Bud Light presents: Real American hypocrisy.

As some before me have already pointed out, it’s more than a little humorous that the Republican governor of Missouri would so vehemently oppose the proposed $46 billion foreign takeover of American brewing icon Anheuser-Busch. It doesn’t take an economically-gifted mind to realized that it’s mainly Republicans who are so consumed by the unquestionably wonderful qualities of global capitalism.

So, it’s just a little difficult to take Gov. Matt Blunt seriously when he says that the takeover bid is a threat to American business. This kind of acquisition is, after all, made all the more easy in the current Republican-shaped environment of weakened regulation and international commerce laws armed with all the teeth and backbone of, say, a small, rubbery woodland rodent. This is just the kind of foreign “investment” in our economy that Republicans have been cheerfully trumpeting for the past decade - just the kind of foreign “investment” we have not for a moment questioned practicing ourselves in developing countries.

Does it hurt that Anheuser-Busch represents an American dynasty and is, more than that, an icon of such American traditions as auto racing, bowling and chronic procrastination?

Of course it does. And that’s doubtlessly from where politicians such as Gov. Matt Blunt will derive their talking points over the next few days. Yet the kind of government intervention that Gov. Blunt wishes to practice - namely, that of preventing the proposed takeover - is as currently impossible as it is hypocritical. For the economic battle cry of Republicans has long been that of “laissez faire,” and there has already been one too many federal bail-outs of failing corporate interests under this administration.

No, it would be a mistake to exert any kind of political capital in attempting to save Anheuser-Busch from a takeover that, ironically enough, most stockholders seem to want.

I suggest that Gov. Blunt crack open an ice-cold Bud. And chill out.