Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), nobody's idea of a liberal politician, wants everyone to know about the left-leaning observers who have rushed to his defense after he was indicted last Friday.
On "Fox News Sunday," Perry was asked whether he takes the indictment against him seriously. Perry insisted he did but quickly pointed to the arguments made by former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz as a good reason for why the public should dismiss the allegations.
"I certainly take everything I do seriously — the rule of law in particular, I take seriously. Let me just share with you: David Axelrod said this was a very 'sketchy' indictment. Professor Dershowitz who is not exactly my cheerleader, said that it was outrageous," Perry said, according to video posted by Mediaite. "So I think across the board you're seeing people weigh in and reflecting that this is way outside of the norm."
Perry, who is looking at running for president in 2016, was indicted by a Texas grand jury on the allegation that he improperly tried to coerce a district attorney's resignation after she was arrested for drunk driving. Perry ultimately followed through in his threat to cut her agency's funding, which both Axelrod and Dershowitz have said was perfectly acceptable to do under Texas law.
"Unless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason," Axelrod on Twitter Saturday, "Perry indictment seems pretty sketchy."
Speaking in a recent interview with Newsmax, Dershowitz, who reportedly calls himself a "liberal Democrat who would never vote for Rick Perry," declared he was "outraged" over the indictment.
"Everybody, liberal or conservative, should stand against this indictment," Dershowitz said. "If you don't like how Rick Perry uses his office, don't vote for him."
For Perry, these were endorsements worth touting twice in his Fox News interview Sunday.
"Across the board, when you got David Axelrod and Harvard law professor Dershowitz saying the things that they've said, I think it's pretty reflective of what we're looking at here," he reiterated.