Editorial: 'Hypocritical' is right word for lawmakers
No amount of obfuscation can shield four Republicans in Georgia's congressional delegation from the crystalline correctness of state Democratic Party chair Jane Kidd's assertion that they are hypocrites.
Kidd's spot-on observation came as two members of the delegation were caught claiming public credit for getting part of the $787 billion stimulus package - an initiative of the Democratic Obama administration they vociferously opposed - in their districts.
According to a Sunday report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rep. Phil Gingrey appeared recently in a front-page Cedartown Standard photograph with Cedartown officials, holding an oversize check announcing the city's receipt of $625,000 in stimulus funds for streetscape improvements.
In late July, according to the Atlanta newspaper, Rep. Jack Kingston - who represents Coastal Georgia in Congress but, as an Athens native, also works on behalf of this part of the state in Washington - issued a news release touting a $245,187 outlay to cover three years of salary and benefits for one police officer in each of two city police departments in his district.
Two other Republican members of the state's delegation had even higher hopes for the stimulus program. According to an Associated Press story earlier this year, Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson - both who voted against the stimulus package - subsequently went to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with a request that he "steer $50 million in stimulus money to a constituent's bioenergy project." The AP story goes on to note that Gates didn't honor the request.
It's instructive here to consider just exactly how opposed the four lawmakers were to the stimulus program. The Atlanta newspaper's story noted that prior to voting against the package, Gingrey said, "I don't know how our children and grandchildren will ever pay for this. And the chance of it being successful are slim and none in my opinion."
About the same time, Kingston was saying the stimulus program was "fundamentally flawed and doesn't represent ... the stimulus we need," the Journal-Constitution story recalled.
Chambliss and Isakson were similarly dismissive. Chambliss issued a news release calling the stimulus "a b
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