Two Prize-winning Sagas

If you had solar cells or human papillomavirus in the “next big story” pool, please claim your prize.

That's because President Obama and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the Republican presidential front-runner, are starring in different acts of the same play - “The Misuse of Executive Power and Taxpayer Money with Very Good Intentions.”

Not catchy, I admit. But “Cats” was taken.

Obama's White House put the rush on $535 million in federal loan guarantees for solar cell maker Solyndra, hands-down the best shady sounding corporate moniker since Enron. All the president's men and women were eager for a big green jobs stimulus win with this Democrat-connected firm. But now, Solyndra is belly up. Americans want to know why, exactly, the president was so eager to throw our money down a renewable rat hole, despite warnings.

Perry signed a sweeping executive order in 2007 mandating that middle school girls be vaccinated against HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer. Perry fired off his surprise edict after getting plenty of input from vaccine maker Merck, and its lobbyist, his former chief of staff. Merck's PAC has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Perry's campaigns and to the Republican Governors Association, which also gave heavily to Perry.

Now, GOP primary voters want to know why this rock-ribbed conservative would unilaterally unleash such a potent big government mandate. They fear the answer is cash-fed cronyism, for which there is no known vaccine.

Good intentions all around. The president wants America's struggling solar energy industry to keep up with heavily subsidized competitors abroad. Perry wanted to save women from cancer, although now he says the order, which was nullified by Texas lawmakers before it took effect, was a mistake.

These sagas hit two of my own hot buttons - the overuse of executive orders and my growing disappointment with spendy government economic development drives.

Obama blew it, just like government does so many times when it throws public money at private companies promising a big payback. Much too often, that payday never materializes. How many more humbled presidents and governors have to stand in front of us to explain these failures before we try something new? And with big-bucks corporate political activity growing, the line between public investment and bribery is getting wafer thin.

Perry prescribed the correct treatment, but used the wrong, blunt instrument.

Yes, getting legislation passed the old fashioned way is messy, tough business. But we expect approval of government actions that affect thousands, even millions, of lives to be tough and messy. And the idea that such broad actions can be taken with a few strokes of one person's narrow pen should make us very uncomfortable. In Iowa, lawmakers took the reasonable path of requiring state-regulated insurance to cover HPV shots.

The executive order is being overused and abused at the state and national level. I understand many legislative bodies are dysfunctional, and that executives want to get things done. But orders such as the one Perry signed go too far.

But what makes it tough to criticize Obama and Perry is, well, their critics.

The misinformed menagerie assailing Perry's order includes members of the righteous right who basically believe vaccinating kids against HPV will somehow make them sex fiends. His GOP rival, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, went on national TV to raise the outlandish specter of the vaccine somehow causing mental retardation. That claim was wild enough to draw a strong rebuke from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical professionals.

Some of Obama's critics look at a potentially scandalous loan and somehow see clear evidence that alternative energy investment is a failed folly that should be boiled in crude oil. Funny, considering these are the same people who apparently can't see majestic mountains of scientific evidence pointing to climate change and the need to embrace the economic opportunities of a future less dependent on oil from war zones.

Meanwhile, we're stuck with misguided, mistake-prone leadership, dishonest debates and poisoned politics. If you had “endless gridlock” in the future pool, please claim your prize.