Stumper of the Week: Rick Perry’s Imaginary Obama Showdown

The nuttiest things said this week in Texas politics

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Every Friday from here till the end of this year’s campaign stumping season, we’re honoring the most outlandish, befuddling, illogical or just flat-out clueless statements of the week in Texas politics. Here are this week’s Honorable Mention Stumpers:

Well, there’s always the Congressional gym

“How often can you go see a bunch of white guys play basketball?”

—Congressman Pete Sessions, referring to the Princeton basketball team as he introduced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to GOP lawmakers on Sept. 28. At least two black congressmen were reportedly in the room. Sessions added that the Ivy League game he’d attended was “played entirely below the rim.”

Logic 101

“There are already guns on campus. All too often they are illegal. I want there to be legal guns on campus.”

Gov. Rick Perry, ruminating in the aftermath of a shooting incident at UT-Austin.

So next year, you’ll do something different?

“The Pledge is not a document about what Republicans would do next year. It’s about what we could be doing right now if Congress were actually listening to the people.”

—Congressman Randy Neugebauer, commenting in his weekly newsletter, Randy’s Roundup, on the GOP’s Pledge to America, designed to help catapult them to a majority in Congress—next year.

Somehow, so do we

“I have a hard time remembering them all.”

Congressman Mac Thornberry, on his contributions to the latest session of Congress.

So that’s, essentially, an endorsement?

“I inherited a city that was essentially well run.”

—Houston Mayor Annise Parker, speaking to reporters on Sept. 29 in an attempt to clarify her remarks, exploited by the Perry campaign, that “for years we have spent more money than we have taken in.”

Stumper of the Week

…And I recently shot a bear while jogging in Austin

“I recently confronted Barack Obama with detailed steps on how to reduce cartel violence.”

Gov. Rick Perry, who gave one of the president’s aides a letter as Obama deplaned in Austin in August, speaking in a TV ad about border security.