Hypocritical Republican senator changes his mind about unemployment benefits

Suddenly, Missouri Senator Jim Lembke "saw the light" and realized he and his Republican cronies maybe better not try to keep 400 million federal dollars out of the state all by themselves:

Missouri senator reverses stance on jobless benefits

By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press


A Missouri state senator said Wednesday that he would stop blocking a vote on whether to extend federally-funded jobless benefits that expired for thousands of Missouri residents, vowing instead to try to stop hundreds of millions of dollars of federal stimulus money.

Republican Sen. Jim Lembke told The Associated Press that after talking to Senate leaders, he agreed to end his filibuster of a vote that would reauthorize the benefits that expired for about 10,000 Missouri residents on Saturday. Lembke said he instead will try to block the state from spending as much as $400 million of federal stimulus act money on such things as home energy efficiency programs for low-income residents and a study about high-speed rail service.

"My priority in this whole thing was certainly not an attack on the unemployed in Missouri but on the federal government and their overspending and their continuing to put us into ever-spiraling debt that is going to crush our nation," said Lembke, of St. Louis.

Yeah, right, Senator.  We got that.  It's about you doing the "right thing", right?

Well if you're so totally doing this "right thing" you're so hell-bent on, Senator, how come you all of a sudden need to force Democratic Governor Jay Nixon in on your little party to keep the money out of your state's citizen's pockets?

I smell a rat and that rat has a name:

Lembke has led a coalition of four Republican senators that has come under increased pressure from Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon to renew Missouri's participation in a federal program that provides 20 additional weeks of jobless benefits to people who have been out of work for a year and a half. Until Missouri's eligibility for the program recently ended, no state that joined the federal program had later voluntarily quit it.

Here's the problem:  Missouri's unemployment rate has remained above 9 percent for nearly two years. 

And here's the Republican response:  During the course of their filibuster, some Republican senators suggested that some people receiving long-term jobless benefits may not be looking hard enough for jobs.

Nice.  Thanks, guys.  Way to blame the victim.

Link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_jobless_benefits_missouri