The forced immunizations bothered me, but this is the first time I heard that he now considers the decision a mistake.
###
What Perry says now:
“I made a mistake on that,” Perry told Iowa Radio later in the day Monday, calling it “an error in not having a conversation with the people of the state of Texas.”
“I agreed with their decision. I don’t always get it right, but I darn sure listen,” he said of the legislature responding to his decision.
“One of the things I do pride myself on, I listen. When the electorate says, ‘Hey, that’s not what we want to do,’” Perry told Houston’s ABC affiliate on Monday. “We backed up, took a look at what we did. I understand I work for the people, not the other way around.”
#
What Perry did and said then.
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When both the House and Senate repealed the law six weeks later, Perry did not — as he now claims — listen humbly or “agree with their decision.”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.
##
Slick Rick’s “apology” sounds sounds like Obama’s apology for not realizing the economy he inherited was as bad as it was.
If Obama tried this every Perry supporter here would be against it; no one would defend it as a mere 'mistake'.
Just a word on the vaccinations. I bothered me too. My daughter was 5 at the time and I was furious. Here are some facts. The vaccine was for preventing cervical cancer, not STDs. Insurance would not pay for it ($360 out of pocket) unless it was state mandated. Perry added it to the other required vaccinations to avoid the expense for this GOOD VACCINE, but also offered an opt-out (unlike the other vaccines) for those of us who didn’t want it or didn’t trust it. He didn’t get kickbacks. Both his parents suffered from cancer, both eventually beat it. His wife is a nurse and it was important to her. They felt they could eliminate cervical cancer in Texas and went too far. As you said, he DID apologize. He said he should have done an opt-in instead of opt-out. Of course, the opt-in would mean everyone had to pay the $360 themselves. Just the facts.