Did you know that Governor Perry and his aides were in extensive talks with Merck representatives for monthsbefore announcing their mandate to vaccinate girls in Texas with Gardasil? Here's more on this below:

This e-mail and other documents obtained by the Austin American-Statesman under Texas open records laws reveal new details about how Texas became the first state to require the vaccine that helps prevent cervical cancer. They show that the governor's office had been talking about HPV with drug maker Merck for at least five months and that the same state agency that the governor directed to implement the executive order actually drafted the order. .... Much of the controversy has centered on Merck, which this week suspended efforts to lobby statehouses around the country to mandate the vaccine, Gardasil. The company had been funneling money through an advocacy group, Women in Government. In Texas, some had questioned Perry's Merck ties: Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff, is one of Merck's lobbyists here, and Merck gave $6,000 to Perry's re-election campaign.

And did you know that on the same day the donation was made from Merck to Perry's campaign, that Perry's chief of staff, Deirdre Delisi, met with Merck representatives to discuss Gardasil?

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff met with key aides about the human papillomavirus vaccine the same day its manufacturer donated money to his campaign, documents obtained by The Associated Press show. Chief of staff Deirdre Delisi's calendar shows she met with the governor's budget director and three members of his office for an "HPV Vaccine for Children Briefing" on Oct. 16.

Including the fact that Perry's chief of staff, Delisi, met with Mike Toomey, the Merck lobbyist, three times to discuss the HPV vaccine:

Critics had previously questioned Perry's ties to the company. Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff and Delisi's predecessor, lobbies for the drug company. And the governor accepted a total of $6,000 from Merck during his re-election campaign, including $1,000 in December 2005. According to Delisi's calendar, she met with Toomey three times in the six months before the order was issued. One meeting happened in August, on the same day two other Perry staffers met with a different Merck lobbyist for a "Merck HPV Vaccine update." The other meetings came just after the November election and just before the legislative session began in January.

This stunk to high heaven, and even conservatives couldn't help but comment on the timing of the donation and the meeting with Merck representatives, and they didn't accept the denial from Perry's press flack either:

Cathie Adams, president of the conservative Texas Eagle Forum, said Black's explanation of the timing of the campaign contribution didn't wash.



"We have too many coincidences," she said. "I think that the voters of Texas would find that very hard to swallow."

And guess what? Mike Toomey was recently involved with the scandal involving the Green Pary's petition to get onto the ballot here in Texas, and he may be hiding out on his own private island that is co-owned by Perry's political strategist, to avoid being served with a subpoena by the sheriff's office here in Austin.

These certainly are the kind of ties that bind Perry and Toomey together in the wake of the HPV vaccine scandal....

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