Republican Govenors Taking Federal Aid from Stimulus

Mark Sanford and Rick Perry were the only two governors to publicly announce their opposition to Obama's stiumulus package in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.  However, when pressed whether they would pledge to refuse federal aid if the Obama stimulus passed, neither guy agreed to take the pledge.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=40421

Sanford claimed that 2/3 of the republican governors were opposed to the Obama stimulus (my guess as to the 7 in favor are Crist, Arnold, the Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Connecticut governors, Daniels, and Jindal).  Since many of our governors are potential 2012 presidential candidates, this moment could be equivalent to what the Iraq War vote was for the Democrats in their contest this year.   The governor who is brave enough to say no to federal dollars will have one hell of a calling card to turn to when talking about fiscal conservatism in 2012.  I'm practically stunned that Sanford has refused to take this pledge since he's not running for re-election in 2010 and has pretty much put himself out in front of the media as the Barry Goldwater messenger on the issue of federal bailouts for the governors.