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It appears Rick Perry is no longer friends with Al Gore.

(CNN) -Gov. Rick Perry was once a close ally of Democrat Al Gore, but the Texas Republican made clear Wednesday he and the former vice president no longer see eye-to-eye.

"I certainly got religion," Perry told the Dallas Morning News. "I think he's gone to hell."

Perry, once a Democrat, ran the Texas chapter of Gore's unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988. Then a member of the Texas Legislature, Perry announced a year later he was switching to the Republican Party.

Perry, a two-term governor who's up for re-election next year, is currently engaged a heated Republican primary battle with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

With the Copenhagen climate change conference underway, it's the season of Gore bashing for some Republicans. The former vice president also took heat last week from Sarah Palin, who declared Gore was pushing "doomsday scenarios."

(CNN) – Dick Cheney's decision to weigh in on the Republican intra-party battle in Texas - a rare primary season endorsement by the former vice president - is an attempt to help challenger Kay Bailey Hutchison shore up her conservative credentials and attract undecided GOP voters, according to two knowledgeable GOP sources.

The former vice president teamed up with Hutchinson in Houston Tuesday to officially endorse her gubernatorial bid. The Texas senator is taking on two-term incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in next year's Republican primary.

One source notes that Cheney and Hutchison have a longstanding relationship that goes back to the days when they were both in Dallas, a time when Cheney served as Halliburton CEO.

The political calculation behind Tuesday's move is the hope that Cheney can help the senator win over undecided Republican voters in a state where the Bush administration's seal of approval may hold more sway than anywhere else. "The two most popular people in Texas are George and Barbara Bush - and Cheney isn't far behind," says one source close to Texas politics.

Perry, according to his campaign, has already won a re-election nod from the person who had hoped to succeed Cheney - Sarah Palin.

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Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is running for governor in Texas.

Story updated below with Hutchison's remarks as prepared for delivery on Saturday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who previously said she would resign her seat to run for governor, will announce Saturday she will remain in the Senate as she seeks the Republican Party’s gubernatorial nomination, a Hutchison aide tells CNN.

"She will announce tomorrow at the Texas Federation of Republican Women’s Convention in Galveston that she will not be resigning her seat before the primary,” said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “She is running for governor because she feels it is important to fight on two fronts, for the race for governor and against the Democratic health care proposal and cap and trade.”

In July, Hutchison told Dallas radio station WBAP that she planned to leave the Senate in the fall.

"Then the actual leaving of the Senate will be sometime — October, November — that, in that time frame," she said.

The aide said that Hutchison “plans to resign” her Senate seat “after the primary,” which the aide noted she will win. The aide brushed off the question of whether she would quit if she ends up losing the primary to Gov. Rick Perry.

A Perry spokesman quickly responded to the latest news in what has been a contentious primary battle.

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(CNN) - Before making judgments about the shootings at Fort Hood, a thorough investigation needs to take place, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Thursday.

"It is imperative that we take the time to gather all the facts, as it would be irresponsible to be the source of rumors or inaccurate information regarding such a horrific event," Cornyn said in a statement.

"Once we have ascertained all the facts, working with our military leaders and law enforcement officials on the ground, we can determine what exactly happened at Fort Hood today and how to prevent something like this from ever happening again," he said.

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Related: Twelve killed in Fort Hood shootings, suspect alive, officials say

Related: Picture begins to emerge of Fort Hood suspect

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has shaken up a state commission that is probing whether a man executed in 2004 belonged on death row.

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry has shaken up a state commission that is probing whether a man executed in 2004 belonged on death row. Perry's move forces the commission to delay a scheduled hearing on the case.

The governor acted two days before the commission was to hear from an expert who has cast doubt about the quality of the arson investigation that helped convict Cameron Todd Willingham of murder in the deaths of his three daughters in a fire at their home.

Death-penalty opponents say a thorough review of the Willingham case may force Texas to admit that it executed an innocent man. The Texas governor and others, however, say they remain convinced of Willingham's guilt.

Perry replaced the chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and declined to reappoint two commission members. The commission was to hear testimony Friday from Craig Beyler, an arson investigation expert. He wrote the latest of three reports critical of the testimony that helped prosecutors convict Willingham of murder in 1992.

The governor's office told CNN the moves were a routine replacement of members whose terms had expired.

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The Perry's campaign Web site that was hacked earlier today.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – RickPerry.org, the official re-election Web site of Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry was hacked Tuesday during a live Web broadcast, his campaign claimed. The site went down for approximately 10 minutes at 11:20 a.m. central time.

"Today's 'Talkin' Texas' webcast by Gov. Perry was deliberately interrupted by a denial-of-service attack, preventing countless users from logging in to view the Governor's remarks," Rick Perry Spokesman Mark Miner said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. "This planned and coordinated attack was political sabotage, and we are working to identify those responsible for this illegal activity."

Pressed on whether or not he thought the campaign of Perry's Republican primary opponent Kay Bailey Hutchison was behind the "sabotage," Miner responded: "I hope not. I hope they would not be that stupid."

The Hutchison campaign denied being behind the attack and aides said that they are "skeptical" Perry's site was even hacked.

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Gov. Rick Perry is currently battling Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for the GOP nomination.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Texas Gov. Rick Perry was originally included on 2012 Presidential Straw Poll ballot at this weekend's Values Voter Summit in Washington, but his staff requested that his name be removed.

A spokesman for Perry's re-election campaign told CNN that the request was made because the two-term governor is not thinking about running for President, but is instead "focused on running for governor." Perry is currently battling Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for the GOP nomination.

The governor, however, is still attending the conference and is slated to speak on Saturday.

The potential Republican candidates on the straw poll ballot are: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired back at Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Tuesday.

(CNN) – One day after Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison formally challenged him for his job, Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired back.

"I understand the senator's been in Washington for 16 years, and she may not have a grasp of what's going on in the state of Texas. She may not know or understand the progress we've made in this state," Perry said at a news conference Tuesday in Austin, Texas.

Hutchison officially announced her bid for Texas governor Monday, The move pitted her against Perry, a fellow Republican, and sparked what could be a bitter intra-party fight in the Lone Star State. As she kicked off a five-day, 19-stop "Texas Can Do Better" tour, the four-term U.S. senator slammed Perry's years in office for what she calls arrogance and mistakes, and she said "he's trying to stay too long - 14 years, maybe longer."

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Hutchison announced she will challenge Gov. Rick Perry.

(CNN) – Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said Monday she will challenge Republican Gov. Rick Perry in a primary matchup and reported raising over $6.7 million for the bid in the first half of the year.

"Today I am announcing that the exploratory committee is closed," Hutchison said at a Dallas press conference. "The campaign for governor of Texas is open for business. I am so excited and ready to go."

The four term senator has made no secret about her interest in challenging the more conservative Perry, having established an exploratory committee and campaign staff months ago.

In her announcement Monday, Hutchison said the fundraising haul far exceeded her initial goal of $5 million and will leave the campaign with more than $12 million cash on hand.

The 65 year-old former Texas State Treasurer also said she plans a formal kickoff in August when she will have time to tour the state.

Hutchison's cash haul compares to the $4.2 million Perry raised during the same period, though the 59 year-old Texas governor was barred from raising any money until the end of the legislative session in June. A spokesman for Perry's campaign said the governor has more than $9 million cash on hand.

Praising the "depth and width" of her support, Hutchison dismissed suggestions she had more time than Perry to raise money.

"We both had six months, we were both asking for commitments. We were both out there asking for money," she said.

(CNN) – Texas Gov. Rick Perry is dialing back his earlier remark that seemed to suggest he was open to secession, telling reporters Thursday his state is "part of a great union."

"I was kinda thinking that, maybe the same people who hadn't been reading the constitution right were reading that article and they got the wrong impression about what I said," he told reporters as in the Texas State House.

"Clearly, I stated that we have a great union. And Texas is part of a great union. I see no reason for that to change. I think that may not be the exact quote, but that is, in essence what I said," he added.

Perry's original comments on the matter came Wednesday at a "Tea Party" even in Austin, when he railed against the federal government for what he said were infringements of states' rights and repeated violations of the 10th amendment of the Constitution - the provision that establishes Federalism. (Video below: Perry fires up 'Tea Party' crowd)

"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said Wednesday as crowd members shouted calls for secession. "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."

In clarifying his remarks Thursday, Perry also said he has "never been prouder of Texans" for standing up to Washington, DC.

"I think you will see more and more this type of response to a government that is rather unresponsive to the people of this country and Texas was right at the forefront of that yesterday," he said.

Meanwhile, Texas Democrats have sharply criticized Perry's original comment, calling it an "attack on our country."

"It is the ultimate anti-American statement," State Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco told reporters Thursday.

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(CNN) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry isn't ruling out the possibility his state may one day secede from the nation.

Speaking to an energetic and angry tea party crowd in Austin Wednesday evening, the Lone Star State governor suggested secession may happen in the future should the federal government not change its fiscal polices.

"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "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." (Video below: Tea party fires up debate)

Perry, who is beginning to gear up for what could be a challenging re-election race, rejected more than $500 million in federal stimulus funds earlier this year and has been highly critical of President Obama's stimulus package.  (Related: Joe "The Plumber" speaks at Michigan tea party)

His comments come a week after endorsing a resolution in the Texas state House reasserting state sovereignty over federal mandates.

Specifically it states that "all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed."

Texas, America's second biggest state in area and population, was its own nation for 10 years before joining the United States in 1845.

Should Texas one day secede, one man may already be vying to be its president. Actor Chuck Norris said last month he may be interested in the post.

“I may run for president of Texas,” Norris wrote in a column posted at WorldNetDaily. “That need may be a reality sooner than we think. If not me, someone someday may again be running for president of the Lone Star state, if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state.”

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Jindal is rejecting $98 million in stimulus money.

(CNN) - In a budget proposal released Friday afternoon, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal indicated he is only rejecting $98 million of the federal stimulus funds due his state.

That figure is far less than the $700 million South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has indicated he may reject if the federal government does not allow Sanford to use that money to pay down his state's debt.

Jindal, an early GOP critic of the stimulus bill, is specifically rejecting funds aimed at expanding unemployment benefits on the belief his state would have to pick up the tab on the provision in two years.

In the budget proposal released Friday, Jindal emphasized the money he is accepting is temporary and a means to ultimately cutting spending.

"It is very important to understand…that federal stimulus funds are temporary funds. As such, they cannot be thought of as a permanent part of our state’s budget," he said Friday, adding, "Federal stimulus funds give us time to reform how the state runs so we can cut spending, ensure we are spending efficiently, and live within our means."

Jindal's announcement also comes a day after Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would reject the $555 million in federal funds direct to his state to expand unemployment benefits.