July 14, 2010 05:38 PM UTC

McInnis' Stimulus Hypocrisy Exposed

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• by: Colorado Pols

It seems less significant in light of the career-ending nightmare faced today by GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis, but loose ends are loose ends–a few weeks ago, we mentioned a 2008 article in the Durango Herald, just after the ’08 election, where McInnis, “the nation’s biggest ‘Tea Party’ candidate, strongly advocates for newly-elected President Barack Obama to pass a “massive stimulus package.”

Since McInnis now characterizes the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as one of the principal evils of the Obama presidency driving him into the arms of quasi-secessionist Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, this has emerged as a bit of an unresolved inconsistency. The Durango Herald’s Joe Hanel wasn’t prepared to just let it go:

McInnis called the stimulus money a “crack high.”

“We’re on it, and that’s what it is – a sugar high or a crack high,” he said.

However, in a 2008 speech to the Farm Bureau in Ignacio, he touted the need for Congress to pass a stimulus bill, comparing the U.S. economy to a critically ill patient.

“The patient isn’t going to get up off the bed and walk out of the hospital, but it will keep the patient alive while in the meantime we’re hoping consumer confidence will go up,” he said at the time.

Sean Duffy, McInnis’ spokesman, said he was recommending one of the GOP stimulus plans, not the bill that ultimately passed Congress. [Pols emphasis]

Ahh, now we get it. McInnis must have been talking about a stimulus bill that was 40% comprised of tax cuts and dramatically pared down from what Democrats originally wanted.

Oh wait, that’s “the bill that ultimately passed Congress!” Never mind.

Like we said at the beginning, McInnis probably wishes at this point that a 180-degree flip-flop on ARRA was the worst thing he was dealing with–it’s bad news for him politically, but compared to the plagiarism scandal? McInnis definitely doesn’t need this kind of hypocritical revelation going into a GOP primary, but he doesn’t get the luxury of thinking that far ahead today.