Texas state lawmaker to Gov. Rick Perry: Help pass TSA pat-down ban

The state lawmaker pushing Texas to ban Transportation Security Administration pat-downs is calling on a man mentioned as possible presidential contender to help pass the bill: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).

State Rep. David Simpson said in a letter to the governor, whose moves are now being watched by national observers, that Perry could help convince lawmakers to pass the bill before a special session of the Texas Legislature ends. Perry, who is flirting with a bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, is seen as potential top-tier candidate in a field whose only southerners are former Speaker Newt Gingrich and former pizza magnate Herman Cain.

"You write in your book, Fed Up, that you want to 'help foster a nationwide conversation about the role of government in our lives,'" Simpson wrote to Perry. "I can think of no role less suitable for our federal government than that of routinely violating innocent citizens of this state and those of the entire country.

"This is the perfect opportunity for you to show that kind of leadership that is so needed right now — that kind of leadership that will 'make Texas stronger while defending the Constitution and demonstrating the harm caused by excesses in Washington,'" Simpson wrote.

In an exchange with a voter captured on video at a book signing during last week's Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Perry said "there's not enough time left in the session" for the TSA bill to be debated.

"They not going to have it," Perry said in the video, which has been placed on YouTube by supporters of the pat-down ban. "They don't have the votes on either side. That's what I told them. I said, 'Bring me in a multitude in votes.'"

The bill was thought to be dead when the Department of Justice said that it could ground flights to Texas if passengers were not screened for safety. The measure had passed the Texas House, but it was pulled in the state Senate after the DOJ threat.

The bill was revived when Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst reportedly asked Gov. Perry to include the measure in the special session.