Perry accuses Romney of ‘shape-shifting,’ promises ‘unbridled truth’

A day after his ferocious clash with Mitt Romney in a Republican presidential debate, Rick Perry took a more subtle approach this morning to casting the former Massachusetts governor as a creature of the party establishment who lacks core convictions.

Speaking to party loyalists at a Western Republican Leadership Conference here at the Venetian casino resort, the Texas governor challenged the notion that Romney was the inevitable White House nominee to run against President Obama next year.

“The pundits and the establishment, they may think they choose, or it’s their responsibility or their right to choose, our next president,” Perry said. “Primary voters and caucus voters haven’t got that memo yet.”

“I am not the candidate of the establishment,” Perry went on, implying that Romney is that candidate. “You won’t hear a lot of shape-shifting nuance from me. I’m going to give the American people a huge big old helping of unbridled truth, that we can’t continue to spend what we’ve been spending.”

The Texas governor, who vaulted into the lead of the crowded Republican field when he joined the race, only to fall behind Romney and businessman Herman Cain weeks later, previewed the economic agenda that he plans to detail next week, beginning with tax reform.

“It starts with scrapping the 3 million words of the current code, starting over with something simpler: a flat tax,” Perry said. Alluding to Obama’s treasury secretary, he added, “I want to make the tax code so simple that even Timothy Geithner can file his taxes on time.”

Perry also pledged to “end earmarks for good,” killing the local spending by members of Congress on pet projects.

Despite controversies surrounding his close ties to powerful lobbyists in Austin, Perry cast himself as an outsider whose “tough medicine” would take on Washington’s influence peddlers.

“No longer are policies going to be set by K Street,” he said. “They’re going to be dictated by Main Street.”

Perry vowed reforms of federal entitlement programs, but after a series of statements suggesting he might threaten Social Security benefits for younger Americans when they retire, Perry avoided details.