Why Rick Perry and Karl Rove are not among Texas Republicans who are defending Ken Paxton

AUSTIN — Long before he had ever become governor, Rick Perry seemed to have an uncanny ability to read Texas' conservative political landscape and to put himself in a position to take advantage.

And long before he earned his reputation as the mastermind of George W. Bush's rise to the pinnacle of politics, Karl Rove was a behind-the-scenes operator setting the table for wrenching Texas from the control of Democrats and transforming it into the nation's most reliable Republican state.

Their paths would cross more than a generation ago when Perry as a young state representative from rural West Texas decided that the Democratic Party he had grown up in had lurched too far to the left. So he became a Republican.

And when Perry then decided that he'd challenge the two-term Democratic agriculture commissioner in 1990, Rove signed on to help him win his first statewide election.

Perry would later develop his own team of political operatives as Rove's talents and attention were consumed by Bush's best interests. But the political veterans appear to be on the same page and seeking once again to get ahead of where their party might be heading.

In several recent op-eds published in the Wall Street Journal, Perry and Rove suggest that the impeachment charges against Republican Attorney Ken Paxton cannot be nullified or ignored by the GOP-dominated Texas Senate despite the urgings of some hard-right conservatives.

More: Here's how the Ken Paxton impeachment has a connection to cocktails, Watergate and Jan. 6

Perry, who after 14 years as governor served as secretary of energy under Donald Trump, wrote in a piece published Thursday that he was shocked "to see some Republicans — through a coordinated effort of texts, emails and social-media posts — working to delegitimize the impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Ken Paxton.

"It points to an important question: Do we trust the processes outlined in our Texas Constitution or not?" he wrote.

The former governor and two-time presidential candidate goes on to chastise Paxton for ignoring top advisers in the AG's office who raised "red flags" about their boss' behavior, calling it "bad judgment in a leader."

Perry withholds judgment on whether Paxton should be removed from office, but he insisted that the Republican state senators acting as jurors cannot.

Rove, in his column, said "the end is near" for Paxton as he summarizes the charges laid out in the articles of impeachment. He seeks to shoot holes the AG's defense that the charges are politically motivated and that voters were aware of the allegations and still reelected him twice.

Rove wrote that one of the "most explosive allegations was unknown prior to the 2022 election."

"Allegedly, Mr. Paxton violated the laws governing prosecutor appointments in 2020 by hiring a junior lawyer with no prosecutorial experience, who then issued 39 grand-jury subpoenas to Mr. Paul’s creditors and critics, including law enforcement and prosecutors investigating the developer," Rove said in the piece. "Then Mr. Paxton allegedly lied about it."

More: 'Something really bad was going on,' former Ken Paxton aide says in support of impeachment

Several conservative influencers are part of the effort to aid Paxton. One, activist Michael Quinn Sullivan, tweeted that "the Democrat-led coalition in the GOP-dominated #TxLege House" was the driver of the impeachment effort. Another, Trump adviser and ally Steve Bannon used his "War Room" podcast Wednesday to pressure any of the GOP senator considering to oust Paxton, saying he'd make (them) famous.

During his years as governor, Perry was as solid as anyone inside the conservative Republican base. When he was facing a primary challenge in 2010 from Kay Bailey Hutchison, then a popular and politically formidable U.S. senator, Perry never allowed her to get to his right, and even sought to push her to the left.

His campaign dubbed Hutchison "Kay Bailout" because she supported the multibillion-dollar program designed to stave off economic collapse in 2008. And even though he once called Trump "a cancer on conservativism," Perry quickly transformed himself into a supporter once it was clear who would win the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

The center of gravity has shifted in the Texas Republican Party that Rove helped build as it welcomed disaffected Democrats like Perry into its fold all those decades ago.

And it's different than the one Perry prospered in and then dominated after Bush, with Rove's help, went on to become president.

How much influence the two Texas Republican pioneers still wield might become more clear at the end of the impeachment trial that starts Sept. 5.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @JohnnieMo.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Rick Perry and Karl Rove offer little sympathy for embattled AG Paxton