The business of politics being what it is, there’s no surprise to the hypocrisy we see in the ordinary course of things these days.  Take, for example, the recently passed stimulus legislation that President Barack Obama is signing into law today.

But for three of its senators, the Republican party has bashed the President mightily and claiming the bill would make matters worse and was anything but a stimulus package.  Pointing their fingers at various sections they labeled as pure pork, these senators cried partisan and painted the Democrats as evil and thinking only of themselves.  The ordinary tax payer would suffer, and it might be better to do nothing than to implement these programs.

Only time is going to tell us whether either side was right, and it might be the 2010 mid term elections before we know anything for certain.  However, time being what it is in politics, and expecting voters to have such short memories, some Republicans are rolling out their second face already.

Witness Florida Senator John Mica.  In a press release issued after passage of the stimulus package, Senator Mica praised the inclusion of high speed rail service assistance in the bill.  Yet, earlier, he had taken the company Republican line and trashed the legislation as nothing more than wasteful deficit spending on the Democrat’s favorite government programs.

Witness also Alaska Senator Don Young, another Republican with long legs.  He straddled both sides of the issue in his press release taking credit for working with his colleagues across the aisle for the exclusion of provisions that would have made it difficult for some Alaska small businesses.  He identified the need to help the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners, and hailed his own involvement in the legislation.

Senator Young failed to mention in his press release, though, that he had voted against the stimulus package.  Other Republicans defended both Young and Mica, stating that supporting provisions in a bill they were voting against was not an inconsistent position, making those legs very, very long.  Sort of like voting for something before they voted against it, or some such thing.

We keep electing people to public office who treat us as ignorant, gullible fools, which is sort of like an endless loop that keeps circling around itself.  We are ignorant, gullible fools who fall for these instances of bald-faced hypocrisy, and thus keep electing them so they can fool us again.

One definition of insanity is endlessly repeating the same action but expecting a different outcome each time.  Shame on our public officials, but greater shame on us for keeping them in office.

It also calls into question the true motives of the Republican opposition, and just how substantive and principled it really was, or wasn’t, as the case may be.  It should be no surprise to anyone that the “loyal opposition” would want to rub the President’s nose in it with his first major initiative, embarrass him out of the box, let him know that wanting to be President and being President were two different things.

How else to explain the claim of being responsible for the good that will come to their states from the stimulus bill while at the same time voting against it?  It’s simply politics, and all of us pay a dear and horrific price for it these days.