For weeks now, star GOP governors like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal have railed against the stimulus and raised doubts about whether they'd take all the money. Savvy political observers have patiently smiled, aware that the gov's have everything to gain and nothing to lose by their political defiance.
Until now.
Glenn Thrush:
A devilishly clever last-minute insert to the House version of the stimulus bill has made it through the conference report -- a requirement that governors spend their stimulus allocations within 45 days.
The provision isn't likely to have a real-world impact, but it forces Republican governors who opposed the stimulus (e.g. South Carolina's Mark Sanford) and many other GOP governors who sat on the fence for fear of bucking their party -- to publicly accept or decline the aid.
And when they do accept it -- and it's hard to see a scenario where they wouldn't given their deficits -- Democrats get to call them craven or hypocritical or both.
Live by political calculations, die by political calculations.
