Joe Garofoli caught Carly Fiorina having it both ways on the stimulus at a public appearance yesterday in San Jose:

Carly, as we noted in the Chronicle’s dead tree edition, was closing a two-day spin around the state with her new best friend, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s political director Bill Miller. He told us the chamber will be dropping some TV ads for Carly this fall. Team Carleton even busted out some new signs for the occasion: “Job Creation: Priority #1.”

Hate to cough in the punch bowl, but we hastened to ask if The Chamber or Carly’s other new BFF — Jack Stewart, prez of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association — had any problems with Hewlett-Packard dumping 25,000 jobs while Fiorina was at the CEO helm. Isn’t it kind of hard to reconcile that record with the new sign and all?

The video Garofoli got of the Chamber’s response was excellent. They acknowledged that the Chamber did indeed support the stimulus, but then tried to add that their beef was with the so-called “expansion of government” that came after it.

Yet Fiorina – standing next to a sign reading “Job Creation: Priority #1” – still opposes the stimulus. This is probably because she simply opposes jobs in California, period. Garofoli also asked about Fiorina’s record in firing 25,000 American workers and offshoring jobs to India and other places, and got a “well that’s just what you have to do when the economy is bad” response.

Overall this is a very good piece of media work by Garofoli and the Chronicle. Let’s hope more in the media will hold Fiorina and her backers accountable, especially when Fiorina goes around the state talking about job creation when all she knows how to do is job destruction.