Former Reagan aide: ‘Rick Perry is an idiot’

By David Edwards

American historian Bruce Bartlett, who worked as an aide to President Ronald Reagan and as a Treasury official for President George H.W. Bush, doesn’t have a lot of respect for Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry’s intellect.

“Rick Perry said the Fed is treasonous,” CNN’s Christine Romans told Bartlett Friday during an interview about the economy.

“Rick Perry is an idiot and I don’t think anybody would disagree with that,” Bartlett replied.

Watch this video from CNN’s American Morning, broadcast Aug. 19, 2011.

Bruce Bartlett: Chunk of GOP either stupid, crazy, ignorant or craven cowards

• By Eric W. Dolan

Historian Bruce Bartlett, a former domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan, sat down with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Wednesday to discuss the national debt.

Bartlett said it was a myth that tax cuts are the key to prosperity, noting that Reagan raised the capital gains rate. He was also skeptical that Congress would be able to solve the current budget crisis.

“I think at this point, there’s nothing that can pass the House of Representatives,” he said.

“I think a good chunk of the Republican caucus is either stupid, crazy, ignorant or craven cowards, who are desperately afraid of the tea party people, and rightly so.”

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below: