Add Mitt Romney to the list of Republicans, Rick Perry is political opponents with. The beef stems from Mitt Romney having an adviser who also was advsing an oppoent of Perry in 2006. In 2007, whne Perry endorsed Rudy Giuliani, he took swipes at Mitt Romney. He also believes that Mitt Romneys satands for nothing.
It’s the worst-kept secret of the GOP presidential primary: Mitt Romney and Rick Perry have never liked each other very much.
And the past animosity could play out on the national scene in the coming weeks when Romney, the precarious front-runner, and Perry, who is rising in the polls, take the stage together for a series of fall debates.
The tension between the two goes back at least five years, tracing back to a 2006 blow-up when the two Republicans served together as governors. At the time, Romney, then the Republican Governors Association chairman, hired veteran media strategist Alex Castellanos to do work for the national group — a direct affront to Perry, since Castellanos was working for Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who was running as an independent against the Texas governor.
“There was a big blowup” between Romney and Perry over it, said one Republican familiar with the situation.
[….]Perry thinks “Romney stands for nothing,” said a Perry confidante. “He’s got no spine, no backbone.”
Rick Perry clearly doesn’t like the Rockefeller Wing of the GOP.
Tags: 2012 GOP Nomination, Compassionate Conservatism, Rick Perry, Rockefeller Republicans
