posted February 23, 2010 12:59 AM         

Mon Feb 22, 2:34 pm ET

Last month, President Obama scolded Republicans in Congress for playing both sides when it came to last year's economic stimulus plan. Addressing a group of House Republicans at a retreat in Baltimore, the president accused many in the group of outright hypocrisy, saying, "A lot of you have gone to appear at ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against." Many Obama supporters have levied similar criticisms, and now at least one prominent Republican politician is joining in on the chorus: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Schwarzenegger praised the "terrific" effect of the influx of federal dollars into his financially troubled state, and chided Republicans who've tried to play both sides of the fence.

"I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn't create any new jobs," he said. "And then they go out and they do the photo ops and they are posing with the big check and they say, 'isn't this great?'"

Schwarzenegger went on to note that the plan's boost to his state compelled him to be "the first governor of the Republican governors to come out and to support the stimulus money," adding that "anyone that says that it hasn't created the jobs, they should talk to the 150,000 people that have been getting jobs in California."

Schwarzenegger's comments echo not only President Obama's criticism of Republicans in Congress, but also the criticism of others on the left and the right who have voiced their frustrations recently over what Politico has termed as the GOP's "cash-and-trash" strategy. One such critic, liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, has devoted considerable airtime to exposing the politicians who railed against the plan, only to later attempt to take credit, back in their home districts, for the projects funded by the stimulus money. Saying that the actions of these Republicans highlighted what she termed the "myth of bi-partisanship," Maddow encouraged the president, Democrats, and Congress to shun working with the opposition party in any way going forward.

"Grow up, Democrats. Face the music. Do it alone. You're the majority," she said.

When contacted by Yahoo! News for a comment on the various hypocrisy charges being levied against Republicans in regard to last year's stimulus package, House Minority Leader John Boehner's spokesperson Michael Steel offered a one-sentence response: "Are all the Democrats who railed against the Bush tax cuts planning to give their tax cut money back?"

Meanwhile, one of Schwarzenegger's fellow Republican governors, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, acknowledged over the weekend that his state has benefited from the stimulus money, though he didn't think the money was appropriated wisely.

"State government has benefited by the stimulus package, because it's poured in billions of dollars," Barbour told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. "The problem is we need private-sector jobs."

Barbour added that he believes the plan "could have created twice as many jobs with half as much money." Going forward, he advocated doing "something that helps small business," such as a payroll-tax "holiday" as a preferred mechanism to stimulate job growth.

The Senate is set to vote on a jobs bill this week, one that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said his party "may well" vote for as long as it contains some concessions they're lobbying for.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1150

posted February 23, 2010 01:53 PM         

so he may turn out to be the poster boy for the turnaround of the republican party to something a little more reasonable than we have seen in the last decade!!

"Some things are actually getting done in Washington. And you know what that means—some Republicans must not be doing their job of seeing to it that nothing gets done. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. Five Senate Republicans failed in their GOP duty to say “no” at all times, and voted with Democrats to end a filibuster of a jobs bill. Before we get too celebratory, consider that phrase—“a filibuster of a jobs bill”(!) How bad are things when the fact that five Republicans didn’t choose to filibuster against jobs is considered good news? “Things are getting better—a number of Republicans that you can count on one hand are not actively trying to prevent Americans from getting jobs!” Let’s put this in perspective—it basically means that five Republicans aren’t completely crazy… or entirely evil. On the other hand, it also means that the vast majority of the Republican caucus was still trying to stop a jobs bill. They were willing to devote their jobs to making sure that nobody else got a job—as long as it hurts the reelection prospects of the Democrats and President Obama. To Republicans, the American people are just collateral damage in the Republicans’ war against Barack Obama. Incidentally, one of the Republicans who helped Democrats break the filibuster of the jobs bill was none other than Scott Brown, the darling of the hardcore conservatives. Wow, it turns out that Scott Brown has more sense than the lunatics who proclaimed him to be the Second Coming of Conservatism. This is bad news for any tea partiers who already went out and got a Scott Brown tattoo." (randi rhodes)

posted February 24, 2010 08:00 AM         

In Arnold's case he is ineligible for reelection as Gov in Nov. I have no idea what his plans are, but this is not the first time that he has gone against party politics, nor the first time that he has been supportive of the Obama WH.

~AG and Kat~ resident Californios---Off topic-- but what are your thoughts on that race? There is certainly a cast of interesting characters [even by CA standards]

Blast from the past Jerry Brown
The ebay Diva
Chelene Nightingale [I] bio is movie ready material.
And sat-nav savy Steve Poizner is no slouch

posted February 24, 2010 01:21 PM         

the others, not sure yet.

yes i have to agree with jwhop that arnold is one of those "RINOs" he goes on about. i mean, he is married to democratic royalty so i guess he might as well be that oxymoron, a republican who doesn't toe the party line...but he is not really a democrat either, is he? i wonder what he has in mind as a next step? at least he did not quit when the going got rough!