More GOP Stimulus Posturing

Ezra Klein of The American Prospect comments on the refusal of Republican governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Mark Sanford of South Carolina to accept small portions of the stimulus package awarded to their states.

Jindal and Sanford, of course, are running for president. But this is a very particular theory of the Republican primaries. They don't expect to be judged on whether they're successful governors. They expect to be judged on ideological purity. And the point they're making is that when the two conflict, they will side with ideology. The fact that rejecting the funds is obviously bad for the state is also why it's such a good political move: It shows they are ideologues rather than pragmatists. When you're dealing with a party that still thinks tax cuts raise revenues, that's an important point to prove.

If Klein is correct then the 2012 GOP primaries will be a replay of those of 2008 which saw a fierce struggle among candidates to out-pander each other with the shrinking right-wing base. The Republican debates prompted comparisons to the old Saturday Night Live skit "Quien es mas macho de todos?"

--Ballard Burgher