Deep End

While the tea-bagging protests have been a good source of unintentional comedy, statements like this from the governor of the second most populous state in the union are bizarre to the point of frightening:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said that his state could secede from the United States because "the federal government has strayed somewhat from what our founders wanted and is choking Americans with excessive spending and taxation," reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Said Perry: "Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that. My hope is that America, and Washington in particular, pays attention. We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that? But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot, to boot."

Now, one would hope that Americans as a whole have become inured from obvious political grandstanding and will pay this no mind. And I really doubt that Perry himself takes his own statements seriously. But can you imagine what the GOP would have said if, say, Deval Patrick had mentioned that perhaps Massachusetts should secede from the union because the Bush Administration was violating Constitution?