WASHINGTON — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to rally Christian conservative leaders in Texas this weekend to discuss strategies for his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. The event will be hosted by Dr. James Leininger, a millionaire Christian right figure who was once the biggest political donor in Texas and an early and crucial benefactor to Perry’s political career.

Leininger is not widely known outside of Texas, but inside the state he is seen as a pioneer of political donations to conservative politicians and causes. The conservative activist made his millions selling hospital beds, and since the 1980s he has pushed a mix of religious right fervor and pro-business activism, which is now reflected in the politics of all major Texas Republican figures, particularly Perry. Since 1989, Leininger, who is worth more than $300 million, and his wife have donated at least $6.9 million to political parties, political action committees and state and federal candidates, according to data obtained by TransparencyData.com, a site run by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to increase government transparency. He has also created a host of nonprofits, most prominently the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), to advance his conservative political agenda.

“James Leininger has been the sugar daddy of the far right in Texas,” said Kathy Miller, the president of the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit supporting religious freedom and individual liberties in Texas. “He is probably one of the biggest donors to the Republican Party of Texas’ move to far-right extremism.”

Leininger has been particularly helpful to Perry over the years. In 1998, Perry was in a close contest for Texas lieutenant governor with Democrat John Sharp. In the waning weeks of the campaign, Perry and Sharp were neck-and-neck, and Perry was running low on funds. Leininger stepped forward with a $1.1 million loan to the campaign, enabling Perry to increase advertising when many voters were just beginning paying attention. Perry won that race by a hair. Since then, Leininger has donated more than $250,000 to Perry’s gubernatorial campaigns. A request put into Leininger’s office for comment was not returned by Saturday morning.

A report released on Wednesday by Texans for Public Justice documented the many ties between Perry and Leininger. Of particular note, Perry and Leininger have participated together in a number of financial transactions, including investments by Perry in one of Leininger’s companies.

Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public Justice, told The Huffington Post, “What puts the relationship between Perry and Leininger apart is these personal financial deals.”

According to the report, Perry made a quick $4,500 from a stock purchase and sale in Leininger’s Kinetic Concepts, Inc., the hospital bed manufacturer that made Leininger a millionaire. Perry’s stock purchase came after meeting with Leininger and immediately before an investment group started buying up Kinetic Concepts shares, driving up the price of the stock. In total, Perry would wind up making $38,000 off of Kinetic stock investments.

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A Virginia judge’s ruling earlier this month that a key provision of President Barack Obama’s health care law is unconstitutional was hailed as a major breakthrough for all segments of the Republican Party save, perhaps, one.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), whose own successful dalliance with health care reform in Massachusetts is cited as an intellectual model for Obamacare, stands to gain little from this specific policy topic being at the center of political discourse.

At least that’s how the conventional wisdom goes. And in the wake of Judge Henry E. Hudson’s decision, there was, as expected, another wave of debate over Romney’s own role in championing the individual mandate for insurance coverage — the provision that was ruled unconstitutional.

Whether this pattern persists through the 2012 elections (should Romney run) depends on the whims of legal processes and the vindictiveness of the rest of the Republican presidential field. Romney, after all, was not the first conservative to champion an individual mandate. The Heritage Foundation did so as well. But the former governor tends to get the preponderance of attention when the conversation turns in that direction.

As the scrutiny mounts, Romney has begun to fine-tune his pitch for why his own plan made for sound policy, but Obama’s amounted to an “unconstitutional power grab by Washington,” as aide Eric Fehrnstrom put it.

For starters, team Romney has begun arguing that the better indication of his policy preference would be the 2008 campaign’s white paper, not the Massachusetts model. The former, as Fehrnstrom noted in a pre-Christmas exchange with the Huffington Post, is a reflection of what Romney would do nationally — a “federalist approach to health care reform.” It doesn’t have an individual mandate but, rather, encourages states to deregulate their insurance markets.

“Mitt said repeatedly in the 2008 campaign that his plan was not designed for the nation as a whole,” said Fehrnstrom. “He said states may want to copy parts of it, and perhaps improve on its features, but he was very explicit in saying the federal government should not impose a one-size-fits-all plan on the entire nation.”

Wow, these crazies are really making a “go” of this tea party thing. God bless their sorry souls….

Ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin’s keynote speech at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville will now be open to the press at her urging, according to the event organizer. Read More