It’s the most peculiar thing. Congressional Republicans seem to have more convictions when they are not in power than when they are.

Consider the so-called stimulus bill, a bill that will live in financial infamy unless the economy improves on its own. The bill mortgages the financial future of our grandchildren and makes us dependent on nations that dislike us.

House Republicans stood as one. They didn’t vote for the initial bill and they didn’t vote for the bill that came out of the conference committee. The usual three Senate republicans – Snow, Collins and Specter – voted in favor both times.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to pass off the bill as bipartisan. The fact is that the House Democrats wrote the bill with little Republican input. The only reason they wanted Republican votes was to give themselves cover should it fail to work. And now we’re going to get TARP-2, another bank bailout after the first one did nothing.

Let’s hope the Republicans, should they ever win a majority again, don’t forget the principles they have again discovered.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.