The Sunday Times of London Is Sneaking Up On Rick Perry. Dallas Real Estate News

“In London, you’re only a somebody if your phone’s been hacked.”

There was a fund raiser for Rick Perry last night at The Fairmont, and a darling Brit snuck in from The Sunday Times of London. Her name is Christina Lamb, she’s the Washington Bureau Chief of The Sunday Times, and a brilliant, seasoned, dynamo reporter who has been embedded in three wars — Afghanistan, Iraq and Zimbabwe.  I’m sure a Rick Perry fundraiser at The Fairmont was a piece of frosted cake compared to dodging land mines.

“Sometimes I get worried people might shoot me for photographing their homes,” I offered up to this veteran writer who has actually slept with troops. Like on the ground, no marble, no Kallista.

Yes, tough beat covering real estate in Dallas. Just like a war zone.

Anyhow, I got a call from Christina’s assistant, Tim Fitzgibbons, in D.C. on Friday as Hurricane Irene was blowing in. He told me she was on her way to Texas to do a story on Rick Perry and Texas real estate. Would I take her around and show her the lay of the land? She wanted to see Westlake “where all the rich people live”. You bet! She wanted to see how great our economy was, the platform RP is using to surge to the front of the polls.

So I fetched Christina and off we went on an adventure to Westlake, to Vaquero, where we got in (I told you, she was a war correspondent) and toured all. She was amazed at the size of the homes, the consistency of design and the turrets. People must really love turrets here, she said. I know, I said, bet you feel right at home seeing all of these. Everyone in Texas wants an English castle, I said (biting tongue hard).

They look more like they are from Normandy, she said.

Best convo was talking about her employer, the Sunday Times of London, owned by Rupert Murdoch and the good sister to that naughty News International who hacked all those phones for scooping stories.

The word in London, she said, is that you’re only a somebody if your phone’s been hacked!

We chatted about the repercussions, the stiff competition in the London press — 12 newspapers, yikes, and how the U.S. news more online, and the proliferation of blogging. (No kidding.) Seems Murdoch is paying everyone he hacked $100,000 pounds so, just like any huge liability settlement in the U.S, everyone there now wants to have been hacked.

Rick Perry, here’s a hint: check your phone.