To the Editor:

Hypocrisy is defined as the “condition of a person pretending to be something he is not, especially in the area of morals or religion; a false presentation of belief or feeling.”

Mike Huckabee recently described an unmarried Hollywood starlet as a disgrace because she was getting ready to have a child. Yet when Bristol Palin had a child out of wedlock he defended her and her appearance at the 2008 convention. Classic hypocrisy.

The Tea Party Republicans rails against “BIG” government. They want it out of our lives and our business, so we can be free to pursue our lives as we see fit. Yet it is a basic tenant of the Republican agenda to tell woman how to manage the most sensitive and private aspects of their lives. In general, they want to tell us what God we should worship, who we can marry, and what we can and can not do in the privacy of our bedrooms. Well, which is it?

Every time the Democrats mention the terrible and growing disparity in income in this country – the top 1 percent own 80 percent of all the wealth – we are accused of class warfare. Yet teachers, police, fireman and government workers are roundly criticized by Republicans for making more money than non-union workers. I guess it is OK for them to use Class warfare as a tactic, but heaven forbid we point out the destructive social inequity caused by the super rich.

It appears to be OK for oil companies to use any pretense to raise their gas prices and maximize their profits. Any company can charge any price, only the market place should govern what they can charge. Yet when a union negotiates a contact using the same market forces, they are accused of being socialist out to destroy capitalism.

During the financial crisis Republican were particularly angry at the millions of homeowners who took out risky loans that put the housing market in jeopardy of collapsing. Yet the real damage was done by the big Wall Street speculators who manipulated these mortgages into risky financial instruments. Republicans to a person refused to pass legislation to rein in Wall Street, but came down hard on all those homeowners. So I guess it is OK to risk billions of dollars in other people pension plans, but it is not OK to risk your own house.

The concept of the individual health insurance mandate originated in 1989 at the conservative Heritage Foundation. In 1993, Republicans twice introduced health care bills that contained an individual health insurance mandate. This mandate is at the heart of Obamacare, a market-based private health insurance plan. Every Republican now calls this Republican idea socialized medicine. I call that stupendous hypocrisy.

I have no problem with real fiscal conservatives. Government must be leaner, more efficient, and more focused on the real needs of the citizens of this great country. Republicans on the other hand have taken hypocrisy to a new low in public discourse.

Louise Vitale

Franklin