Conservatives have been bloviating, ranting, foaming at the mouth this campaign season about government spending too much.

I read a posting this morning from one of my Facebook friends, an avowed conservative from Arizona, that talked about the city of Mesa trying to pass a ballot initiative allowing the city to spend $99 million to build a stadium complex to keep the Chicago Cubs in Mesa for spring training.

The Cubs new owner has threatened to move the team’s spring training facility to Florida, after being in Mesa since 1953, if a new complex is not built.

On Tuesday, Mesa voters will decide whether to allow the city to spend up to $99 million on a new spring training facility for the Cubs ($84 million for a small-scale Wrigley Stadium and $15 million for infrastructure) that would include a private development, Wrigleyville West.

When the Ricketts family purchased the Cubs from the (Chicago) Tribune Co. last year for about $845 million and announced they were entertaining an offer to move the team to Naples, Fla., where they were being courted for a new facility, (Cubs legend Ernie) Banks initially supported the move, citing first-class golf courses he liked to play on and a lot of Midwesterners who frequent spring training there.

But, with the Cubs generating $138 million a year in economic impact and steeped with history and tradition, and with fans coming to Arizona from all over the world, Banks said he now believes it’s important for the Cubs to remain in Mesa to retain and create more jobs in a slow economy.

So let me get this straight – when the President and the Democratic Congress spend money (aka, “the stimulus”) to retain and create jobs in a slow economy, it’s socialism. But when your baseball team is threatening to leave your quaint little town (in a “Red” state, nonetheless) that they are in for one month a year, this type of government spending, to retain and create jobs, is perfectly fine.

The hypocrisy is baffling.

Note: Bob, if you read this, I’m not saying you’re a hypocrite, just pointing out the hypocrisy of the whole right-wing mantra against any kind of government spending.