Secede? You Never Know, Says Texas Governor

Texas Gov. Rick Perry thinks this union of states we call America is a pretty good thing, but he warned that Washington better not take it for granted, the Dallas Morning News reports. "There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it," he told reporters after addressing the anti-tax, anti-big-government tea party in Austin. "But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that."

Secession? Perry didn't exactly endorse it, but he didn't exactly call it a crazy idea, either. The Republican governor is a fierce opponent of the stimulus, rejecting $555 million of it, and he's locked in a tightening race for re-election against GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. "We will not stand our pockets being picked, our children's future being mortgaged, our rights being taken away," he told the cheering crowd in Austin, one of three tea party stops he made during the day. (More Rick Perry stories.)