How Obama-like was this scandal? Let us count the ways:
Trampling 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When both the House and Senate repealed the law six weeks later, Perry did not — as he now claims — listen humbly or “agree with their decision.”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. Merck’s political action committee pitched in $6,000 to Perry’s re-election campaign in 2007 and Merck discussed the vaccine with Perry staff on the day they donated.
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.
michellemalkin.com
It’s good to see Malkin knows how awful Perry is.
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.”
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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.
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The Perrytistas think we should ignore this and Move On.
I so wanted to support the governor if my candidate didn't get in; but Perry is withering now that he's in the spotlight.
This and more is what I have been finding out about Perry’s record, a conservative he is not.
Somewhere between Huckabee and Trump
Oh, you go girl!!! Ping for later reading but this is THE singular reason for me balking at a Perry run.’’Thank you Michelle Malkin.
Poor Michelle...... there is a wave threatening to drown her candidate.
She dredges up a sea shell fragment hoping it will be adequate to stop it.
WTH more do you want?
How true are the accusations that I have seen recently of Rick Perry's Koran-quoting, Muslim cronyism, etc ?
Oh, and don't get me started about Rick Perry being Al Gore's campaign manager at one time. I already looked into it and its true, so I am --uh, to say the least-- shocked and worried about him being a candidate.
The mainstream media seem to think he is the RIGHT GUY FOR THE RINO JOB!
Cough. Case closed.
Obama gives you NO choice. The only way to opt out is to DIE.
Perry protected the choice and decision making authority parents have no differently than with any other childhood vaccination.
Vaccine requirements are not news: for school attendance, for travel, for certain working environments. It's routine.
Some really sick-minded people are obsessed with Gardasil because the vaccine is against strains of HPV that are classed as an STD. They see "STD" and lose all pretense of rational thought. "He's trying to sexualize our daughters!" "He thinks our baby girls are sluts!" (Cue headless chicken running.)
He was taken to the woodshed. He knows it. You know it. Michelle knows it.
Let's contrast Perry's parental involvement approach with what's happening in CA today
AB 499 does an end-run around parents entirely and says simply: "A minor who is 12 years of age or older may consent to medical care related to the prevention of a sexually transmitted disease."
The state and the child only. No parental consent. There's not even a requirement for parents to be informed after the fact in this bill.
That's the kind of fascist insanity that needs to be stopped. That's real interference with parental rights. That's not what Perry did.
He was repudiated soundly for his use of executive order on the vaccine in spite of its parental rights protections, but the act should not be sensationalized to the extreme.
Michelle is generally pretty good, and I won’t dismiss her concerns outright. But I will say the concept of federalism gives states MUCH more leeway than it does the federal government. Voters can judge their state’s performance at a closer level and reward or punish it as they see fit.
How did the voters of Texas view this action by Perry? I understand there are also questions of process that ought to be addressed. Let us also not equate every healthcare issue with Hussein’s Death Law...it diminishes the damaging effects of the statute.
As Malkin points out his attempt at an apology smacks only at much regret that he was proven to be not only just wrong but so wrong at a level tat he should have resigned as a disgraced RINO. His non-apology is nothing more than a slap in the face to those of us who were fighting his ultra bad judgment call in trying ram that debacle down Texans throats. What utter arrogance. This is only a glimpse of what America can expect from the latest liberal leaning professional politician who has so little regard for the wishes of the citizenry and electorate. His presidency would be very bad for America.
BTW. Good article as usual from Michelle Malkin. Keep them coming.
One or two weeks in the national spotlight should send this corrupt roach Rick Perry scurrying for cover back among the LBJ types down in Texas.
This is a deceptive assertion. To get it "free" you had to go to the county health clinic. If you had your family doctor administer the vaccine it was costly. If it was not a mandatory vaccine, most health plans in Texas did not cover it. By making it mandatory, the vaccine was covered by health insurance.
Hey Guys,
A deeper look into Perry’s Guardisil Action!
Sorry about the earlier ping, it was to a duplicate post.
This one is the original.
The government already had this vaccine available free of charge for eligible children before Rick Perry's bill [with an opt out]. A number of Freepers have posted that they got the innoculation for their daughters with no ill effects.
People may not be aware that very young Junior High School students are engaging in oral sex because they consider it 'safe'. I have even read of it happening in Elementary schools. They are in danger of contracting the HPV virus.
Jan 14, 2010 – More than 40 types of HPV can be passed through sexual contact. ... in the mouth or throat of a person who had oral sex with an infected person. .... There is NO CURE for the virus HPV.
According to new Canadian research, more than 75 percent of sexually active young women have previously engaged in oral sex.
*Everybody* is going to flame me for this one, but I just have to say it: None of these candidates really impresses me all that much. In fact, now I know how the Rats must have felt in 1988 when they fielded the “Seven Dwarfs.”
This links the complete printer friendly version at National Review Online.