RANGER RICK MOUTHS OFF

The Republican's newest presidential candidate, Rick Perry of Texas told a radio talk-show audience the other day that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was guilty of committing treason for carrying out the Federal Reserve plan known as "quantitative easing". The plan entailed the Federal Reserve printing extra dollars and using those funds to purchase municipal bonds on behalf of the federal government. The plan's intent was to add more liquidity to our nation's money supply and promote investment and job growth by making more cash available for businesses to borrow. How much success the plan garnered is a debatable question, but doing nothing – as Hoover did, which caused the Great Depression – was not an option and the Federal Reserve was trying to achieve a public good.

Unfortunately, for Tea Party folk like Perry who hate the Federal Reserve and see it as a front-man for "big government", anything the Federal Reserve does to stabilize financial markets and promote job growth is treasonous. Ordinarily, I'd pass Perry's comment off as just another wing-nut rant, but Perry is the guy who, earlier this year, said that Texas should secede from the Union. Perry calling Bernanke a traitor sounds a lot like hypocrisy to me. Then again, Perry is no stranger to hypocrisy.

And then there's Perry second comment about Bernanke. Perry said that if Bernanke came down to Texas, they'd treat him ugly. You know, that's what the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan say about American troops, and we all know what the Taliban mean. That's what white Southerners said about Black people, and we all know what the Southerners meant. That's what Perry meant too.

A politician threatening American citizens with death over political differences does not belong on American soil, so it's time for guys like Rick Perry to be soundly rejected by everyone. Dictators and brutal regimes do that kind of stuff. Americans should never tolerate it, no matter what party the politician represents.