The Maddow Sting

In my view....

There's nothing hypocritical or wrong in any way with a Member of Congress saying that government should not spend money, but trying to get as much of it for his or her district after its been approved. 

On the other hand, it is massively hypocritical for a Member of Congress to say that a bill would not create a single job while, at the same time, lobbying for projects from that bill to be placed in his or her district on the basis of all the jobs it will bring. 

I'm not a big one for objecting to hypocrisy in politicians, but that's a pretty extreme version of it.  It's pretty clear that such Members are deliberately lying to someone.

Oh, and I just saw Eric Cantor's spokesperson quoted on CNN (sorry, no link, will update if I see one) saying something to the effect of that a Member can't be expected to vote for a bill if he supports 1% and opposes 99% of the bill.  I think that means that while Cantor admits to supporting high speed rail, he opposes tax cuts (and unemployment benefits extensions, and expanded COBRA, and did I mention tax cuts?)  Good to know!  Perhaps he's almost telling the truth again.

(Gotta be fair...the quote was phrased a general proposition, not a claim that Cantor actually opposed 99% of the stimulus.  Nice spinning!  Doesn't get him off the hook on the jobs created thing, though).