oreo
Gold Member
- Thread starter
- #21
Perry's response was misleading in the extreme, but I don't think it was completely inaccurate. Politicians get lobbied on issues after they make their decisions all the time. One could say the woman "lobbied" Perry and influenced him not to reverse his decision in the face of stiff political opposition. Politifact did rate it "false", but in the text of their explanation they only referred to it as misleading.
I could well believe that Perry was lobbied by pharmaceutical representatives on this issue. There's nothing wrong with a company, eg, providing a presentation describing the benefits and side effects of their drug. I think it is a bit unfair to Perry though to presume without evidence that his decision was the result of lobbying.
Mike Toomey, his former chief of staff, became a lobbyist for Merck. Now, could it be a coincidence that he got his former boss to commit to giving what, 8-10 million girls shots with a drug to which Merck had a patent at the time? Sure. And the sunrise each day is a coincidence as well.
Perry's Merck link in spotlight following vaccine order - politics - msnbc.com
That's a lot of money going to Merck.