Posted on 09/18/2011 1:29:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CORPUS CHRISTI — Gov. Rick Perry is under attack for trying to prevent a cancer whose yearly death toll exceeds this nation’s 9/11 losses by more than a thousand. On this issue, we are compelled to defend him — an unfamiliar role — and to wonder whether the master politician hand-picked his attackers.
We speak, of course, of the other Republican presidential candidates and their assault on Perry’s 2007 executive order that all sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts. The order was soon overturned in a hail of criticism that it usurped parental control (though it included an opt-out), encouraged promiscuity and returned a favor to Perry contributor Merck.
Texans had pretty much put this episode behind them — even the ones who were most angry about it, perhaps because those predisposed to anger on this issue are predisposed to back Perry on most others. But along came the Republican presidential primary campaign, then later came Perry into that campaign after an extended theatrical hemming and hawing, only to snatch instant frontrunner-hood. The HPV issue is the best opportunity for the other candidates, especially extreme-right Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, to nip at Perry’s heels.
The governor’s connection to Merck and to the lobbyist who sought his support is undeniable. Perry’s opponents can charge cronyism with a degree of accuracy. He responded to a pitch for a commercial product, delivered by someone who had fast-track access to him. But since the product’s widespread use would be in the public’s best interest, it appears that Perry has chosen his cronies wisely.
As for the notion that the HPV vaccine would promote promiscuity, it’s hard to imagine a teenager deciding to have sex because she was vaccinated against HPV, or deciding against it because she hasn’t been.
Bachmann took it a step further, suggesting that the vaccine can cause mental retardation. She bases this on her account of a weeping mother telling her it happened to her daughter. The American Academy of Pediatrics responded that the HPV vaccine is safe and doesn’t cause mental retardation, based on science.
Now Perry is in the unfamiliar position of having both science and us on his side. He has said, repeatedly, that his method was wrong but his purpose — preventing cancer and saving lives — was right.
The attacks on Perry play well before a right-wing audience focused on limited-government principles. When the focus shifts to daughters — which at some point it will — this family-first audience will stop paying only lip service to putting family first, even if it means joining a science-believing audience on this one issue.
The HPV attacks, while appearing to hurt Perry’s chances of winning the nomination, will do much to dispel concerns that he’s too far right to win the general election. We have to wonder if Bachmann is part of a plan to enhance Perry’s electability.
His most viable opponent, Mitt Romney, did his part to help that cause.
While Romney agreed that Perry should have gone about the HPV issue differently, “I think his heart was in the right place.” This confirms the disputable theory that Perry has a heart. No other issue addressed by Perry thus far in the campaign suggests that he does. His nonchalant comment about the many executions under his watch, chillingly applauded during the California debate, suggested that he doesn’t.
So, in the long run, Perry’s HPV mistake will do him more good than harm. He looks manly, defiant and compassionate defending it. It lures people into his corner who usually aren’t, including us, and ultimately won’t chase away those who usually are.
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The TTC fiasco is about as "manufactured and outrage" as is "Gardasil." The MSM, the LEFT, ENVIRONMENTALISTS and Comptroller Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn running as an Independent to challenge Gov. Rick Perry got this anti "TTC" ball rolling:
The MOVEMENT behind blocking TTC :
[CorridorWatch.org Files Comment and Complaint at NEPA Tier One TTC-35 DEIS Public Hearing During the July 27, 2006, Public Hearing in Dallas, Texas, David Stall presented oral comments and submitted written comments on behalf the members of ”CorridorWatch.org
Texas ENVIRONMENTAL Grantmakers Group “David Stall of Corridor Watch, a 501[c][4] monitoring the Trans Texas Corridor project, began our discussion about transportation and environmental impacts. He explained that his background was in government, both as general manager of the cities of Nassau Bay, Columbus, and Shoreacres, and as a 4th generation public servant. With that experience, he considers the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) project to have little to do with transportation, nor with the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M, nor regional urban traffic planners. To Mr. Stall, the TTC seems to be a rather desperate effort by the Governor’s office to generate revenue……………”
CorridorBotch.org, or David Stall-ed “It appears that as a political issue, the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) does not cut nearly the swath its opponents allege the asphalt itself will.
For we find CorridorWatch.org (CW.org) founder David Stall falling pronouncedly flat in his bid to become District 18's state Senator. In a jurisdiction he has spent the last two years dousing with disinformation regarding just what the TTC will be, his attempts at grassroots movement failed to translate into grassroots support…………
According to their website, Stall's wife Linda founded CorridorWatch.org in February of 2004. Of course her beau had a hand therein, but because he was the City Manager of Columbus, Texas, at the time, the website leans heavily on her influence at the organization's inception.
David Stall's involvement in so political an institution as this quickly led to his dismissal from his city post. Columbus officials were also less than thrilled that Stall had registered CorridorWatch.org using the city's account. Oops.
The Stalls immediately began driving hours in any direction from their Fayetteville home to attend Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) meetings to disingenuously participate in the open forum process. As their disinformation spread, they began culling fellow travelers on the no-Road to Anywhere; we here know from first-hand accounts that either the Stalls or members of their growing circle of lubricious surrogates have fanned out across the state to pitch false information on the potential throughway.
If everything with which these CW.org miseducators, and their brethren in groups such as Texas Toll Party, have been frightening or angering these poor residents into intellectual submission were true, the TTC would be a slab of concrete spanning from Beaumont east to El Paso west, and pave the state in totality between San Antonio and Dallas.
Every town to which these people pay a visit is told that they are in dire danger of being diametrically bifurcated by the coming highway, no matter how far east or west they might be. To cite but one fraudulent example, residents of every single city, town and village along the Taylor-Manor corridor have been regaled with egregiously fabricated tales of municipalitive destruction and vociferous eminent domain pillaging.
The problem is, Corridor Watch et. al. are by no means allowing the facts to get in the way of a good beating. Every proposed path (and there are still at the very least three) currently under consideration places the TTC on the northern and southern ends of planned SH-130, which is a good fifteen miles west of the villes in question and in crisis over their alleged impending devastation.
That these Corridor clowns are asserting anything with certitude belies their veracity on all things, because right now NO ONE outside of the TxDoT TTC circle knows anything about any aspect of the plans…………………..”
There are attending political ramifications to all of this, which is rarely the case when one is discussing a candidate who garnered a mere 8% of the interest of the citizenry. For there is a distinct waft of Strayhorn in the air surrounding the empty Stall and his Corridor Watch.
Comptroller Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn, currently adrift on signature collection waters in her bid for Independent Gubernatorial validity, has been a fixture at CW.org events, railing prodigiously (yet without substance) against the TTC, and the very concept of toll roads.
But herein arises a consistent theme when discussing Madame Comptroller; her inconsistency. Because prior to her decision to run against the TTC-proposing Governor Rick Perry, she too saw the meritoriousness of the concept of consumption road funding.
Honestly, I'm not sold on Perry, but that's a pretty stupid accusation, when we consider what he got from Merck versus what he got from the RGA.
The corruption angle is a little hypocritical when coming from the Palin supporters. Anybody forget about the contract to design a $12 million dollar hockey ring/sports emporium that Palin's Wasilla, AK awarded to a company whose architect was the son of one of Palin's mentors and cronies in the local GOP? Or how that once the design was in place, this same architect son was placed on a committee that just happened to award the contract to build to Howdie Inc. (in closed bidding, that led competitors to lodge complains that fairness in bidding rules were being violated), a company whose owner had donated thousands to Palin's previous campaigns for mayor? Or how the subcontractors on the project included a lot of companies that had previous ties to Palin, including one that sponsored Todd Palin's snow machine team, a team which has gotten the Palin's tens of thousands of dollars over the years?
Regardless of any pro- or anti-Perry arguments, this statement seems to be a remarkably socialist sentiment.
Shame on Perry for MANDATING PerryCARE I.
And shame on you for defending his fascist mandate
so that his Chief of Staff’s other employer
would be HAPPY.
MANDATOR Perry, the Texan RINO from Gore and Rove.
No thanks.
Honestly, I’m not sold on any of the candidates myself. But the more I listen to Gov. Perry, and the more I read about his actions in Texas, it’s appalling that folks seem to be suckered in by this showboat!
The price doesn’t matter - $5 quickie or $30,000 for whatever! It’s the principle of the thing that matters.
I’m thoroughly fed up with politics to Power, whether Republican or Democrat (Sarah Palin called it “crony capitalism”, which is as good a label as any).
Things have gotten to the point in this nation where it matters little who is in the White House or has the majority on Capitol Hill. Both parties seem entrenched when it comes to money, favoritism, and giving their paying clients a piece of the federal pie. The only differnce is in the clients.
Ahem.
If you actually took the time to search my previous posts, you would find that I actually still oppose Perry's mandating of the vaccine, even despite all the arguments people have trumped up to suggest that it was OK. One poster on here yesterday even called me a dirty word, "libertarian" (ugh), for thinking that people should be free to decide what goes into their bodies and the bodies of their children.
My post, however, is pointing out that the Palin supporters who want to fling the corruption label at Perry had better watch out, because there's some corruption in Palin's closet, as well.
Yeah, but whaddaya gonna do? Even Sarah Palin is as crony as any of the rest of them.
Sorry for misinterpreting.
You are not mistaken.
I know what he said.
It is as I reported it, in summation.
Obviously you are as biased as any source might be, therefore you don’t need a biased source. Your summation was just flat out wrong and a total distortion of his point.
Good. He won’t be getting your vote. I wouldn’t want it if I were Rick Perry. I would be proud not to get it.
In addition, just so you know, I don’t come on here to get Rick Perry votes. I come on here to speak truth.
The rest of it is up to the individual, and you have certainly painted yourself.
Why is it that if it were "Little Boys' Lives" that were at issue, 90% of the interest level would not exist?
Your tale of Sarah Palin in Wasilla is a knee slapper; I can tell you’ve never lived in a really small rural town.
I lived in a small town in Oregon - all 8,000 of us. Everyone was related to everyone else, mainly because so many married young then divorced and remarried within the small town for the second time.
We moved into this little town from southern California. Twenty years later we were still referred to as “outsiders”.
It may be that in Wasilla there wasn’t really anyone else qualified to whom to award the jobs! Whereas in Texas, well, statewide there are literally millions of people.
Sorry, sweetie, but your prejudice is showing. Don’t like Sarah much, hmm? She isn’t running, you know; so why mention her?
Which shows your priorities.
You prioritize border security over the economy, job growth, runaway deficits, an overreaching unconstitutional government, Obamacare, etc, etc, etc.
And any candidate that is strong in the latter but not the former is not your cup of tea.
I guess my question is... just how conservative are you really, if the end all and be all for you is *JUST* immigration.
But let Rush Limbaugh “hit Perry where it helps:” (what an imbecilic article and even more benighted author)
“If you look at him (Perry) as governor of Texas he's been fully willing to use the power of state government to advance his beliefs. When it comes to the federal government he wants no part of them. I don't know how he would be when he ends up there if he ends up as president.”
-nobody knows el Rushbo and that makes him dangerous--this unknown along with his recalcitrant and anti American disrespect for the rule of law as it applies to the illegal alien invaders makes him just another status quo politician like Romney.
Sans Sarah,Michelle Bachman and Herman Cain are the only two REAL conservative candidates who can,in spite of desperate Leftist and RINO lies, not only whoop Obama’s butt but also restore our nation to Reagan sanity.
I think Perry learned his lesson during the TTC fiasco.
I wonder how President Eisenhower ever got the total US to agree to an Interstate System. After all it cross rural lands, took peoples acreage, made them go miles to cross over, etc. I suspect in today’s environment he’d been told to stuff it as we aren’t going to take land and build roads. Who’s making the plans for our transportation needs out say 50 years? No one that I know of and if it isn’t started soon this nation’s transportation system will be in total gridlock, imo.
Incorrect.
Perry heard the voice of the people, loud and clear, after he mistakenly believed he was doing something the people would appreciate, or else he would not have done it and suffered the embarrassment of their rebuff.
Upon clearly hearing that voice, he stopped and backed up.
Obama goes full bore and never cares what the people think and never stops, and takes delight in and brags about doing things the people hate.
To say they are the same is indefensible.
Bless you my child, for you are fogiven. Do doo do do dooooooo.
The executive order was issued in 2007 he has stood for election twice since then. Most of us in Texas have moved on, he admitted he was wrong I for one don’t see it as a deal breaker!!!
Opt outs are very common, across the board in schools. For all sorts of things.
Your use of the word “force” is misplaced. That’s the whole point, it wasn’t forced. It was a mandated program, that is, the program was to be implemented by law, which included the right of parents to opt out. Otherwise, it would be given.
Then, the entire thing was dropped before it happened.
Voice of the people.
Gov. Rick Perry is as sick and tired as most of us here in Texas that the Federal government CONSTANTLY tells the states HOW TO MOP UP after FEDERAL laws, unfunded mandates and unenforced laws IMPACT us!
He's pushing back. He's telling the Feds YOU F#VK@D this UP -- you FIX it.
Here in Texas we're suffering the personal and monetary impact of all this.
Perry's telling the EPA the same thing and they're making Texas pay -- rolling blackouts, lost jobs, shut down coal mines and coal-fired boilers..... Perry refuses to deal or cooperate with the EPA-Obama beat-down. He will not go along to get along -- because it never ends.
Where do you live?
I have said in the past month that Gov. Perry has been elected many times by Texans, that they seem pleased if not satisfied with his performance as Governor of Texas and that is all well and good for ya’ll.
That doesn’t equate with being satisfactory to the rest of us as President of the United States.
My standards are higher.
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