On this week's episode, Reeve, Julian, Morgan and Jim discuss Texas Monthly's list of the best and worst legislators, education and immigration in the special session, and Gov. Rick Perry's still-hypothetical presidential bid.

Gov. Rick Perry, moving closer to a run for the White House, took his anti-Washington message to New York City Tuesday, telling a gathering of Republican donors that the Obama administration had “promised jobs and … delivered economic misery.” It comes as Perry steps out increasingly on the national stage.

As everyone waits for a certain Texan to announce whether he plans to run for president, another Texan made his intentions clear Monday night by participating — in feisty fashion — in the first major GOP primary debate.

The Trib's Weekend Round-Up compiles clips from various national news program that mentioned Gov. Rick Perry and the possibility he may throw his hat in the GOP presidential primary ring. Journalists and commentators analyzed Perry's prospects on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN's State of the Union, Fox Business' Red Ink Watch and PBS's Washington Week. 

Like the swaggering rooster who believes the sun came up because of all that crowing, he takes credit for the good things that happened on his watch when they would have happened anyway — but the real problem is what he hasn't done.

Voters of all political stripes will be receptive to a story about low taxes, restrained spending, reasonable regulations and a fair legal system. He doesn’t just understand that story — he wrote the book. The nation is primed to listen.

A new redistricting map, drawn to promote and protect Republican interests in the U.S. Congress, sailed out of the GOP-led state Senate Monday. The map, approved along strict party lines, would give Republicans a decent chance of retaining every congressional seat they now hold plus a new one they don't.

Gov. Rick Perry, who’s eying a possible run for the White House, released a proclamation Monday declaring Aug. 6 a “Day of Prayer and Fasting for our Nation’s Challenges." Perry plans to give up food on the day of the event, which is being paid for by the American Family Association.

State GOP leaders want quick action on a new congressional map that would transform the district of Tea Party godfather Ron Paul. Paul says he doesn't feel "targeted" by the proposal. 

There’s a sort of collective disbelief within the Texas political establishment about Republican Gov. Rick Perry testing the uncertain waters of a presidential campaign. But if critics have learned nothing else about Perry, they should know this: Underestimate him at your peril.

At this morning's TribLive conversation, I asked three veteran lawmakers — state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Lake Dallas, state Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, and state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands — if Gov. Rick Perry should run for president in 2012

At this morning's TribLive conversation, I interviewed three veteran lawmakers — state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Lake Dallas, state Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, and state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands — about how they and their Republican colleagues fared this session.

On Fox News' On the Record with Greta van Susteren, Gov. Rick Perry admitted that running for president is tempting but said it isn't something he wants to do. 

After signing the abortion sonogram bill into law, Gov. Rick Perry declined to rule out a bid for the White House in 2012 — but state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said he'd make a "great" president.

Root and Galbraith on a Dallas billionaire's radioactive waste dump victory, Grissom on the passage of eyewitness ID reform, Hamilton on the old grudges bedeviling the debate over higher ed, Philpott on the status of congressional redistricting, Ramsey on Rick Perry's un-campaign for president, Ramshaw on why medical schools are the scorned children of the state's education budget, my session-wrap interview with three veteran Democrats, M. Smith on why Rob Eissler can't pass mandate relief for school districts and Stiles on who's giving what to which Texas candidates in 2011-12 congressional races: The best of our best content from May 16 to 20, 2011.

Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he refuses to get distracted by the suggestion that he should run for president in 2012. “I’ve got a legislative session that is substantially more important to the people of the state of Texas and to me,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul has kicked off another presidential campaign, his second attempt at the GOP nomination. Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports on how the libertarian rabble-rouser, whose views often put him at odds with mainstream Republicans, may do in 2012.

This morning on ABC's Good Morning America, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, formally announced that he plans to run for president in 2012.