Follow the Money

Last night I suggested that Texas Governor Rick Perry's mandate of the HPV vaccine for young girls might have something to do with his former chief of staff being Merck's lobbyist.

It transpires that the governor's current chief of staff met with "key aides" about the vaccine mandate on the very same day Merck donated $5000 to Governor Perry and $5000 apiece to eight other Texas Republicans.

A Perry spokesman brushed this off as "coincidence." He also charged "The Associated Press has tried to create a conspiracy where none exists, and they have offered not one shred of evidence to their baseless accusations that the governor's office has done anything wrong."

Okaaaay.

Frankly I'm not buying it. It's all just a little too cozy, including at least three meetings between Perry's current chief of staff and her predecessor, who is now Merck's lobbyist.

A House health committee in the Texas state legislature has voted to reverse Governor Perry's order. The reversal is expected to be passed by the entire House.