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Mary Fallin apparently takes orders from Rick Perry…

10:37 AM EST on November 5, 2015

mary-fallin-sesame-street

Abby Cadabby and Rosita are not the only puppets in that image.

Yesterday, The Dallas Morning News and Tulsa Frontier exposed that former Texas Governor Rick Perry buddied up with Mary Fallin to "influence" an Oklahoma medical board's decision on how to discipline a GOP-connected Tulsa spinal surgeon who apparently killed and injured several patients on the operating table.

Wow. That was a long sentence.

Normally, this is the part of the post where I insert a snippet from the report, but it's like 2-million words long and that would be impossible. Instead, let's check out the always reliable Pat's Notes for a summary:

- In 2013, Oklahoma's Medical Board met to suspend the license of a shitty surgeon who was "allegedly" injuring and killing his patients. His name is Dr. Steven Anagnost. In the article, he comes across as a major league douche bag.

- Dr. Anagnost was a contributor to Rick Perry's presidential campaign and had connections to the Texas governor.

- During the Medical Board investigation, Rick Perry called Mary Fallin and said the whole situation was a tragedy and it needed to be quickly "resolved."

- Mary Fallin had a crony tell the Medical Board that she didn't want any more phone calls from Rick Perry and to settle this issue.

- Yada yada yada, blah blah blah, Dr. Anagnost did not admit to a crime, didn't lose his license and only paid a $10,000 fine. He also agreed to take additional training on how not to negligently injure and kill people.

Once again, that's just the Pat's Notes version of the story. There are other interesting parts that involve leaked memos, supreme court decisions and political donors from Tennessee. If you have a couple of hours free, I'd suggest you read it.

Here are a few additional notes and observations...

• Once again, Mary Fallin continues to embarrass the Oklahoma people...

I can deal with politicians using power and influence to meddle with the internal affairs of the medical community. It happens all the time, but seeing the Governor of Oklahoma take orders from a doofus like Rick Perry is embarrassing and an outrage. She should be impeached, or at least forced to live in the Governor's Mansion trailer for a few weeks.

Then again, Rick Perry and Mary Fallin are like the Harry and Lloyd of southern GOP politicians. We shouldn't be all that surprised they work well together. Rick Perry doesn't know the three government agencies he'd eliminate as President. Mary doesn't know the three branches of government or Capitol Medical Center zoning codes. Before you know it, Mary's going to start wearing a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses to make us think she's smart.

• But you really can't blame Mary...

I bet playing this minor league version House of Cards made her feel really cool and powerful, which I think is the only reason she wanted to become Governor. Seriously, what's the fun in being Governor if you can't help a presidential candidate appease some donors in return for a possible cabinet position in their administration?

• As I mentioned, Dr. Anagnos sounds like quite a douche bag...

Check out this snippet:

Anagnost said he’s “not perfect,” but he has denied fault in all of the claims filed against him at the medical board.

Post-surgical injuries and poor patient health contributed to a few bad patient outcomes, he said. And Anagnost launched his own offensive, alleging that the board’s investigation was biased and that several board members had conflicts of interest...

“I know that I’ve never done a perfect job on any patient I’ve worked on … but it’s not fair to look at anybody at a single point in their career,” he said.

You've never done a "perfect" job on a patient? Uhm, then what the fuck are you doing as a spinal surgeon? Call me crazy, but operating on someone's spine should call for perfection.

• State Democrats are now calling for an investigation into the conduct of Mary Fallin and Rick Perry...

That's kind of cute. Oklahoma Democrats have as much power as a cafeteria monitor, so I doubt anything will happen.

• The expose is not mentioned anywhere on The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com...

That's not surprising. I doubt The Oklahoman wants to give any credit to a fledgling investigative website that scooped them on yet another big story. Plus they have friends to protect. They don't want Mary Fallin to look bad. They're probably buying her a pair of glasses as you're reading this.

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