Posted on 08/17/2011 4:41:52 PM PDT by Brices Crossroads
Texas, we have a problem. Your GOP governor is running for president against Barack Obama. Yet, one of his most infamous acts as executive of the nation's second-largest state smacks of every worst habit of the Obama administration. And his newly crafted rationalizations for the atrocious decision are positively Clintonesque.
In February 2007, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed a shocking executive order forcing every sixth-grade girl to submit to a three-jab regimen of the Gardasil vaccine. He also forced state health officials to make the vaccine available "free" to girls ages 9 to 18. The drug, promoted by manufacturer Merck as an effective shield against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) and genital warts, as well as cervical cancer, had only been approved by the Food and Drug Administration eight months prior to Perry's edict.
Gardasil's wear-off time and long-term side effects have yet to be determined. "Serious questions" remain about its "overall effectiveness," according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Even the chair of the federal panel that recommended Gardasil for children opposes mandating it as a condition of school enrollment. Young girls and boys are simply not at an increased risk of contracting HPV in the classroom the way they are at risk of contracting measles or other school-age communicable diseases.
Perry defenders pointed to a bogus "opt-out" provision in his mandate "to protect the right of parents to be the final authority on their children's health care." But requiring parents to seek the government's permission to keep an untested drug out of their kids' veins is a plain usurpation of their authority. Translation: Ask your bureaucratic overlord to determine if a Gardasil waiver is right for you.
Libertarians and social conservatives alike slammed Perry's reckless disregard for parental rights and individual liberty. The Republican-dominated legislature also balked. In May 2007, both chambers passed bills overturning the governor's unilaterally imposed health order.
Fast-forward five years. After announcing his 2012 presidential bid this weekend, Perry now admits he "didn't do my research well enough" on the Gardasil vaccine before stuffing his bad medicine down Texans' throats. On Monday, he added: "That particular issue is one that I readily stand up and say I made a mistake on. I listened to the legislature ... and I agreed with their decision."
Perry downplayed his underhanded maneuver as an aberrational "error," and then — gobsmackingly — he spun the debacle as a display of his great character: "One of the things I do pride myself on, I listen. When the electorate says, 'Hey, that's not what we want to do,' we backed up, took a look at what we did."
Are these non-apology apologies enough to quell the concerns of voters looking for a presidential candidate who will provide a clear, unmistakable contrast to Barack Obama? Not by a long shot.
How Obama-like was this scandal? Let us count the ways:
TRAMPLING OF THE DELIBERATIVE PROCESS
Since Day One, President Obama has short-circuited transparency, public debate and congressional oversight. How can Perry effectively challenge the White House's czar fetish, stealth recess appointments, selective waiver-mania and backdoor legislating through administrative orders when Perry himself employed the very same process as governor? Not only did Perry defend going above the heads of elected state legislators, but his office also falsely claimed the legislature had no right to repeal the executive order. "The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it," Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody told The Washington Post in February 2007.
When both the House and Senate repealed the law six weeks later, Perry did not — as he now claims — listen humbly or "agree with their decision."
HUMAN SHIELD DEMAGOGUERY.
In response to the legislature's rebuke, the infuriated governor attacked those who supported repeal as "shameful" spreaders of "misinformation" who were putting "women's lives" at risk. Borrowing a tried-and-true Alinskyite page from the progressive left, Perry surrounded himself with female cervical cancer victims and deflected criticism of his imperial tactics with emotional anecdotes.
He then lionized himself and the minority of politicians who voted against repeal of his Gardasil order. "They will never have to think twice about whether they did the right thing. No lost lives will occupy the confines of their conscience, sacrificed on the altar of political expediency." Perry, of course, has now put his own ghastly Gardasil order on that same altar — but with no apology to all those he demonized and exploited along the way.
CRONYISM.
Most noxious of all, Perry wraps his big government health mandate in the "pro-life" mantle. But the do-gooder theater is a distraction from the business-as-usual back-scratching and astro-turfing that are Obama hallmarks. Perry's former chief of staff Mike Toomey is a top Merck lobbyist. Toomey's mother-in-law headed a Merck-funded front group pushing vaccination mandates. And Merck's political action committee pitched in $6,000 to Perry's re-election campaign in 2007.
The PerryCare executive fiat was not simply a one-off mistake explained away by lack of "research." It exposed a fundamental lapse in both political and policy judgments, an appalling lack of ethics and a disturbing willingness to smear principled defenders of limited government who object to the Nanny State using their children as guinea pigs.
Trusting Rick Perry's tea party credentials is a perilous shot in the dark.
Who gives a crap about Gardisil. I’m still voting for Rick Perry because he will beat Bammy Boy by 15 points
I suppose it all comes down to your definition of “spam.” Spam has a “canned” quality. (And it’s not “spam” because you don’t like the message it delivers.) That was a well-written comprehensive piece of work.
Not spam.
Great point. Bear in mind, Perry is claiming to be conservative now because he is facing other conservatives in his bid for the Republican nomination. Suppose he gets it? How liberal will he be when his opponent is Barack Obama?
Perry is a snake.
“Perry’s heart was in the right place,”
His heart is NOT in the right place if he is trampling on parental rights. His heart is not in the right place if he is accusing legislators adn citizen who disagree with him of being anti-life and pro-cancer. And his heart is not in the right place if his administration is thick as thieves with Merck, taking money and having close associates who are lobbying.
He “learned from it and apologized” (as you say) only a few days ago after being scourged by conservatives all over the blogosphere. Such conversions , upon entering a Presidential election, are highly unpersuasive. His apology reeks of political expediency.
Romney’s flip flops are not convincing. Perry’s are even less so, since he comes from a conservative state and his deviations from conservatism are even less understandable, unless, as appears likely, he actually believes them.
After all, he was Al Gore’s state Chairman in 1988.
Brices Crossroads is an unabashed Palin cheerleader...BC has done the same trashing of Bachmann.
I have no problem with people reporting facts, but there are freepers who are intent on destroying any candidate other than their own, without being honest about their agenda.
You explain it. He got $5000 from Merck
http://projects.propublica.org/alec-contributions/contributors/75
“In 2003, Gov. Rick Perry signed a state law that allows parents to opt out of vaccination programs for reasons of “conscience,” including religion or any other rationale. The law is a response to a number of vocal parents who have become convinced that vaccines are responsible for the dramatic rise in autism cases over the past decade—despite the fact that several large, peer-reviewed studies have found no evidence that this is the case. According to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, in 2003, parents of 2,314 children applied for an exemption. By the end of 2009, the total had reached beyond 12,600.”
http://www.texasobserver.org/culture/lessons-unlearned
Based on head to head Obama v. Republican Candidate polls, Romney is the most electable, Paul is the 2nd most electable, and the rest are bunched up behind Romney and Paul.
OK. So...let's say Perry is the nominee...because Palin is not going to run. I've said it over and over again. She's out.
Come November 2012...you gonna vote for him...or hand Barry a second term so he can put the fatal bullet into our country. Which one?
It's not that simple. This guy wanted to mandate vaccinations against sexually transmitted diseases parents be damned. That's a lot to swallow for me forgetting the fact that he never researched the ill effects of gardasil.
My children and grandchildren are not the governments property and the fact that Rick Perry thought differently makes me wanto to smack him in the mouth rather than vote for him.
Probably 50 % are Axelrod or DU trolls and who knows about the other half.
This is a screaming astroturf post and few are here to be reasonable.
Perry is a threat to MANY HERE . Perry has been in the field for five days and the Obama media has issued a record number of astroturf articles and you will see the Axelrod Obots here posting these links to obscure blogs that trash Perry.
He has a chance to defeat Obama so he scares quite a few .
Brices Crossroads is an unabashed Palin cheerleader...BC has done the same trashing of Bachmann.”
Everything I have posted about Perry and Bachmann is absolutely true. I haven’t smeared either one of them. I posted things and comments about their public record, which is fair game. After all, we don’t want to be conned here on FR.
Good point...:)
I like talking about Gardasil because Merck can use the publicity.
But Trans-Texas Corridor might be worse than Gardasil, Bilderberg might be worse than Gardasil.
Malkin could talk about each of those things in a way that shows what an awful person Perry is.
I’m glad to see Malkin 100% against Perry, which any reasonable Conservative would be.
Just so you know, the FDA approved Gardasil in 2006. Perry made his EO in 2007. So to throw that “unproven” jab in is pretty silly. And we already force our children to get vaccines before they enter school, and I havent seen 1 “conservative” cry about it the way they do Gardasil.
Now you're being coy about it.
Be open about your goal...it's to get Palin elected.
No vaccine has ever been safe for children, nor ever will be.
The FDA is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry, and nothing more. No morals and no wisdom, just craven greed.
I know a bunch of liberals, and they don't have a bad word to say about obama.
Let's all gang up on Rick Perry now. Liberals will trash him, and we can too. These Republicans have flaws.
Oh heck, why don't we just stay home on election day.
>> “Your reasonable replies are lost on many of these posters.” <<
.
LOL!
About as reasonable as any sellout tripe can be.
The GOP elite are determined to protect big government, and Perry is surely their best shot.
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