RICK PERRY'S SALUTE TO HYPOCRISY: ADMONISHES OBAMA FOR NEVER SERVING IN MILITARY WHILE HIS VOTER ID LAW EXCLUDES VETS

It should be long gone the notion that if you tout your love for the military you are going to be a shoo-in for President. It doesn’t work like that anymore. We have presidents past and present who have never served that did better than those who have. But as Texas Gov. Rick Perry throws his hat into the ring to become President, it doesn’t seem that is going to make much of a difference, at least not to him. Today he decided to take a swipe at Obama over his lack of military experience versus his as an Air Force Captain, and while we can come up with a million responses to that the Democratic Party in Texas already has. The Voter ID efforts across the country has been a contentious issue to begin with, but two days before Perry decided to take this shot at Obama, the Dems released a tape where the head of the Texas Secretary of State’s Election Division said that a Veterans’ Administration photo ID will not be an acceptable form of ID when you are trying to vote per their new Voter ID law. As bad as the law is in the first place, how much do you want to bet that this will be one thing that get corrected pretty quickly?

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is officially on the campaign trail to become President of the United States, and it didn’t take long before what he says and what his government does makes him look bad.

On Monday, Perry found his way to the Iowa State Fair, where he shook hands with military veterans and their families, while also touting the fact that he was once a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. It is particularly because of this that he believes that servicemembers will respect him more than President Barack Obama, who never served in thei military. “I think they would really like to see a person who wore a uniform in that office and I think that’s just a true statement,” he said. “I wouldn’t back up off it an inch. Go ask your veterans if they would rather see somebody who has never served as Commander-in-Chief.”

In addition, he added, “Experience matters, having walked in a person’s shoes, having done what these young men and women in the military are doing matters to them. I don’t want somebody sitting in the front left seat of that airliner who just got their pilot’s license.”

But if Perry feels military experience makes him a more sympathetic to servicememers, an embarrasing concern in Texas says otherwise. According to a recording provided by the Texas Democratic Party, Ann McGeehan, director of the Secretary of State’s elections division, said last week at a seminar in Austin that photo ID cards issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are not acceptable forms of military ID to vote.

“Now several folks asked yesterday, would a veteran’s card work?” McGeehan said. “So somebody who’s been in the military, has been issue a VA card that has their photo, would that work? The answer is no.”

Beginning next year, voters in Texas must have a Texas driver’s license, a Texas concealed handgun license, a U.S. passport; citizenship papers, or a military identification card to cast a ballot. Voter ID was declared an “emergency issue” by Gov. Perry in the last legislative session, and the bill is touted by conservatives as a way to cut down on voter fraud. However this and other efforts across the country are seen as a way to prevent minorities, the poor and others who would routinely vote Democratic from voting.

“Not only are they going to disenfranchise the Latino vote, they’re also going to disenfranchise our military personnel who fought for our ability to vote,” said State Rep. Joe Farias, who served in Vietnam, and stood with State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte and Charlie Jones of Texas Democratic Veterans at VFW Post 76 in San Antonio to decry the bill. “In haste, because they wanted to pass a voter ID bill, (Republicans) hurt the same people who fought and are dying to give us that right.”

On Friday, the McGeehan’s office walked back on her statements. “It was an informal Q&A, and (McGeehan) was answering based on what was expressly called out in Senate Bill 14 (the voter ID bill),” Secretary of State Spokesperson Jordy Keith said. “Right now our office has not issued a final determination on that.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy