Texas Governors Turn Bravado Into Political Strategy

Just under 20 years ago, then-Gov. Rick Perry forgot the cardinal tenet at the intersection of politics and journalism: Treat every microphone as if it's hot and every camera as if it's rolling.

It happened June 21, 2005, while Perry was trying to build anticipation for his plan to overhaul how Texas pays for public education. After the formal interview via satellite with Ted Oberg of Houston's ABC affiliate had ended, the governor was recorded acerbically brushing off the reporter with a popular euphemism for a vulgarity, thinking that the satellite link had been severed.

The phrase in question was "adios, mofo." It seems quaint by today's standards and has become something of backdoor slogan for Perry's long political career. But when the TV station aired the out-take and other outlets amplified it, the off-color remark caused more than a little hand-wringing damage control with Perry's 2006 reelection campaign just then beginning to gear up. And Perry felt compelled to call Oberg with a personal apology for using what the governor called an "inappropriate word."

How inappropriate was "mofo" for 2005 sensibilities? Well, even though pretty much everyone knew the meaning of it, the Houston Chronicle's account of the Perry-Oberg exchange published a day later danced all around the word, but never mentioned it in print.

Now, a week shy of two decades later, we have the present Texas governor using another euphemism for a related, but less graphic, vulgarity that has long been considered out of bounds for polite company. In a warning posted to X just after midnight Wednesday, Abbott told potential demonstrators who disagree with President Donald Trump on immigration and just about everything else that they had better not break the law.

"Peaceful protesting is legal," the governor said on his personal X account. "But once you cross the line, you will be arrested. FAFO."

At a crowded news conference in the Capitol later in the day, Abbott repeated the acronym to emphasize his law-and-order bona fides.

If your nine-year-old were to ask you what FAFO stands for, you might reply, "fool around and find out." If you were to ask your 16-year-old the same question, you'd probably hear a different four-letter word that starts with an F, which is the actual meaning of the acronym.

The connotation of FAFO, according to such modern online sources as TikTok and Reddit, is to convey the kind of bravado that might precede a bar fight or a frat party challenge. Or, to put it another way, it's one more way to swagger. And swagger is a time-honored practice of just about every self-respecting governor of Texas.

Let's go back to the June 2005 example. Perry had ascended from the office of lieutenant governor to the Governor's Mansion upon the 2000 election of George W. Bush to the presidency. And in that presidential election campaign, Bush had turned swagger into an art form.

"Some people say I swagger" he was quoted as saying on the stump. "In Texas, we call it walking."

And in Bush's downtime on his ranch in Crawford, the 41st president seldom let a photo op of him clearing brush pass him by.

Perry, during his 14 years as governor, leaned into his own rural upbringing in the tiny town of Paint Creek, about 100 miles southwest of Wichita Falls. Downtime photos often showed him in ranch wear and cowboy boots. And he famously boasted of taking his laser-sighted sidearm and shooting dead a coyote who had menaced his dog.

Bush also had a "hot mic" experience during the 2000 campaign when he was caught on stage referring to a New York Times reporter as a "major-league (expletive)."

While both Perry and Bush were above not earthy and sometime profane language during informal or off-the-record settings with reporters, it wasn't something they used on purpose in public to embellish their ability to swagger.

They just swaggered. And that seemed like enough to convey whatever message they had on their minds.