Craig McDonald, the director of Texans for Public Justice, was on CNN today. He tried to "respond" to something Lone Star State Governor Rick Perry's didn't say yesterday in his reaction to his indictment, and followed that up with a comical gaffe.

McDonald opened as follows: "The Governor again in his defense yesterday said this is merely a partisan political witch hunt." The trouble is that, as seen at the Texas Tribune, Perry didn't use the term "witch hunt" in his official statement or during the brief follow-up question and answer period (the Q&A is in the video, but not the text of the paper's coverage). So McDonald, who was clearly claiming to quote a term Perry used, was already misleading CNN viewers. He followed that dishonesty with a comical gaffe, as seen in the video clip after the jump (HT Twitchy):

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, was indicted by a county grand jury for abuse of power, after threatening to cut off state funding to a public corruption unit unless the district attorney in charge of it resigned. Perry had pushed for the removal of DA Rosemary Lehmberg after her arrest for drunk driving.

The indictment predictably made the front of Saturday's New York Times, in the prominent off-lead story slot, under a slanted deck of headlines: "Texas Governor Indicted in Case Alleging Abuses --Vetoing a Foe's Funding -- Charges Against Perry Interrupt Presidential Ambitions." According to the Times, the politically motivated indictment is a "major roadblock" and a "stunning rebuke" that "threaten[s] to tarnish his legacy."

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who, in the oddest of coincidences (that's sarcasm), just so happens to be considered one of the Republican Party's stronger potential contenders for the 2016 presidential nomination, was indicted in Austin today by a Travis County grand jury. The charges are "abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant" in connection with a veto "threat" he carried out — thus making "promise" a better word to describe his original stated intentions.

"Threatening" a veto and then carrying through on that "threat" is obviously a pretty routine occurrence in governmental jurisdictions through the country, from the President on down. As to initial press coverage, Paul J. Weber and Will Weissert at the Associated Press predictably misstated the results of another politically motivated prosecution of a major GOP elected official, namely former Congressman Tom "The Hammer" Delay, and focused on how expensive it might be to defend Perry by quoting an hourly legal representation rate which may or may not be accurate. Excerpts follow the jump (bolds are mine):

On July 30, Michele Richinick, a writer for msnbc.com, hyped a Texas protest against Rick Perry’s decision to deploy the National Guard to send a message to the waves of illegal immigrant children flooding over the border. With the title “Texans rally against Rick Perry’s deployment request” and the lede that “Texas Gov. Rick Perry is facing wrath from residents in his home state,” the MSNBC contributor seemed to forget that only 20 members of the Texas Organization Project (TOP) bothered to show up.

It remains unclear why MSNBC thought a 20-person protest in which “protesters held 12 large, blank checks to symbolize the millions of dollars the state will spend on Perry’s plan” was newsworthy. The only direct quote in the article from the TOP was Dallas Country communications director statement that Perry’s decision was “unnecessary.” Strong words.

Not sure which is sadder -- that Rachel Maddow actually believes this, or that she knows it's not true and says it anyway.

A sure sign that Maddow is on thin ice is when she makes a dubious claim without attribution. She did this on her MSNBC show Monday night while trotting out a deceptive euphemism to hide what she was actually saying. (Video after the jump)