Life must be pretty sweet if you’re an oppo researcher in the Romney camp right now. The immigration issue has created a big opening against Perry. And *someone* has just found Romney some neat old footage of a former Mexican president effusively praising Rick Perry for doing something the GOP base hates.
The Texas governor is flopping around in the bottom of the boat after he said Republicans who don’t support providing in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants in Texas don’t “have a heart.” The line has become a real problem for Perry, and a real turn-off for the conservatives who used to be desperate for a Perry candidacy.
And so Romney turns the screw. Check out this new video from the Romney campaign:
Yes, that’s former Mexican President Vincente Fox (a George W. Bush BFF and later Bush critic) giving Perry a shout-out for signing a bill all but four members of his state legislature sent to his desk. The bill was at the time fairly uncontroversial. Although the GOP right now portrays it as some kind of “magnet” for illegal immigrants, it was seen at the time as a practical solution to a common border state issue. Texas had plenty of young Latino children who had been brought into the country by their parents illegally when they were young. Many were in effect naturalized and passed through the various institutions of the state, but then reached college and found they would have to pay out-of-state tuition fees. This was a barrier to higher learning for a mobile and burgeoning group, and so passed the Texas legislature fairly smoothly.
Nonetheless, it’s given Romney’s campaign the chance to cast Fox’s praise as a sign Perry is too pro-immigrant.
Team Perry is not happy. Here’s an exchange between Perry adviser Ray Sullivan (last seen defending the “have a heart” comment) and Romney adviser Eric Ferhnstrom discussing the video on Fox News moments after it was released. (Video was first posted this morning by Politico.)
