Perry and the Fine Art of Hardship

Governor somehow compares living in three-storey home in West Austin to Ike evacuee experience.

By Richard Whittaker, 2:23PM, Mon. Sep. 22, 2008

Seriously, Rick, not the same. Not the same at all.

Time for some adventures in parsing: On Friday, when explaining to the Associated Press why he was asking Gulf Coast residents not to head back to areas ravaged by Hurricane Ike, Gov. Rick Perry said, "I absolutely understand they want to get back to their homes … I'd like to get back to the mansion."

Seriously, read that one again.

Does someone want to explain to the governor the difference between sleeping on a cot in one of the hanger-like exhibition rooms at the convention center, with 1,300 other evacuees and potentially all your worldy possessions in whatever bag you could stuff as you fled the storm, and living in a three-story West Austin mansion with a heated pool and a cabana, courtesy of the state, valued at over $1 million? A West Austin mansion that he had been living in for over half a year -before- the governor's mansion fire?

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