rick perry
Texas Governor Rick Perry

The more Texas Gov. Rick Perry tries to defend his decision to sign an executive order in 2007 mandating that all young girls in Texas receive vaccinations against the human papillomavirus (HPV) before being admitted to school, the more he exposes himself as a lying scoundrel that is unfit to govern his own state, let alone lead a nation.

During the recent Republican presidential debate in Orlando, Fla., Perry tried once again to defend his infamous Gardasil blunder, this time by telling the heart-tugging story of a woman he met and got to know who had cervical cancer. He told the audience and viewers Thursday night that the reason he signed the executive order was because the woman lobbied him to do so.

"I got lobbied on this issue," said a calm and composed Perry. "I got lobbied by a 31 year old young lady who had stage-four cervical cancer. I spent a lot of time with her. She came by my office. She talked to me about this program. I readily admitted we should have had an opt-in (for the mandate) but I don't know what part of opt out most parents don't get. The fact is I was on the side of life and I will always be on the side of life as a governor and as president of the United States."

A charming and sweet story, really -- except for the fact that it is not true. According to ABC News, Perry signed the vaccine executive order before he met the young woman, not after, as he claims. The woman did, according to reports, lobby in favor of upholding the executive order after it had been signed (which the legislature eventually overturned), but she did not play a role in Perry's original signing of it.

Unlike the petty issues that typically bog down the presidential campaigning process, Perry's Gardasil scandal is gravely serious and needs to be exposed. After all, the vaccine that he pushed is implicated in causing thousands of serious and permanent injuries, and potentially hundreds of known deaths, which is a far cry from his empty rhetoric about "being on the side of life".

Perry was truthful about one thing, though. He was lobbied to sign his executive order. But this lobbying appears to have come from Merck & Co., the manufacturer of Gardasil, not a heart-wrenching victim of cervical cancer.