U.S. NEWS: "Stimulus Stance Isolates Sanford: Conservative Governor's Base Questions His Willingness to Forgo Some Federal Aid," by Alex Roth and Valerie Bauerlein, Wall Street Journal, 2 April 2009.

Notice how the GOP governors making this "principled" stand tend to be those one associates with national-level political ambitions: Sanford (SC), Palin (AK), Barbour (MS), Jindal (LA).

It's grandstanding like this that means you end up not carrying your home state down the road in some national election. People remember how you used them.