Energy Secretary Rick Perry sure has a lot of thoughts about this student body election

Impact

What is U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry up to these days? Is he keeping close tabs on our energy policies and nuclear arsenal? Perhaps. Is he also keeping close tabs on a collegiate student body election? Most definitely. 

As the Texas Tribune reported, Perry published an op-ed on Wednesday entitled, "Did A&M shun due process in the name of 'diversity'?" Unfortunately, the piece lives behind a pay wall, but it comments on the recent non-scandal surrounding the election of Bobby Brooks as Texas A&M University's newest student body president. 

Brooks, the university's first openly gay student body president, won the position after the disqualification of his opponent — who did actually get the most votes — on the grounds that said opponent had intimidated voters and lapsed in his duty to report some glow sticks as a campaign expense. 

A student tribunal overturned that disqualification, upholding only the expense-reporting failure, but ultimately, we are talking about an undergraduate student body election here. There are almost certainly bigger fish out there for Perry to fry. Still, he took the time to pen a complaint about what he believes was a "stolen" election that "made a mockery of due process and transparency," the Tribune reported. It also might not have panned out that way if Brooks weren't gay, Perry suggested.

"Brooks' presidency is being treated as a victory for 'diversity,'" Perry wrote, according to the Tribune. "It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for 'diversity' is the real reason the election outcome was overturned. Does the principle of 'diversity' override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?"

Olivier Douliery/AP

To be fair, Perry does have some justifiable investment in Texas A&M: He studied "meats," and some other things, there in the 1970s. But even school administrators were puzzled by his tiny tirade, which they found to be misplaced.

"Honestly, we were just surprised to see that the secretary of energy would take the time to weigh in in detail and we respectfully disagree with his assessment of what happened," Amy Smith, Texas A&M's senior vice president of marketing and communications, told the Tribune. She added that "his understanding of the election rules of student body president elections doesn't reflect the facts."

Perry argued that "If anything is worthy of oversight, these events should qualify." Some might say that, if anything is worthy of oversight, it's the White House administration of which he is part. Or, you know, our cache of nuclear weapons. That, too.