On Saturday's Melissa Harris-Perry show, MSNBC host Harris-Perry ranted against Texas Governor Rick Perry, tagging him as the "evil archenemy" of "super-heroine" Wendy Davis, and comparing the Republican governor to the Snidely Whiplash cartoon character known for leaving a woman tied down in the path of an oncoming train. Harris-Perry:
Be careful, Governor. You're looking a lot like the villain who twirls his moustache and laughs while a speeding train is headed toward the woman you've tied to the tracks, although you might want to take a closer look at that train because Senator Davis has been hinting that she might be interested in your job. And right now, there's a lot of momentum behind the "Wendy Davis express," and it's headed right for you.
The MNSBC host began the segment lauding State Senator Davis conferring on her the "super-heroine" label:
The success of the latest Superman reboot left me wondering: Can a sister get a super-heroine for a change? Well, someone must have been listening because this week I got my wish. Instead of a man of steel, we got a woman with backbone when Texas State Senator Wendy Davis used the powers endowed to her not by the yellow sun but by the citizens of Texas to save the day.
Referring to Governor Perry, she added:
But, of course, every great superhero must also square off against an equally evil archenemy.
Below is a complete transcript of the segment from the Saturday, June 28, Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC:
MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY: The success of the latest Superman reboot left me wondering: Can a sister get a super-heroine for a change? Well, someone must have been listening because this week I got my wish. Instead of a man of steel, we got a woman with backbone when Texas State Senator Wendy Davis used the powers endowed to her not by the yellow sun but by the citizens of Texas to save the day.
But, of course, every great superhero must also square off against an equally evil archenemy. And while Senator Davis is fully capable of taking on her nemesis on her own, I thought I'd play sidekick and give him a few kicks with my letter this week.
Dear Governor Rick Perry,
It's me, Melissa. You, sir, have taken the term, "Adding insult to injury," to an all new low this week. It was bad enough that you forced the Texas legislature to extend its legislative session for an additional 30 days for the express purpose of adding legislation to restrict reproductive choice.
Two dozen anti-abortion bills that all failed to reach the floor of either chamber after your fellow party members in the legislature figured out what you seem to have trouble comprehending: Texans don't like it when you try to erect barriers against women's health care.
But you just couldn't stand to leave well enough alone, could you? You just had to give the legislature another shot at banning abortion after 20 weeks and passing laws to force 37 of Texas's 42 abortion providers to shut down. Governor, you are so hell bent on pushing your agenda of outlawing all abortion that I'm sure it came as somewhat of a surprise to you when the people pushed back. Since you clearly have a problem hearing what they want, Texans literally raised their voices shouted to be heard, and led by a champion of the people whose message was clear: Preserving the right to women's reproductive choice is the only choice. Well, guess that hearing problem of yours was acting up again because when Wendy Davis spoke, you apparently heard something entirely different.
GOVERNOR RICK PERRY (R-TX): She was the daughter of a single mother. She was a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate. It's just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters.
HARRIS-PERRY: Oh, yeah? Now, let's put aside, for the moment, the irony of you holding forth on the sanctity of every life right before you went and oversaw Texas's 500th death by execution because what's really unfortunate is that you haven't learned from Wendy Davis's example. She recognizes that all she has been able to accomplish was thanks, in part, to having what Senator Davis called "the privilege of making a choice."
You, on the other hand, have chosen to use your privilege to hurt instead of help women and families. And yet, another special session to resurrect the bill that Senator Davis and her pro-choice allies succeeded in killing to restore what you called, quote, "the breakdown of decorum and decency."
Okay, spare me the decency talk because, really, what would you know about decency? What's decent about refusing a Medicaid expansion leaving 1.5 million poor, elderly and disabled Texans without health coverage.There's certainly nothing decent about defunding your state's family planning clinics last year, leaving more than 140,000 Texas women without health services forced to carry 30,000 unintended pregnancies to term, and punctuating all that by saying this week, quote: "The louder they scream, the more we know that we are getting something done."
Be careful, Governor. You're looking a lot like the villain who twirls his moustache and laughs while a speeding train is headed toward the woman you've tied to the tracks, although you might want to take a closer look at that train because Senator Davis has been hinting that she might be interested in your job. And right now, there's a lot of momentum behind the "Wendy Davis express," and it's headed right for you.
Sincerely,
Melissa
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center