So What's The Real Story With Rick Perry and Al Gore?

R.G. Ratcliffe looked it up:

OK, whack on Republican Gov. Rick Perry in his presidential campaign for having once been a Democrat.

Whack on Rick Perry for endorsing Al Gore in his 1988 presidential run.

But would everyone quit saying he was Gore’s state chairman, because it is simply not true.

Gore in 1988 was viewed as the Southern conservative alternative to Jesse Jackson and Michael Dukakis. The leaders of the Gore campaign in Texas were House Speaker Gib Lewis, Democratic Chairman Bob Slagle and Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby.

On Jan. 5, 1988, Gib brought Gore to Austin to receive the endorsement of 27 state legislators. One of them was Rick Perry. If Perry even spoke that day, his words were so lame that they did not get quoted in news stories. In the Houston Chronicle and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Perry was just listed in alphabetical order as one of the lawmakers backing Gore.

I have tried to find a news release from the event to see if there was any possibility that it said something like: Legislative co-chairs for Gore. But I have not found anything like that. So I recently asked an Austin political consultant who was deep into the Gore campaign that year if Perry was chairman. He told me no. He said Perry did the news conference and then a one-day endorsement fly-around of some of the legislators. And that was it.

There's more at the link. Looks like much ado about nothing.