The hypocrisy of religion-based Republican pork

Here's yet another entry in The Annals of Duh (maybe a new series at The Reaction?). Republicans are porking it up big-time with their supporters, throwing millions and millions and millions at the socially conservative (and largely religious) base. The Washington Post has the details:

For years, conservatives have complained about what they saw as the liberal tilt of federal grant money. Taxpayer funds went to abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood to promote birth control, and groups closely aligned with the AFL-CIO got Labor Department grants to run worker-training programs.

In the Bush administration, conservatives are discovering that turnabout is fair play: Millions of dollars in taxpayer funds have flowed to groups that support President Bush's agenda on abortion and other social issues.

Under the auspices of its religion-based initiatives and other federal programs, the administration has funneled at least $157 million in grants to organizations run by political and ideological allies, according to federal grant documents and interviews.

Does this surprise you? If so, have yourself checked for dementia. This is Big Government Republicanism we're talking about, and conservatives are more than happy to lap it up, to suck at the eternal teat of Washingtonian largesse. Oh, and it helps to be able to buy off your supporters. Keep 'em knee-deep in the gravy and you're sure to benefit at the ballot box.

Hoo-wah.

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Steve Benen calls it "[s]hameless," which it is. (Shame runs on short supply in them parts.) Ezra Klein calls the flow of cash in support of "the right wing's most reactionary agenda items" all "rather unsurprising," which it also is. Pam Spaulding predicts "[t]his gravy train won't end any time soon," which it won't.

See also Frederick Maryland on the selective compassion of "compassionate conservatism" and Pamela Leavey on "slush funds".