Commentator who called for coup against Obama worked in Johnson, Carter administrations

In a column posted yesterday at the conservative website NewsMax, John L. Perry wrote that a military coup "to resolve the 'Obama problem'" is not "unrealistic."



Newsmax appears to have taken down the column for its website, but it's been archived at Media Matters for America:

Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a "family intervention," with some form of limited, shared responsibility?

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

While it might be tempting to dismiss Perry as part of the far-right fringe, his credentials suggest otherwise. According to his NewsMax biography, Perry holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and has worked as an editor or reporter for several daily newspapers, including the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times and the Clearwater Sun.

He's also held relatively high positions in the federal government:

Perry ... served President Lyndon B. Johnson as deputy under secretary of commerce and was a White House speech writer and race-relations trouble-shooter for President Johnson.

In the Jimmy Carter administration, he was executive assistant to the under secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was interim director of public information for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In addition, Perry served as press aide to Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins, who served from 1955 to 1961, and as executive assistant to the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

Media Matters places the latest Perry column in the context of increasing calls for violent revolt against the government promoted by conservative media, some of which has considerable market reach. 

NewsMax, for example -- founded with the help of investors Richard Mellon Scaife and Texas businessman Michael A. Ruff and headed by former New York Post reporter Christopher Ruddy -- has 300,000 monthly subscribers and partners with Random House to publish a series of co-branded books, according to SourceWatch.

(Photo of John L. Perry from NewsMax website)