Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS — Leo Berman has four conditions for dropping out of the GOP gubernatorial race — two of them involving states’ rights and two anti-immigration.

The former Arlington City Council member, now a Republican state representative from Tyler, spoke Thursday to an "America’s Awakening" rally that was punctuated by fighting words from the American right wing.

Berman, 73, said he had talked over lunch to Gov. Rick Perry about dropping his plans to challenge Perry for governor.

"He’s going to let me know, and if he can agree with the four issues and if he can actually accept them as his own, then I’ll step out of the race and endorse him for re-election as governor," he said.

Berman said he asked Perry to:

Agree to have Texas join a consortium of states that challenge any federal legislation that violates states’ 10th Amendment rights.

Sign on, as governor, to a federal lawsuit that Berman said he expects Montana to file challenging the federal government’s regulation of intrastate commerce, such as guns manufactured in a state and sold only to residents of that state.

Order all state agencies to remove undocumented residents from benefit programs.

Arrange for the Homeland Security Department to train some state law enforcement workers so they can legally enforce immigration law.

Berman, well known for his opposition to illegal immigration, is seen as a potential spoiler in the Republican primary shaping up between Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Seeking unity

Berman was the keynote speaker at America’s Awakening, a gathering organized by 912 Project Fort Worth, a local chapter of a campaign launched by conservative television personality Glenn Beck. Organizers said the event at NYTEX Sports Centre was for those concerned about the direction of the country and the size of the federal government.

"Make no mistake. We are engaged in the moral equivalent of war," said 912 Project member Adrian Murray, who told the crowd of about 500 that the country was shifting toward Marxism.

Most speakers described the event as aimed at unifying Americans against a common enemy, described variously throughout the evening as "the left," "godless Americans," the Obama administration or all of the country’s political leaders.

"The very lowest 5 percent of the class, they got out of the moron zoo, and they’re running the country now," radio talk show host Jeff Bolton declared.

Pastor Stephen Borden of the Fair Park Bible Fellowship in Dallas, said problems facing the Obama administration such as the recession "are a distraction that keep us from seeing the real agenda, which is to enlarge government and control our lives."

Karl Sweetman of Denton collected dozens of signatures for a petition asking Perry to establish a "Texas Sovereignty Commission" to study ways for Texas to reclaim its rights as a state under the 10th Amendment.

Sweetman said that although the petition doesn’t endorse secession, he wants the commission to look at "if everything goes to hell in a handbasket, how can we prepare for secession."

"We want to pull up with a big truck and a load of trolleys and stacks of petitions that can’t be ignored," Sweetman said.