Guess who's not coming to dinner?
In an invitation circulating this week, Governor Rick Perry is inviting some of his closest, wealthiest friends to a "Wild Game" dinner in Houston--just not their wives.
The invitation from Perry's State Finance Chair James H. Lee boasts an all-male host committee and encourages interested men to "share your views" with the Governor during an all-male dinner hour. "We are limiting the crowd so you will have a chance to talk to Rick," it reads, and notes that after dinner, "wives/significant others join us for Pat Green."
Yes, because that's how Rick Perry thinks things work here in Texas. If you're a woman, you speak when spoken to, eat when your husband's done eating, and certainly don't have enough social standing to even be invited to a fundraiser. He might as well have told men to leave their wives at home so they could make sure they had a gin and tonic ready for them as a nightcap when they got home.
The event kicks off at 5:30 PM and runs until 9 PM, which has this "wife/significant other" wondering...what the hell are the women supposed to do during the dinner? Stand around and discuss petticoat sizing? Work on their needlepoints? A dress code for the men--let's be honest, it's "Dubya-casual"--is noted on the invitation, encouraging men to wear blue jeans, boots and a sport coat. But there's no mention of what the female guests are supposed to wear, so it seems they accept attire ranging from French Maid to Sarah Palin-chic.
As for the "Wild Game" theme, it's hard to say whether they're referring to the testosterone-fueled host committee, which consists of at least three of Forbes' 400 Wealthiest Americans, or the menu, which offers tempting dishes like "Stuffed Pheasant" and "Assorted Wild Game Sausages."
At $15,000 a head (no pun intended), that's a pretty expensive sausage fest. But if Republican men who segregate women from the dining room are your thing then I could see how it'd be a worthwhile investment. Regardless, if there's one thing the nation should know about Texas, it's that we know a lot about sausage, and if there's one thing the nation should know about Rick Perry, it's that he knows a lot about throwing a good ol' fashioned sausage fest.