Mark Halperin calls Rick Perry’s indictment ridiculous

 Last Friday evening Rick Perry was indicted on charges of coercion and abuse of power after having made good on a threat to veto funding for the public integrity unit in Texas unless the head of that unit, District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, stepped down.

  This was not without cause for he had been calling for Rosemary Lehmberg’s resignation since she was convicted of, and spent time in jail for, a drunk driving charge. In my opinion the call for her resignation was justified and if she had any dignity she would have realized her actions violated the same type of ethics complaints her unit is charged with investigating.

  However, she refused to step down and Rick Perry found an opportunity to force the issue, or so he thought. He is now calling this a purely political maneuver and I agree with him but still I felt as though he had not gone about this the right way and could pay the price for this decision.

  He is now finding some allies in unlikely places. First David Axelrod said the charges were sketchy:

David Axelrod, who once served as a top adviser to President Obama, also cast doubt on Perry’s indictment on Saturday, tweeting: “Unless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason, Perry indictment seems pretty sketchy.”

  And then Allen Dershowitz had this to say:

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax that he is a “liberal Democrat who would never vote for Rick Perry,” but still, he said Perry’s indictment is politically motivated:

“Everybody, liberal or conservative, should stand against this indictment,” Dershowitz said on Saturday. “If you don’t like how Rick Perry uses his office, don’t vote for him.”

  Now MSNBC’s Mark Halperin has come to his defense, calling the charges ridiculous. Here is what he had to say:

The indictment of Texas Gov. Rick Perry on two felony counts of abusing his power “potentially was the stupidest thing I’ve seen, I think, in my entire career,” MSNBC political analyst Mark Halperin told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “I hope some judge throws it out right away.

“It’s not just kind of funny and ridiculous. But it’s an infringement on individual liberty. He’s got a first amendment right — just because he’s the governor of Texas. And I think, like I said, it’s easy to joke about this, but this is a serious thing. It is ridiculous that he was indicted for this,” Halperin said.

  With so many people on both sides of the aisle in agreement that this indictment was purely political there is a good chance the court will see it this way as well and throw the indictment out.

  But at that point it really doesn’t matter from a political perspective because Rick Perry has been tainted whether it is legitimate or not.

  If Rick Perry decides to run for president the mainstream media is sure to bring up the indictment with every chance it gets and if it is eventually thrown out that will not matter for the mainstream media will gloss over that little fact.

  If Rick Perry had a legitimate shot at winning the GOP nomination in the first place, and I do not think he did, this as probably ended that possibility. And that is what the end game, in my opinion, was all along. Mission accomplished…