Kevin Drum on Rick Perry's "$5000"

I found this amusing. Remember when Rick Perry said he couldn't be bought for $5000? Well, it turns out it was a lot more than that.

But wait! I didn't have the whole story. It turns out it was more like $30,000

And wait again! Over the past five years, it turns out that Merck gave over $350,000 to the Republican Governors Association, a period in which Perry was heavily involved with the group, and the RGA in turn gave $4 million to Rick Perry.

And wait some more! Merck's lobbyist on the vaccine issue was Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. Toomey recently co-founded a super PAC that plans to raise over $50 million for Perry's campaign.

So we go from $5000 to $30000 to $350000 to... several million. Well, at least he values his efforts.