Sarah Palin took a hard swipe against her friend Rick Perry in a post-debate TV appearance, calling him out by name for “crony capitalism” for his effort to mandate an HPV vaccine for girls in Texas.
Asked by Greta Van Susteren about someone in Perry’s office going to work for a drug company that made the vaccine, Palin sought to put a finer point on it: “That someone, as Michele Bachmann pointed out, was Governor Perry’s former chief of staff.”
She went on: “That’s crony capitalism. That’s part of the problem that we have in this country is that people are afraid, even in our own party, to call one another out on that. True reform and fighting the corruption and fighting the crony capitalism is a tough thing to do within your own party. You have to go up against the big guns and they will try to destroy you when you call them out on the mistakes that they have made. Believe me, I know that, I have the bumps and bruises to prove it because that’s what I have been doing for the last 20 years … calling out the corruption in government. Michele Bachmann tried to make that point tonight and she’s going to get potentially crucified.”
Van Susteren asked another question, but Palin wasn’t done: “Let me go back to that issue with Governor Perry,” she said. She pointed out that at the time Perry was boosting the vaccine in Texas, she was opposing it in Alaska, and she thought Perry’s order was strange “because it just didn’t sound like Governor Perry,” who she thought was against big government.
“I knew even at that time something was up with that issue. And now we’re finding out, yeah, something was up with that issue,” she said.
The Bachmann-Palin lovefest appears to be mutual. Bachmann’s campaign cited “crony capitalism” in a news release issued mid-debate. And Bachmann used the line when she appeared on Van Susteren’s show a few minutes later.
“This is what the American people don’t want. They don’t want crony capitalism. It infuriates them,” she said, drawing a parallel with Obama’s Solyndra controversy.
“It’s no better when Republicans engage in that as well,” she said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63343.html#ixzz1XoB6uVDe
What I don’t get is how come all of a sudden this is a big deal for Palin. She’s sung Perry’s praises for some time now, endorsed him, campaigned for him. I can understand Bachmann not knowing about this until recently and bringing it up because Perry has stolen her base, but not Palin.
Palin may not have mandated it (though a mandate with an opt out isn’t really a mandate) but if you are going to “make it possible for all Alaska girls ages 9 through 18 to receive Gardasil” then you aren’t opposing it. It’s a promotion.
Ah, could it be that Perry said publicly less than a year ago he was NOT running for president. And Sarah took him at his word only to discover he had been planning a run for at least two years. Some people do NOT like to be used.