It’s somewhat amazing that the Governor who, just a few months ago, was talking nonstop about how Indiana’s economy is a diamond in the rough Midwest is now throwing open his arms to money from Democrats at the federal level that will help create jobs and shore up our dwindling — yes, dwindling — coffers. WTHR-TV reports:

Governor Mitch Daniels appeared on national television Sunday, sharing his plan to put billions of dollars in federal stimulus money to work in Indiana.

“I’ll just say that, in our case, they send a check, we’ll cash it,” Daniels said.

Revered as a savvy and conservative spender, Daniels appeared on Chris Wallace’s FOX News Sunday and asked why he’s accepting almost all of the federal stimulus money allotted for Indiana, when many other Republican governors are threatening to refuse most of it.

“Our approach to this, Chris, is very simple jobs, speed and lasting value and will it put people to work,” Daniels said.

Without hesitation, the governor has already started putting the $4 billion to work.

“We’ve already released our first three lists of road projects, for instance, first two lists of clean water projects, we’ve launched a program to conserve energy in Hoosier households that will employ a fair number of people before it’s over and this week, I’ll announce a program for some of our younger unemployed people,” Daniels said.

Of course, Daniels has steadfastly refused to weigh in on the issue of Indiana’s unemployment insurance fund, which went bankrupt on his watch. While he’s spent a lot of political capital lobbing for government reform and constitutional tax caps, he’s said the unemployment fund is strictly a legislative issue.

We also haven’t heard much from him on the issue of our unemployment rate, which rose to 9.4 percent last month.

It’s stunning that Daniels can continue to talk out of both sides of his mouth when hard-working Hoosiers are suffering. Then again, his idea of leadership has always been more talking point-driven than results-oriented.

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