Rick Perry is fine with the old ways of regulating Wall Street

Well, that's what I think he says (precision is not exactly this guy's strong suit). In an interview with CNBC's John Harwood, the Texas governor blames the financial crisis on regulators not doing their jobs. The answer, he says, is to fire those folks and go back to the old rules.

JOHN HARWOOD: You want to repeal Dodd-Frank, going back to the old system of regulation of Wall Street. How would you explain that to Occupy Wall Street and to the Tea Party?

RICK PERRY: I would say that-- you have plenty of rules on the book and-- insist that the people that are working in those agencies do their job.

JOHN HARWOOD: You think the previous regulation on Wall Street was adequate?

RICK PERRY: Yes, absolutely, I think it was adequate. 'Cause we had a bunch of regulators that weren't doing their job-- I would fire those regulators. I don't know whether you could fire them or not because of the federal laws in there. But until we can fire them, I'll reassign them somewhere they won't find very pleasant, and get people in there that actually do their jobs. That's what needs to be done. We have regulators in the state of Texas that actually get up every day and go do their jobs. And I would expect the-- federal regulators to do the same.

Big day for Perry - he formally announced his proposal for a flat tax, and a new CBS poll shows him favored by only 6 percent of Republican primary voters.