Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and once and future presidential candidate, told reporters this morning that the secession campaign in what he called "the Shetlands" should inspire all Texans, despite the crushing defeat it suffered at the hands of Scottish voters. Perry, who has been suggesting the possibility of Texas secession for years at Tea Party rallies, said he would study yesterday’s referendum in Britain to learn “how we could do it better.

“We tried leaving once before, about 100 years ago if I’m not mistaken,” he said, apparently referring to the Civil War (1861-1865). “But that didn’t work out so well. I didn’t realize until this week that you could just have a vote on it. Boy, that would have made things a lot easier.”

Perry said Scots and Texans have a lot in common, including accents that people are always trying to imitate, lots of oil, and a tradition of resisting British royalty. "The reason that we fought the [American] Revolution in the 16th century,” he said, “was to get away from that kind of onerous crown, if you will."

But the Scots' big mistake was their politics, he said, citing a column by Neil Irwin, who wrote that "Scotland’s grievances are almost the diametrical opposite of those of, say, the Tea Party. . . . They want more social welfare spending rather than less, and have a strongly pro-green, antinuclear environmental streak.”

“That would be a big loser in Texas, for sure,” Perry said, adding that "those fellas should wear pants."