BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: It wasn't the typical booking at the Travis County courthouse Tuesday night.
RICK PERRY, (R) TEXAS GOVERNOR: I will not allow this attack on our system of government to stand.
BAIER: And it wasn't the typical mug-shot, a smirking sitting governor of Texas who, after posing for that pic, stopped for a treat at a local ice cream shop.
Governor Rick Perry has been indicted by a grand jury on one count of abuse of official capacity, a first degree felony, and one count of coercion of a public servant, a third degree felony. The charges stem from Perry's threat to veto funding for the Travis County district attorney's public integrity unit unless D.A. Rosemary Lehmberg resigned. Lehmberg was arrested for driving drunk in April, 2013, and was seen acting belligerent at her booking in the now infamous video. She never stepped down, and Perry eventually vetoed that funding for the public integrity unit Lehmberg oversaw.
PERRY: I'm going to fight this injustice with every fiber of my being, and we will prevail.
BAIER: Several Democrats in Texas and nationally pounced on the news. Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro tweeted, quote, "For the sake of Texas, Governor Perry should resign following his indictment on two criminal felony counts involving abuse of office."
All of this, of course, is also seen through a 2016 prism, as Rick Perry considers whether to run for president again. Merrill Matthews is with an independent, nonpartisan public policy think tank in Dallas.
MERRILL MATTHEWS, INSTITUTE FOR POLICY INNOVATION: I think the indictment could help him significantly, especially if, of course, he's not actually convicted on this. But the notion that you've got a conservative leader who is out there doing things and leading on issues being attacked by Democratic charges ends up working, I think, in his favor in a way that I think he probably couldn't have anticipated and may very well put him in the front runner place for a little while.
BAIER: But other Texas political watchers say Perry's political gain could be short lived if this case does go to court where testimony about who said what to whom could get ugly, even as ugly as Governor Chris Christie's bridge-gate in New Jersey.
CAL JILLSON, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY: This has put not just Texas Republicans but national Republicans in a mind to take another look at Perry, which is exactly what he's trying to achieve. But once we get beyond the politics, the theatrics of this, and into court, I think it will undoubtedly be detrimental to him. The question is how detrimental, and I would think very.
BAIER: The conventional wisdom here in Texas from pundits and columnists and pundits on the left and the right is that there's not a lot of there there, at least not having seen what the grand jury has seen. Perry remains undeterred. He's hired a high priced legal team and he's clearly still seeking the spotlight. He'll go to Washington Thursday to talk to the Heritage Foundation about immigration reform. And then it's off to the first in the nation presidential primary state of New Hampshire where he's booked for at least six speeches so far.