Gov. Rick Perry: What he would be saying if he were running for president, which, of course, he isn't -- yet

Many of the big-name Republican presidential candidates spoke to the Republican Leadership Conference meeting in New Orleans this weekend -- Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum.

Jon Huntsman begged off sick. Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney were no-shows. And Ron Paul's fervent supporters among the 2,000 attendees pushed him over the top as a runaway straw poll winner, as we reported in detail here Saturday.

You'll never guess who did show up -- someone who's not officially running. (see video below.)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who said he really came to next-door Louisiana to persuade fellow Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal to stop stealing Texas football players.

By all appearances Perry and his top campaign aides, back from their brief stint helping Gingrich, are doing everything to prepare for a run starting later this summer.

Perry would clearly fill a gaping slot in the existing field, a Southerner, chief executive-type, governor with an anti-Washington ID.

Plus he's got a record of new conservative legislation (loser pays lawsuits and election day voter photo ID) and the kind of robust job creation that Washington is still only talking about.

Just by its own pro-business attitude, fiscal restraint and low taxes, Texas, according to Perry, has created 47% of all the new private sector in all 50 states during the last two years.

"I stand before you today," Perry told the crowd which chanted "Run, Rick, run," "as a disciplined, conservative Texan, a committed Republican and a proud American, united with you in the desire to restore our nation and revive the American dream."

Because we suspect you'll be hearing much more on the national stage from the longest-serving governor in Texas history, we're publishing this morning a video of his complete New Orleans speech. Watch below and see if you think he's running.

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Rick Perry: United in telling Washington clearly and simply: 'Enough!'

 

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images (Perry speaking in New Orleans, June 18); Lee Celano / Reuters (Perry's enthusiastic audience).

Tim Pawlenty attacked by activists with glittery confetti in San Francisco

Tim Pawlenty was minding his own business running for president, signing books at an American Health Insurance conference Thursday when two women representing Reproductive Rights and CODEPINK sprinkled pink, glittery confetti on the former Minnesota governor.

Complaining that the Republican doesn't have "the courage to stand up for gay rights and women's reproductive rights," the two women opened manila folders filled with confetti and doused the man who in 2010 vetoed a Minnesota bill that would have allowed gay couples the right to the remains of their deceased partner.

"Marriage –- defined as between a man and woman –- should remain elevated in our society at a special level, as it traditionally has been," Pawlenty explained in regard to the "Final Wishes" bill that would have also given domestic partners rights to sue in wrongful death cases.

"I oppose efforts to treat domestic relationships as the equivalent of traditional marriage. Accordingly, I am opposed to this bill," the conservative said.

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Pawlenty is gaining awareness among American voters, but as Neil King Jr. wrote today, "the more voters get to know him, the more blah they are."

Breaking: Old Sarah Palin emails reveal she thinks the news media is biased somehow

Sarah Palin emails.

If you're someone who loves poring over ancient emails, even if they're not yours, today is The Big Day.

The state of Alaska has released 300 pounds of emails from Sarah Palin's term as governor up there, from inauguration until shortly after that old geezer John McCain threw a Hail Sarah pass and picked her as his Republican VP partner in September 2008.

The GOP pair didn't win.

Because Palin hasn't been governor for years, is not running for any office at the moment and keeps making gobs of money, lots of public comments and attracts tons of lovers and haters, news media interest in what she'd written as a nobody governor is intense.

Some apparently understaffed news orgs have even asked for the public's help in sifting through roughly 13,000 emails on 24,000 pieces of paper, which the state is charging about $750 to acquire. Remarkably, however, such organizations felt no need to seek volunteer public scrutiny digesting President Obama's large healthcare bill that Nancy Pelosi warned had to be passed before public examination.

Surely more huge revelations in coming days. But so far, no smoking cursors in the Palin paper poundage.

We've learned that having unexpectedly upset the state's entrenched, aged Republican political establishment as an anti-corruption reformer, Palin is suspicious of signs of opposition forming in those wings, including the state's congressional delegation, which includes the daughter of the man she ousted.

We've learned that Palin talked with Newt Gingrich but soured on that relationship; welcome to that club. That she was surprised at being picked by McCain.

Amazingly, even back then a lot of people seem to dislike Palin, even enough to make death threats. As governor, Palin liked to drive her own car in that vast state and once may have texted while behind the wheel. And we now know that Palin paid for her daughters' tanning bed.

You can read the entire compilation right here.

RELATED:

Sarah Palin plays the media like a violin

Piper Palin seems to share her Mom's distrust of the media sometimes

You know how Sarah Palin said Paul Revere warned the British? Well, he did

-- Andrew Malcolm

Don't forget to follow the Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: Brian Wallace / Associated Press (News media scramble to acquire thousands of old Palin emails).

Eliot Spitzer says he sympathizes with Anthony Weiner [Video]

Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor of New York, is no stranger to embarrassing sex scandals. Tuesday on his CNN talk show, "In The Arena", Spitzer's guest was Mediaite founder Dan Abrams, who said it's only a matter of time before Rep. Anthony Weiner will have to step down from his seat in Congress.

After the pair analyzed the ways Weiner got himself in his now infamous mess, Abrams turned the tables on Spitzer and asked the host his point of view because "I would think that this is something that you know about."

Spitzer smiled, looked down and said that although he empathized with his fellow Democrat, the congressman's greatest crime was lying to the American people when he at first denied sending lewd pictures to women via the Internet.

"Look, let me be very clear. I sympathize with Anthony Weiner. I know he is going through torment like virtually no other," said Spitzer, who was forced to resign as governor when it became known that he had frequented high-priced prostitutes over a period of several years while he was in office.

"But his greatest sin, from the perspective of the public, was not being truthful at the moment of crisis. Because what that showed, unfortunately, was a flaw in his judgment," Spitzer said. "That trust and bond has now been broken ... not just by the behavior, but by that additional lie on top of it."

RELATED:

The advice Anthony Weiner gave Ben Affleck before you-know-what happened

Anthony Weiner admits he lied about underpants photo; Twitter erupts with jokes

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) on Monday admitted sending a lewd photo of himself to a woman via his Twitter account after previously denying he had done so. Credit: Brendan McDermid / Reuters

Brigitte Nielsen says she had a fling with Schwarzenegger: 'We didn’t hold back'

Brigitte Nielsen, the Danish actress and former Playboy model, is claiming that in 1985 while Arnold Schwarzenegger was dating Maria Shriver, the two actors had an intimate affair.

Nielson, who is promoting her autobiography "You Only Get One Life," told the Daily Mail last week that the romance between her and Schwarzenegger on the set of "Red Sonja" was passionate but that both parties knew the fling would only last as long as the shoot.

"Since we both knew that it wouldn’t last beyond the movie, we didn’t hold back," Nielsen said of the dalliances. "We wanted to try everything and so we did. There were no restrictions, no promises, nothing, and it was a great time in my life."

One year later, Schwarzenegger would marry Shriver, but according to Nielsen the future governor never talked about his feelings for the woman who would become the mother of his four children.

"He never spoke about her -- and the way he was living his life with me, I felt I was the only one," Nielsen told the Mail. "Then I realized about him and Maria and, wow, I felt cheated. Maybe I wouldn’t have got into it if he said, 'I’m going to marry Maria and this is dead serious,' but he didn’t, and our affair carried on."

Nielsen, who most recently appeared on several VH-1 reality shows ("The Surreal Life," "Strange Love," "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew"), said that even back in the 1980s Schwarzenegger had his eye on the prize -- the political prize, that is.

"He told me at the beginning of shooting 'Red Sonja,' 'One day, I will become governor of California,' " Nielson recalled. "And we were all laughing, but I had a feeling he would do it one day."

RELATED:

Arnold Schwarzenegger admits to adultery, Twitter erupts with jokes

In Schwarzenegger's Brentwood neighborhood, shock over news of affair

Steve Lopez to Schwarzenegger: You want criticism for your actions? Here it is

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen in "Red Sonja." Credit: Warner Bros.

John Phillips: Hey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, did you cheat on the people of California too?

Everyone in the world knows that former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cheated on his wife and fathered a child out of wedlock with his maid –- what we don't know is if he also betrayed the people of California.  

The media frenzy surrounding the affair, first reported in the Los Angeles Times, was so overwhelming that even the hosts of CNN's Headline News broke away from their endless milk-carton-like coverage of the missing person of the week to broadcast all the latest trashy details.

Yet despite the undying coverage, we still don't have an answer to the most relevant question to the people of California:

Was any of this damaging information ever used against Arnold when he was governor in exchange for special favors?  More specifically, was any of this information used to persuade him into granting the commutation of Esteban Nunez?

It's a fair question to ask, and the people of California deserve an answer. 

Let's review the facts:

The affair information was damaging to Arnold -– politically, professionally and personally. 

By all accounts, Arnold allegedly began engaging in sexual relations with his maid prior to running for governor in the 2003 recall election of Gray Davis. Until leaving office, the California press corps was in the dark, Mrs. Terminator was clueless, and even the maid's husband says...

Sarah Palin and her 'One Nation' bus tour, coming to a town near voters soon

Sarah Palin, who admitted recently that she had the fire in the belly to run for president, now has a bus tour to go with it.

The Republican former governor, who wandered all over Alaska in a motorhome last year for her Discovery Channel reality series, will do the same starting Sunday at a biker rally in Washington.

According to Scott Conroy at RealClearPolitics.com, an essential daily read for politics fans, the tour will, of course, involve members of the Palin family and first focus on the Northeast. That's a seemingly unlikely place for Republican political kickoffs, unless you can say 'the first primary state of New Hampshire is a whole lot nicer in June than January.'

The trips could last for weeks and are guaranteed to attract many media trailing along in the bus exhaust fumes. Like the NASCAR race she attended last year, Sunday's annual ...

The story behind the stories on the Schwarzenegger baby and his separation from Maria Shriver

 

ICYMI, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver have separated after 25 years of marriage.

The story was broken here on LATimes.com.

ICYM the Los Angeles Times follow-up here, they are separated because Schwarzenegger admitted fathering a child a decade ago with their family maid.

Now Mark Barabak, the news organization's top political reporter, explains how the story came to be reported by a team, written, verified and published.

In this video below, the veteran Barabak talks with CNN's Howard Kurtz about the old-fashioned "shoe leather" used in researching the stories and why the news organization chose not to name the maid in its initial coverage.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle.Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: Harpo Productions (2003).

How Hannah Thoreson handled Mitch Daniels' disappointing dropout decision

The media spotlight has moved on from Indianapolis now, after Gov. Mitch Daniels aborted his anticipated campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in a Saturday midnight email that shocked supporters across the country.

Daniels acknowledged that his family was opposed to the grinding run, so he dropped it.

Now most of the attention focuses on Newt Gingrich's campaign here and Tim Pawlenty's newly announced bid here and Jon Huntsman's informal campaign swing through New Hampshire.

But little noticed as the political parade marches toward the state fairs this summer and the Iowa caucuses and primaries next winter are the newly abandoned supporters of Daniels.

"Well," said Max Eden, head of the Student Initiative to Draft Daniels, "the rapture took Mitch from 2012. His better angels had the last word, and he put his family first. His choice attests to half the reason why students at 65 colleges rallied to urge him to run: He is a good man."

Among those students is Hannah Thoreson, a 21-year-old physics major at ....

Tim Pawlenty launches in Iowa: 'We will change America again, and this time it will be for the better'

Tim Pawlenty

Campaign announcement by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, as provided by aides

 

Thanks, Mary, for your very kind words and for your tremendous love and support. After serving eight years as Minnesota's governor, I was very much looking forward to life with Mary, and our daughters, in the Midwestern home we love. 

But with Mary's encouragement and wise counsel, we came to a different conclusion. And that brings me here today with this announcement.
           
I'm Tim Pawlenty, and I'm running for president of the United States.
 
We live in the greatest country the world has ever known. But, as we all know, America is in big trouble, and it won't get fixed if we keep going down the same path. If we want a new and better direction, we need a new and better president.
 
President Obama's policies have failed. But more than that, he won't even tell us the truth about what it's really going to take to get out of the mess we're in.
 
I could stand here and tell you that we can solve America's debt crisis and fix....