical Christian prayer meeting."   All of the following statements were made by some of the worst of the religious right, all unchallenged by Perry:

• Oprah is a sign of the Apocalypse.  -- Mike Bickle
• Blackbirds are dying because of gay soldiers. -- Dr Cindy Jacobs (she also two women kissing a "plague on society")
• The Statue of Liberty is a demonic idol. -- John Benefil (he also thinks homosexuality is an Illuminati plot to control population growth)
• Hurricane Katrina was retribution for New Orleans' "sins" -- John "I still believe Bill Clinton murdered Vince Foster" Hagee.   This long-time champion of Israel actually had the temerity to say Jews only have themselves to blame for the Holocaust!
• Gay rights movement "from the pit of hell" -- Dwight McKissic, denouncing comparisons between gay rights activists and the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
• Jesus opposed the minimum wage -- David Barton, also a gay hater.
• Children of gay people are like the orphans of 9/11 -- Jim Garlow, who also thinks black America is the reason the so-called "gay rights agenda" has not gotten much traction.
• It's okay to have a "faith based" militia -- Jay Swallow (he also wants tribal casinos to be shut down)
• Black Americans are "cursed by homosexuals" -- Willie Wooten

Oh, and did I also mention that Rick Perry is known to be anti-Catholic (in a country where 25% of people are nominally of the Catholic faith, and in Texas it's 28% -- not a monolithic pack but certainly an influential one)?   And he's managed to anger conservative Catholics for requiring all teenage girls in Texas to get the HPV vaccine, while infuriating liberal Catholics by saying he doesn't care if gets any votes from Catholics.

Or the fact his governor's office has repeatedly blocked an investigation into the possibility, which now seems better than just probable, that an innocent person may have been executed on Dubya's watch?

Funny, there are wildfire and tornadoes in Bible Belt Alley, but you never hear anyone on TV's Bibleland say anything about "God's punishment" regarding that.    Or the fact that Judge Kenneth Starr reviewed the Foster file -- twice -- and told Congress what five other investigations had found out:   Foster committed suicide, plain and simple.

If one judges someone by the company they keep, then we're not just dealing with the totally off-base "Name It and Claim It" (i.e. Blab It and Grab It) crowd.   We're dealing with a Kingdom Now cabal that wants to tear down over 200 years of the separation of church and state.    One thing many has admired about America is that while it is generally religious it does not place church above state, or state above church.

It's sad that it takes "straw polls" (which don't even count for any delegates at conventions) to whittle out reasonable candidates and bring forward the crazy ones.   This is 2000 all over again, except there's general gloom about the economy, multiple wars and a population that is bereft of hope but still angry enough they don't want a return to fear and loathing.    If Perry somehow manages to come on top of the GOP race, I think Obama is going to whip his butt big time.