Texas showdown? Rick Perry rhetoric angers Bush allies

A political showdown is brewing in the Lone Star State.

On one side is Texas governor Rick Perry, who is considering a late entry into the GOP presidential race. And on the other are allies of former Texas governor (and, of course, president) George W. Bush, who aren't taking too kindly to Perry's criticisms of his predecessor.

First, some background: Perry's political career was nurtured by Mr. Bush and his longtime aide Karl Rove, who helped convince the former Democratic state representative to switch parties and helped him rise to power. Yet despite the obvious similarities between the two Texas governors, fault lines soon emerged.

Tensions first became public, the New York Times reports, thanks to a 2007 YouTube video in which Perry, speaking at a GOP house party in Iowa on behalf of former mayor and GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, is seen saying, "George Bush was never a fiscal conservative."

In the subsequent years, the Tea Party would grow into a political force that looked skeptically at Mr. Bush's tenure in Washington. Perry, meanwhile, grew increasingly critical of Mr. Bush while claiming allegiance with the fiscally-conservative Tea Party movement.

Last year, Perry told reporters Mr. Bush "missed some opportunities to send some good messages to a Congress that was spending too much money, frankly, on programs that we can't afford and don't need."

He also deemed the No Child Left Behind education bill and the Medicare prescription drug benefit - signature accomplishments of Mr. Bush - "Big government," "Washington-centric" programs, adding in a separate interview that No Child Left Behind is "a monstrous intrusion into our affairs."

The comments angered Bush loyalists; many backed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison when she unsuccessfully challenged Perry in the Texas gubernatorial primary last year. Now two such loyalists have taken to the Times to offer a clear warning shot to Perry as he considers a presidential run.

One "close associate of the former president" told reporters Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny, "if you're really trying to be the nominee and want to go the distance, you just don't want the former president of the United States and his people working against you."

There is no clear indication that Mr. Bush plans to be "working against" Perry if Perry enters the race, but the comments will clearly be noted in Austin, where antagonism between the Bush and Perry camps is well-known.

Meanwhile, Time magazine reports that prominent members of the Christian right, including Tony Perkins, David Barton and John Hagee, agreed during an early June conference call to back Perry if he enters the race. And a June McClatchy-Marist poll found Perry to be the top pick of Tea Partiers in the GOP field.

Perry says he will decide within weeks on a run. His next big scheduled event? A Houston prayer event called "The Response"on August 6 designed to heal "a nation that has not honored God in our successes or humbly called on Him in our struggles."