Whether it’s his long record of accelerating executions and refusing except when compelled by courts to commute death sentences, his promotion of incompetent, flagrantly political lawyers to top posts in Texas’ legal system where they prevent exoneration, or his comments recently that Texans might treat “treasonous” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “pretty ugly,” one has to wonder if the governor’s approach to these issues isn’t so much the product of conservative legal theory or a right-wing attitude about law and order but simply a carnal attachment to state-sanctioned murder.

Consider that Perry has overseen in excess of 230 executions as governor, far more than the executive of any other state in recent history. This figure accounts for about 40 percent of all executions in America since Perry first took office in 2000. He makes George W. Bush seem warm and fuzzy.