Let’s mess with Texas, shall we?

It comes as little surprise to hear Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry throw out the notion of secession. He said it during a GOP-organized tea party last week after the crowd was chanting “Secede!”

The Associated Press reported: “Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that.”

Perry said: “There’s a lot of different scenarios. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”

Texas, for all Texans jabber about how proud they are to be Americans, doesn’t have a history that reflects such patriotic claims. It actually is one big flip-flopper.

The land was once part of Spain but helped Mexico become independent. Then it fought a war to become the independent country of Texas. Then it was annexed into the United States, but then it seceded over the issue of slavery. Then it was readmitted into the United States only after the Confederacy lost the war.

Since then, Texans are quick to poke at folks from the North and the West Coast.

Now Jay Leno is making jokes about Texas. He said there would be a bright side the state leaving the Union: “We could then invade them for the oil.”

And the Democrats in Texas passed out T-shirts with the governor’s picture that read: “Texas GOP Class of ‘09 … Gov. Rick Perry ‘Most Likely to Secede.’”

You know, for all the hassle Texans give New York and California, those two states sure have been a lot more sure of which country they belong to than Texas. They don’t have recognizable secessionist movements.

It’s called patriotism. Texans could learn to have some.