The tale of the (now cancelled) free flu shots at some Houston polling locations, is a bit strange:
Voting is good. Flu shots are good. But mix them together in the middle of a hard-fought election season and politics takes over.
Mayor Bill White ordered a halt Wednesday to the city health department’s privately funded drive to offer flu vaccinations at early voting sites in predominantly Hispanic and black neighborhoods, amid conservative criticism that the effort would boost Democratic turnout.
[snip]
White’s decision followed two days of criticism from some conservative bloggers and talk radio shows hosts after officials announced the program Monday. At least 20 other municipalities have launched the same initiative in several states, city officials said.
Local Republicans, who had scheduled an afternoon news conference on the vaccination issue before the mayor’s announcement, accused White of deliberately selecting early voting sites in Democratic strongholds in an attempt to gin up votes favorable to city propositions on Tuesday’s ballot.
“I think the program was completely motivated by a plan to turn out Democratic voters,” said Harris County Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill.
Ummm….. let’s hang on one sec there, hoss. Here’s a blogger who’s been poking around inside the story a bit further:
Checking on political contributions from Amerigroup, the top brass of the company seem to be heavily Republican.
[snip]
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s folks have donated heavily to the Democrats.
Seixon’s post leads me to think that those flu shots might have been *gasp* bi-partisan.
Scary.
Let’s not confuse people — red or blue — with the facts, though. Right about now, people really need more monsters under the bed to worry about.
Update: Okay… I admit it… I really do think the Republicans come out looking a bit dopey on this one.