Dean: Bush camp will ‘take Perry out’

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean predicted that prominent political supporters of former President George W. Bush will deal a critical blow to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) presidential campaign.

“The Bush people don’t fool around, as you know,” Dean said Tuesday night on MSNBC. “You can say a lot of things about Bush’s presidency and his failures as president, but one thing nobody should say [anything] bad about [is] his political team. They know what they’re doing, and they are ruthless, and they are going to take Perry out.”

Dean’s comments come as a number of former Bush administration operatives have criticized recent comments Perry has made. Political strategist and Bush adviser Karl Rove said comments Perry made about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were not “a presidential statement.”

“It’s not smart politics, either,” Rove said on Fox News. “Governor Perry is going to have to fight the impression that he’s a cowboy from Texas. This simply added to it.”

Perry came under fire by prominent Republicans for saying that Bernanke would be treated “pretty ugly” in Texas for deciding to print more money, an action the governor called “almost treasonous.”

The readiness of Rove and other former Bush administration officials to criticize Perry illustrates a longstanding rift between the camps of the two Texas politicians. 

In the same interview, Dean said Perry has also made a “bigger mistake than most people think” by pitting his presidential campaign against Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-Minn.). 

“This is not a mistake he’s going to get over, and the reason is, that he’s now — he came into this race in competition with Romney and Bachmann, and that’s a winning strategy for Perry,” Dean said. “He is now in competition with Bachmann and not with Romney. That’s a losing strategy for Perry, because they are going to split the right with the far-right vote, and I think this is great news for Mitt Romney.”

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