Turns out that Rick Perry got $5,000 on the same day last October that his chief of staff met with his aides to discuss Merck’s Gardasil vaccine, according to a report by the Associated Press.

It’s not news that Perry received money from the drugmaker for his re-election campaign. But the timing certainly doesn’t look good. Sure, Perry says he issued his Feb. 2 executive order mandating pre-teen girls receive Merck’s HPV vaccine because “in his heart” he knew it was the right thing to do. But his pocket must have been tingling just a wee bit, too.

A Perry spokesman called the AP story “baseless accusations,” and tried to dismiss the connect-the-dots game being played: Perry’s chief of staff also met with his former chief of staff, who now lobbies for Merck, three times in the months before the Feb. 2 executive order.

Let’s be real, though. The five grand is nothing compared with what Merck and other drugmakers shell out on doctors - tickets, lunches, pens, tsotchkes and junkets. Let’s face it, doctors are much more expensive than politicians, as John Mack at Pharma Marketing points out. All those goodies can add up to twice what Perry got, at least if you’re a specialist.

So there’s a lesson for all politicians: next time a drugmaker comes knocking with a fistful of cash and chats about something controversial, hold out for more. And don’t forget to demand those tickets to the hot baseball game or concert, too.

[tags]Gardasil, HPV, Lobbying, Merck[/tags]