Proving once again that intellectual consistency is not a hallmark of partisan politics...

... we can find our usual suspect friends at Delawareliberal attacking Mike Castle's vote against the porkulus package (remember, most analysts--and now an increasing number of legislators of both parties--agree that only about 1/3 of the spending in the bill was even related to economic stimulus by the most charitable of standards) in the House of Representatives as

Voting against the jobless, the underemployed, those who fear for their jobs, and struggling small businesses? Ehhhhxcellent!

[This, by the way, ignores the fact that on a series of bipartisan votes, the Senate is now chipping away at the very pork to which Castle and others objected.]

But, strangely enough, they have nothing to say about House Reps in their own party cavorting in the Caribbean on Citigroup's dime (after voting to send dear old Citigroup bazillions of dollars), as Shirley reports....

Here's the roll of honor for that particular junket:

Charlie Rangel
Sheila Jackson-Lee
Donald Payne
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (mom to that stand-up reformer and current felon Kwame Kilpatrick)
Bennie Thompson
Donna Christenson

Nor have we heard much of anything in that direction about the amazingly porous standards against lobbyists in the new administration, exemplified by the decision to appoint Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn and multiple others to positions of power. If it somehow passed under the radar, here's Senator Carl Levin justifying all the exceptions:

"The decision of the administration to impose an additional set of requirements, and then waive them for this nominee, does not change the standards to which we hold all nominees," he said.

Let's be perfectly clear: Democratic tax-dodging and partying it up at taxpayer-laundered corporate parties does not in any way excuse the culture of corruption in DC over the past eight years as expressed by the excesses of the Republicans.

But you can't keep portraying yourself as the party that's real concerned about the little guy if you don't hold your own to a higher standard.