Eastern Washington’s Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers has single-handedly secured Spokane funds for a new highway and is the ultimate “champion,” even though she voted against the stimulus package that provided the funding.

“I am pleased the U.S. Department of Transportation has chosen to award $35 million for the North Spokane Corridor. This is precisely the type of project the government should be funding,” McMorris-Rodgers said on her Web site. “I have been a champion for this project.”

This funding came in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, more commonly known as the stimulus package.

“I voted against it, because I don’t want us pushed further and further into debt,” McMorris-Rodgers said of the stimulus. Large parts of the stimulus bill contained projects very similar to the North Spokane Corridor, yet McMorris-Rodgers only favors projects that benefit her district.

This is political double talk at its worst. McMorris-Rodgers is one of many Republicans actively attempting to lie, deceive and mislead the American voter.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, had a similar take on his stimulus vote. Originally, he said he would have included local projects in the package if it had been permitted. But later on, he blasted the bill by saying, “This bill was not a stimulus bill. It was a vehicle for pet projects, and that’s wrong,” according to the McClatchy Company.

After all was said and done, Young held a press conference announcing how he, “won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in … the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” He failed to mention he didn’t actually vote for the bill in the first place.

Most politicians accept they can’t please everyone. In this case, McMorris-Rodgers had to choose between standing up for her constituents, her party or the anti-pork lobby.

She handled this dilemma masterfully by pretending to do all three things. She told her constituents she was a “champion” of the funding while she was back home in Spokane. In Washington, D.C., she is, no doubt, the epitome of Republican ideological purity. Likewise, when she is with the anti-porkers, she is probably a legislative vegetarian.

The irony is she apparently doesn’t care about any of these things. In her words, “I am committed to bringing accountability back, ending pork-barrel spending and working to balance the budget,” according to the Lewiston-Tribune.

In reality, she “porks” with the best of them. In 2008, McMorris-Rodgers had, “24 records (of pork barrel spending) for a total of $19,654,512,” the Citizens Against Government Waste calculates. Aside from the pork spending, she and her fellow Republicans implemented the regressive Bush Tax Cuts, which significantly contributed to the budget deficit

Comparing McMorris-Rodgers to Washington state Sen. Patty Murray reveals a stark difference. Murray succeeded in including $1.96 billion for the Hanford Nuclear Plant Cleanup. She actually voted for the stimulus bill.

There is a clear distinction between a “yes” and a “no” vote. As voters, if we are so apathetic that we fail to notice this difference, democratic accountability will no longer exist.