Texas governor/executioner Rick Perry entered some tricky territory in Iowa yesterday, casually accusing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of treason, i.e. an offense that can be punishable by the death penalty. Zoinks! At a State Fair, Perry inexplicably said of Bernanke:
"If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y'all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion."
Well, okay. I'm pretty sure that Bernanke isn't single-handedly bringing the U.S. economy down in flames with his willy-nilly printing of money, and I'm also pretty sure that bad economic policy, while hugely detrimental, still doesn't qualify as treason. Mostly, though, I'm sure I have no desire to find out what it means to get "pretty ugly down in Texas." Please, no one make me say this phrase ever again.