How shameless can politicians get?

Oklahoma GOP Senator Inhofe hated relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy and voted against it. But he says aid for the tornado devastation in his own state is “completely different”. Here he is making the claims on MSNBC. He says that the Sandy Relief fund was “full of pork” and “That won’t happen in Oklahoma.” But the Sandy relief fund was not full of money for other regions. There was some, but the only large ticket add-on was for disaster relief in 47 non-Sandy states from 2011 through 2013. And there is no way, aside from voting against it, that Inhofe can keep other lawmakers from adding earmarks to this bill just as they did with the Sandy bill. Will he vote no for aid to his own state if there are any earmarks attached?

Oklahoma GOP Senator Tom Coburn hated relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy and voted against it. He said we shouldn’t provide help for disasters without making offsetting cuts in programs elsewhere in the federal budget. But how long would it take in today’s hyper-partisan political environment to reach an agreement on where to make such offsetting cuts? Would anybody be left alive by the time Congress finally acted if we made this a rule for disaster relief? Wouldn’t that be rather like calling the fire department and being told that they would come save you from your house fire as soon as the city council can come up with a new budget with offsetting savings to pay for the cost of rolling the trucks. Will Coburn use his own standards this time, and vote no on aid for his own state because he can’t possibly come up with offsetting savings anytime in the foreseeable future?

How shameless do you have to be to thrive in today’s politics?