Stim Edition

By now everyone on the connected planet knows the (pick one: stimulus, spending, jobs, recovery, pork) Bill has passed the House and Senate and merely waits a pen stroke away by President Obama from becoming law.  Some interesting reaction and anticipation coming from both parties now on what it all means and where do we go from here.

The Republicans, save three Senators, laid a goose-egg on the Stim bill.  They knew it would pass eventually, so it was a shrewd? gesture.  In one sense, they could rail against it all they wanted, vote now, and leave it sans Republican fingerprints.  This was a fine idea for Utah’s Senator Bob Bennett, who tried to tack on a 50-Billion dollar addition that would have had some impact on Utah’s coal industry and lots of impact on Nuclear energy and the resultant waste it creates. 

You see, Republican Senator Bennett gets considerable support from Energy Solutions, and that rider would have been a nice windfall for Energy Solutions.  Bennett knew the bill was going to pass anyway, so if he snuck it on, he could vote AGAINST stimulus, and get HIS pork added in.  Sneaky bugger.  Of course in his campaign later he could assert righteously he voted against Democratic pork legislation.  What a hypocrite, what a liar! 

Now Republican leader Lindsey Graham is talking about bank Nationalization.   If President Obama mentioned this he would be a communist, Marxist, socialist, liberal. 

Isn’t it amazing how one man’s fiscal conservatism is another’s socialism?  Like welfare for example.  It’s ok to give corporate welfare to top business executives in the form of tax breaks, but try to extend food stamp benefits to the truly poor and you are a pinko-liberal.   

Does anyone else see the double-standard hypocritical posturing of the neo-conservatives or am I alone in this very red State?    If I can point out something stated very clearly on MediaMatters.com, the media is NOT liberal.  It is in fact slanted conservatively:

“On any given day during the current congressional debate over the economic recovery plan, chances are good that Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity will say something false about the administration's or congressional Democrats' efforts to pass a bill. And they do not promote these falsehoods in isolation; they are often promoted concurrently with each other and with Republican members of Congress. President Obama reportedly chastised congressional Republicans for "listen[ing] to Rush Limbaugh," and, as Media Matters for America has pointed out, Limbaugh has also demonstrated a proclivity for listening to -- and parroting -- congressional Republicans. For his part, in consecutive shows on January 30 and February 2, Hannity hosted Sens. Mitch McConnell, Tom Coburn and John McCain on his radio show, and on February 4 he hosted Rep. Mike Pence on Fox News. As a result, Hannity and Limbaugh have created an echo chamber of Republican talking points and misinformation criticizing the economic recovery plan. And given the acknowledgment by some national journalists that they pay attention to Limbaugh and Hannity, it follows that they care what the two are saying about the stimulus -- CNBC anchor Erin Burnett said as much about Limbaugh, touting his op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on that topic as "serious."

I guess the most galling part is that the Republicans, who cling to conservative Christian values and ethics play the dirty game of politics better than anyone.  They play them much better than liberals, who actually live the open mindedness they espouse.