Hypocrite...Opportunist

Ah, Sarah Palin....what more can we say about the Governor of the great state of Alaska and the former Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican party that hasn't already said before (the fundamental problem with the G.O.P., but that's for another time...) ?

We can now use the term 'incredible hypocrite,' but I'll get to that in a minute. For now, Mrs. Palin is one of the three Republican governors who have openly refused President Obama's stimulus money (Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina). From the Governor's website:

Governor Sarah Palin submitted her federal economic stimulus appropriation bill to legislators today to provide jobs and needed infrastructure improvements in Alaska under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Governor Palin is accepting just 55 percent of the available stimulus funds, all for capital projects. This amount includes the funds the state accepted last month for Department of Transportation projects.

"We will request federal stimulus funds for capital projects that will create new jobs and expand the economy," Governor Palin said. “We won’t be bound by federal strings in exchange for dollars, nor will we dig ourselves a deeper hole in two years when these federal funds are gone. For instance, in order to accept what look like attractive energy funds, our local communities would be required to adopt uniform building codes. Government would then be required to police those codes. These types of funds are not sensible for Alaska.”

The state of Alaska would be receiving $930.7 million of the stimulus money, Governor Palin isn't taking $288.1 million of it, according to a report from the Anchorage Daily News.

The biggest single chunk of money that Palin is turning down is about $170 million for education, including money that would go for programs to help economically disadvantaged and special needs students*. Anchorage School Superintendent Carol Comeau said she is "shocked and very disappointed" that Palin would reject the schools money. She said it could be used for job preservation, teacher training, and helping kids who need it. (*emphasis added)

Now, going back to using the term 'incredible hypocrite:' that same day, she criticizes Obama's joke about the Special Olympics last night on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno...while refusing to take stimulus money that would go to help special needs students. And here's the second part on Gov. Palin's blatant hypocritical stance: her fifth child, Trig, was born with Down Syndrome. At the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, then Vice-Presidential nominee Palin boasted that families with children with Down Syndrome would have a friend in the White House if elected.

Wasn't there some passage in the Bible about casting stones if you are without sin or something like that?

The sad part in all of this is the fundamental reason why she's rejecting the money to begin with: to please the shrinking right-wing base of the G.O.P. so she can improve her credentials for the 2012 Republican primaries. And if you don't think that Palin -- along with Sanford and Perry -- aren't rejection almost 30% of the money parley out of principle, then I have this lovely "Bridge to Nowhere" (that the Gov. of Alaska was in favor of until she was selected as the Republican running mate, the bragged how she said "thanks, but no thanks, to that bridge to nowhere.") I want to show ya....