From LST to KSEV to MSM outlets around the nation (mostly due to the Associated Press picking it up), for the historical record, here are the two original Perry ASS ‘06 check stories (I and II).
This Dallas Morning News article by Christy Hoppe works in some pretty nice puns, and gives all “props” that are due:
This is A Short Story about what Acronyms Shouldn’t Say.
It began when a conservative anti-business-tax group began a lighthearted protest by sending 2-cent checks to Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign, with the promise more would be sent if the property tax savings he’s touted ever materialize.
But when some of those checks started clearing the bank, the donors noticed that the Perry campaign had written something on them: ASS 06.
While some took offense, others were willing, well, to turn the other cheek.
“Kiss my Perry-iere!” one blogger wrote to the Lone Star Times, a conservative Web site on which a robust discussion of the acronym occurred Friday. [snip]
Edd Hendee, executive director of Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes – or CLOUT – knows a little something about acronyms.
“Even if it were innocent, I could take any number of good words that put together could form an acronym that would get my mouth washed out,” Mr. Hendee said. “I’m thinking their choice of acronym was not prudent.”
That said, there’s a new bottom line: “Now everyone wants to be a member of the ASS club. It’s too much fun,” Mr. Hendee said.
And with that, the chances that Edd Hendee will ever seek the Presidency have been effectively killed. Any future campaign would involve traveling across Iowa explaining what he really meant back in 2006 when he was quoted in the paper saying that “Everyone wants to be a member of the ASS club. It’s too much fun.”
And by the way, it did not escape our notice that the Gary Scharrer story that appears first in the San Antonio Express-News seems to have had some important bits of information wiped away by the time it is republished in the Houston Chronicle.
See if you can spot the hole in the Chron’s piece.
San Antonio Express-News:
Because the unsolicited protest checks were not tied to any specific event, “they were coded as ‘A Small Supporter,’” Perry campaign spokesman Robert Black said Friday.
“In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best choice for an abbreviation,” Black said. “They’ll probably be changed to something like ‘SML’ for ‘Small’ going forward.”
Some of the protest-check writers discussed the special coding appearing on their canceled checks Friday morning with Houston talk show host Edd Hendee. A few posted copies of their check on the www.lonestartimes.com Web site, affiliated with radio station KSEV.
Lisa Stapp of Spring, who protested Perry’s business tax plan with a 3-cent campaign check, shrugged off the special coding for the small-change contributions.
“I am willing to believe that there is a code that says ‘a small supporter.’ I also believe that it is probably a disparaging remark,” Stapp said. “But if I have the right to protest, he has the right to call me ‘a small supporter.’”
And now, the Houston Chronicle:
Because the unsolicited protest checks were not tied to any specific event, “they were coded as ‘A Small Supporter,’ ” Perry campaign spokesman Robert Black said Friday.
“In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best choice for an abbreviation,” Black said.
“They’ll probably be changed to something like ‘SML’ for ‘Small Going Forward,’ ” he said.
Lisa Stapp of Spring, who protested Perry’s business tax plan with a 3-cent campaign check, shrugged off the coding.
“I am willing to believe that there is a code that says ‘a small supporter.’ I also believe that it is probably a disparaging remark,” she said. “But if I have the right to protest, he has the right to call me ‘a small supporter.’”
Priceless. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
[All emphasis’ in bold added by LST]