Houston Democrats

With the report from inside sources this week that Kay Bailey Hutchison's gubernatorial campaign announcement is imminent, we can expect to see more of this pandering to the fundavangelicals who control the Texas GOP.

(FWIW, the Tarrant Co. Democratic Party is planning a rally at a park across the street from this church to call attention to Perry's failed leadership and misplaced priorities.)

Here's the story (bold emphasis is mine):

Perry taking politics through church doors

By Bud Kennedy, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The governor is coming here Sunday for church.

Lord knows there's nothing wrong with that. But he's coming to sign two bills into law for all Texans.

I hope all Texans will feel welcome Sunday at Calvary Cathedral.

Gov. Rick Perry is going to the church to sign bills restricting abortion and setting a vote on a definition-of-marriage constitutional amendment.

Sounds like this will have less to do with praise than with politics.

We're about to see an awful lot of the governor between now and March. He's running for re-election against possible opponents from Austin and Dallas, so he's lobbying to line up conservative church support from Fort Worth. Even for a governor who says bluntly that he thinks the United States was founded "on Christian faith," it's audacious to bring a public ceremony into a church.

Perry doesn't see it that way.

I asked him Wednesday at another bill-signing ceremony inside Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, where a workers compensation compromise was somehow signed into law without any political pitch for 'values'. Asked about the choice of a church, he first said: "I try to go to church on Sunday."

He called Calvary Cathedral -- one of the largest churches in town, the home of the private-school Calvary Academy Conquerors -- a "great setting" for a bill signing and said he hopes for a "large and boisterous" crowd.

"Most Texans get it," he said, belittling the question. "The two issues talk about values. A church is an appropriate place to come together and celebrate a victory for the values of the people of Texas."

No question that most Texans think a parent should have a say-so over a minor daughter's abortion. There might be more disagreement over whether to constitutionally limit the use of the word marriage. Some Texans think love and commitment are also worthwhile values.

I'm not the only person surprised that Perry would bring a bill-signing to a church.

Cal Jillson, the oft-quoted political science professor at Southern Methodist University, called the signings "extraordinary" and "over the top."

"There is no question that the Republican Party, nationally and in Texas, is the home of the Protestant fundamentalists and Christian conservatives," he said. In other words, the "values voters" who stuck with President Bush in 2004.

"But" -- he paused for emphasis -- "the idea of taking bills passed in the Legislature into a church to sign them into law, instead of in the Texas Capitol or the governor's office, seems unusually political. And unusually inflammatory."

Calvary Cathedral is a strong church -- strong enough to have survived the 2000 tornado. It has ventured into politics and even government before, hosting conservative commentator Oliver North and also a memorable county deputies' town hall meeting. That night, then-Tarrant County Sheriff David Williams thanked "divine intervention" and claimed "sovereign" rule over the county under the Magna Carta.

The Rev. Bob Nichols was not available for comment Wednesday. The church was handling a funeral. But when the church hosted a city council campaign forum for the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association last month, the candidates were warned not to say anything remotely political.

Will Perry have to follow the same rules?

And will all Texans -- even, say, same-sex couples living lawfully in commitment but without legal recognition -- feel welcome to come and share in the public signing of Texas law?

"These are the laws of all the people of Texas," Jillson said.

"The idea of signing them in a church, where there is what might be seen as a political connection, seems ill-advised. This will be seen by independent Republicans and independent voters as something way over the top."

See everybody in church.