Perry: Fast and Furious Coverup Is ‘Nixonian’

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said Sunday he was wrong to call Mitt Romney a “vulture capitalist” and said such attacks won't work against the nominee during the final months of the campaign.

“That is a wrong attack,” Perry said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “That’s not going to work politically.”

Perry initially flung the barb at Romney earlier this year in reference to the former Massachusetts governor’s stint at Bain Capital. Perry warned that President Barack Obama needs to deflect attention from his own policies.

“This president’s going to pitch everything at the wall that he can to deflect off of the sour economy that we have in this country,” Perry said.

On the topic of the Fast and Furious debacle, the Texas governor questioned why the administration is hiding documents requested by Congress in the investigation and described the situation as “Nixonian.”

“This is almost Nixonian, if not absolutely Nixonian in the coverup that’s going on with this Fast and Furious,” he said. “What is so important? What are they hiding?

“What has gone on that is so important that I’m going to use executive privilege to keep the United States Congress from having documents?” Perry asked, referring to Obama’s decision last week to block the release of the documents. “This is really troubling.”