In a short tag to a column about the growing momentum for a presidental bid by Fred Thompson, Chron columnist Clay Robison agrees with President Bush that money trumps all in politics.

If, as expected, the House accepts Senate changes to a transportation measure this week, Gov. Rick Perry will receive a bill imposing a two-year moratorium on private toll roads, his second slap in as many weeks from his Republican colleagues in the Legislature.

The first was the passage of legislation to rescind his legally questionable order for schoolgirls to be vaccinated against the HPV virus, which has been linked to cervical cancer.

Perry’s veto of either bill would set up the first veto override confrontation between a governor and the Legislature since 1979, when the governor, Bill Clements, was a Republican and the Legislature was still dominated by Democrats.

Predicting what Perry may do is dicey, but I think he is more likely to veto the toll road moratorium and let the HPV setback become law without his signature. In the latter case, he can at least argue that he has focused public attention on an important health issue.

An HPV veto is almost sure to be overridden without much help being offered to the governor, while the business community, including some heavy political contributors, may help Perry lobby lawmakers against overriding a toll road veto. Blocking an override of either bill will be difficult, since both had overwhelming legislative approval.

It will be interesting to see what Perry does. If he does as Robison suggests that he will, it will be even clearer that his motivation behind the HPV bill was driven by money, not the compassion that he spoke about in his state of the State address.