Ordinary Folks Pay the Price for Political Ambition

Comes news today that the never-ending source of blogging material, Sarah Palin, is going to turn down $160 million in stimulus money the would have gone to education and other aid directly to Alaskans in need. She’s refusing the money because, she says, the State of Alaska won’t be able to continue those programs after the federal dollars run out.

There is a firestorm of negative reaction coming from all across her state, but the Acting Mayor of Anchorage, Matt Claman, got things in perspective with a great comment. He says Palin’s action was like “turning down a gift card because it expires in two years.”

It should also be noted that Palin is the third Republican governor to decline stimulus money. The others are Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Mark Sanford of South Carolina. All three have been mentioned as potential Republican opponents for Barack Obama in 2012. My, my ... what a shocking coincidence!

Clearly, all three think the best way to the nomination is by pandering to the hard-core lolos* on the far right that now make up most of the shrinking Republican base. Trouble is, the people whose lives would be improved, or perhaps even saved, by these funds will be picking up the tab.

* lolo (Hawaiian): idiot, loony, crazy person

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Can this be the best the GOP has to offer??

I don’t want to always be picking on Sarah Palin or Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, but they keep on giving me such great material!

You will recall Jindal’s embarrassing rebuttal to President Obama’s speech to the joint session of Congress. Quite apart from the shameless self-promotion and the worn-out fallback to gummint-is-the-problem ideology, he also mocked some of the projects included in Obama’s stimulus package.

The legislation, he said, “is larded with wasteful spending … such as a magnetic levitation [rail] line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called volcano monitoring.”

Well, yeah, there’s money in the bill for rail – and their damn well should be! – but no specific mention of a Los Angeles-Las Vegas route. But here's the punchline: four days after Jindal mocked money for rail, his own Department of Transportation put in a request for some of that filthy lucre!

And, Bobby … here’s a photo taken from my front yard. See that mountain back there? That’s a freakin’ volcano! The experts say it isn’t active, but you can bet yer butt that I’m in favor of a few bucks being spent for them to keep an eye on it. Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet that people living near Mount Saint Helen’s would agree.

“Hello, Bobby? It’s Your Lucky Day!”

The circus played our town one day,
Three Bengal tigers got away.
The manager looked straight at me
And said, “Son, here’s your opportunity!
‘Cause the man who catches these cats
And brings ‘em back to me alive,
A real hero is gonna be.
Oh, it’s a wonderful chance for somebody,
Somebody else … not me!”

I thought about that little ditty the other day when the Republicans trotted out poor Bobby Jindal to offer a response to Barack Obama’s powerful address to the joint session of Congress.

Can’t you just see those Republican big shots sitting around trying to figure out who they could send up against this intelligent, confident, articulate and charismatic young president and tell a worried nation that the GOP is better able to get us out of the mess they got us into?

“Hey, how about Bobby Jindal?” says one. “He’s young ... and he’s even kinda dark, too!”

“Yeah,” says another, “and he can use the exposure!”

It’s astonishing that the little sap actually went for it.

And anyone that dumb sure as hell ain’t qualified to be president.

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