Republican Motto: Do as I say, not as I do.

Hypocrite: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

Exhibit One: GOP Frontrunner and former Massachusetts’ Governor Mitt Romney.  Romney was amongst all eight GOP candidates who last night said they would not accept a budget deal that included $10 of cuts for every $1 of tax increases.  A problem for Romney, there are many, is that he increased taxes to help balance the Bay State’s budget, though he wouldn’t use the ‘T’ wprd, instead he called them fees.  Here is an exchange years ago with the late great Tim Russert:

Mr. Russert: The AP says it this way: “When Romney wanted to balance the Massachusetts budget, the blind, mentally retarded and gun owners were asked to help pay. In all, then-Gov. Romney proposed creating 33 new fees,” [and] “increasing 57 others.” The head of the Bay State Council of the Blind said that your name was “Fee-Fee”; that you just raised fee after fee after fee. That’s a tax.... A fee’s not a tax?
Gov. Romney: A fee — well, a fee — if it were a tax, it’d be called — it’d be called a tax. But…
Mr. Russert: Governor, that’s, that’s gimmick.
Gov. Romney: No, it’s, it’s reality. It is. But — and I have no — I’m not trying to hide from the fact we raised fees. We raised fees $240 million.

Exhibit Two: Texas Governor and self-perceived shit kicker Rick Perry will announce his candidacy on Saturday.  Perry is a tremendous politician and shitty governor.  While he goes around touting his jobs creation successes, he fails to mention that while he was slamming Washington and the stimulus package he took $12.1Billion in federal money for infrastructure and services.  I was always taught that when you accept a gift, you say thank you; you don’t bite the hand that feeds you:

In his letter to Obama accepting the stimulus dollars, Perry said: "As you know, I have been vocal in my opposition to this legislation because I believe there are better ways to reinvigorate our economy and believe (the stimulus plan) will burden future generations with unprecedented levels of debt."

It reminds me of this exchange from the classic western The Magnificent Seven:

Calvera: I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to see a village like this. So much restlessness and change in the outside world. People no longer content with their station in life. Women's fashions — shameless! Religion! You'd weep if you saw how true religion is now a thing of the past. Last month we were in San Juan, a rich town. Sit down. Rich town, much blessed by God. Big church — not like here, little church, priest comes twice a year. Big one. You'd think we'd find gold candlesticks, poor-box filled to overflowing. You know what we found? Brass candlesticks. Almost nothing in the poor box.

Bandito: We took it anyway.

Calvera: I know we took it anyway! I'm trying to show him how little religion some people now have.

Exhibit Three: While the Newsweek cover of Michelle Bachmann may have been out of bounds, I do not buy the argument that calling her the Queen of Rage is sexist.  Have we already forgotten the attack job on Howard Dean after his war cry in Iowa in 2003?  Was that sexist?  Just saying.

Exhibit Four:  The bad penny that keeps turning up; yes that would be Sarah Palin.  The Tea Party anti-tax darling was in attack mode following the S&P downgrade blaming Obama for not having a plant to attack the nation’s debt.  Well, one way to decrease the debt would be to increase taxes, and there is evidence that raising taxes can actually IMPROVE a sovereign entity’s, state or nation, debt rating.  Say for instance, Alaska and its Governor Sarah Palin.  In 2007 Palin “raised taxes on oil profits by $1.5 billion a year” in Alaska, “a step that has generated stunning new wealth for the state as oil prices soared.”  In a statement released after signing the tax bill, she said the tax increase would give Alaskans “an equitable share for our resources”:

By receiving an equitable share for our resources, we are now in a position to demand more accountability and seize opportunities to save for future generations.

Not only did she raise taxes to secure her state a AAA rating, she also REDISTRIBUTED WEALTH.  Talk about a Marxist.