Will Texas joke Gov. Rick Perry name a wingnut foe of public schools (and avowed Obama-hater) to head the State Board of Ed?

Texas gubernatorial dim bulb Rick Perry -- having it all

"All things come to those who wait."

-- old saying

"She wrote in her book that sending our children to public schools is 'throwing them into the enemy’s flames even as the children of Israel threw their children to Moloch.' ”

-- TFN Insider, quoting rumored Texas SBOE chair nominee Cynthia Dunbar (right)

by Ken

Is Texas Gov. Rick Perry having it all or what?

Sure, he faces the formidable roadblock of a fellow Republican, popular U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, threatening his reelection -- and bringing to her primary challenge the unfair advantage of a measurable IQ. But otherwise, things are going just great for our Rick.

* First it was former Illiois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, with all that fancy-pants Democratic hair (like Democrats know how to do hair!), getting himself into all that trouble and eventually getting thrown out of office, leaving no doubt about who has the Loveliest Gubernatorial Hair.

* Then Princess Sarah, governor of the only state bigger than Texas, up and abdicated her throne, and there went the most credible challenge to our Rick as the Dimmest Gubernatorial Bulb.

We're so accustomed to thinking of these people as figures of fun, objects of derision, that we may lose sight of the harm they have the power to do -- for example, the power to mess with the minds of our children. At the moment my Texas colleague Vince Leibowitz (of the blog Capitol Annex) is sounding the alarm about the possible appointment of a certifiable wingut loon, an avowed hater of both public schools and one Barack Obama, to chair Texas's State Board of Education.

Vince directs us to a post on the Texas Freedom Networks' TFN Insider blog (see the on-site version for links):

Could it get any worse? Could someone who despises public education soon be heading up the board tasked with managing the Texas public school system? Well, the buzz suggesting that Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, may be the next chair of the Texas State Board of Education is growing louder, writes Hearst Capitol bureau reporter Gary Scharrer for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.

Look, we were under no illusions when the Texas Senate wisely rejected the confirmation of Don McLeroy as board chair in May. We knew Gov. Rick Perry would likely choose another member of the board’s far-right faction as chair (even though there are other far more responsible conservative Republicans on the board). After all, the far-right faction represents his electoral base, which he will need in his re-election battle next year.

But surely even the governor realizes that choosing an extremist like Dunbar would be almost inconceivably reckless and irresponsible. Dunbar has clearly expressed her loathing for public education in her book One Nation Under God, calling public schools a “tool of perversion,” “unconstitutional” and “tryannical.” She has also personally rejected the public school system, home-schooling her children. In fact, she wrote in her book that sending our children to public schools is “throwing them into the enemy’s flames even as the children of Israel threw their children to Moloch.”

Just before the November election, Dunbar also authored a vicious Internet rant in which she called Barack Obama a terrorist sympathizer who wants to seize total power by declaring martial law. In another Internet screed, she charged that Obama is promoting Marxism by calling for “shared sacrifice and social responsibility.” (Not surprisingly, both essays have been removed from the Web sites that published them.)

By appointing Dunbar, Gov. Perry would be sending a clear message that he shares Dunbar’s extremism and her contempt for education. He would be putting his political fortunes ahead of the education of nearly 5 million Texas schoolchildren. In short, such an appointment would be a shocking betrayal of all those children and their families.

Vince adds:

Needless to say, if Perry does this, it is part of his ongoing campaign to govern Texas solely for the amusement of one million Republican Primary voters who will likely decide between Perry and U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison next March.

Perry’s got to shore up his rightwing base, and a Cynthia Dunbar appointment would no doubt earn him a lot of points in that camp.

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