Texas 'going full speed ahead' on implementing health care reform

Is Perry fed up with secessionism?
A few weeks ago, the Texas governor was
begging for a bailout from feds.
 

So Rick Perry has gone from being full-throated defender of Texas' right to secede to this:

Meanwhile, despite Mr. Perry’s stated opposition to a federally-mandated health insurance exchange and the state’s participation in lawsuits aimed at overturning federal health reform, officials at the Texas Department of Insurance acknowledge that since last fall, with the help of a $1 million grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, they have been working quietly to plan for a health insurance exchange.

“We’ve been going full speed ahead on implementation, doing the due diligence so that we can be on time with what the law says,” said John Greeley, a spokesman for the agency.

Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry, said the governor is aware of the grant, which she said is exploratory and does not require Texas to set up an exchange. While Mr. Perry prefers local solutions to Texas’ health care problems, Ms. Nashed said the governor remains hopeful the courts will overturn the federal health law. “The governor’s firm belief that Texans should be in charge of our health care programs is unchanged,” she said.

To be fair to Perry, it's not like he's suddenly become an advocate for health care reform—he still supports denying insurance to tens of millions of Americans while offering overly-expensive coverage to everybody else. So this isn't so much a flip-flop as it is an example of trying to have it both ways. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out if the reports that Perry will become a 2012er prove to be accurate.