I hate writing about John McCain's idiotic pick for vice president, Sarah Palin, but this political ploy is so transparent and frustrating that I can't help myself. The only saving grace is that the media seems to be vetting Palin in a way I wish they would do with McCain. The only thing that could neutralize the foul smelling discoveries about Palin, are the repetitive pronouncements by the Republicans, that she has more "executive experience" than Barack Obama.
Seriously, I feel like I'm living out my own journey in Wonderland chasing after a late rabbit.
USA Today: In her nationally televised speech accepting the job as John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress" and opposed federal funding for a controversial bridge to a sparsely populated island. "I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere," Palin said Friday in Ohio, using the critics' dismissive name of the project. "'If our state wanted a bridge,' I said, 'we'd build it ourselves.'"
USA Today: In her nationally televised speech accepting the job as John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress" and opposed federal funding for a controversial bridge to a sparsely populated island. "I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere," Palin said Friday in Ohio, using the critics' dismissive name of the project. "'If our state wanted a bridge,' I said, 'we'd build it ourselves.'"
What she didn’t say was: she was for it, BEFORE she was against it.
That’s right, in her introduction to the country; Sarah Palin lied to the American people about her opposition to the bridge. According to USA Today:
While running for governor in 2006 … Palin backed federal funding for the infamous bridge, which McCain helped make it a symbol of pork barrel excess. "We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge, and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative," Palin said in August 2006, according to the Ketchikan Daily News.
She was also for earmarks, before she was against them.
And as mayor of the small town of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002, Palin also hired a Washington lobbying firm that helped secure $8 million in congressionally directed spending projects, known as earmarks. In September 2007, Palin's office issued a new release saying the governor had "cancelled all state work on the Gravina Island bridge project.
That’s sounded nice to the general public, but get this:
Congress dropped the specific earmark but kept the $233 million bridge money in a transportation bill for Alaska.
They got the cash. McCain would be proud.
That’s sounded nice to the general public, but get this:
Congress dropped the specific earmark but kept the $233 million bridge money in a transportation bill for Alaska.
They got the cash. McCain would be proud.
You know, they keep portraying her as someone who swept corrupt officials from office in Alaska, but more and more it seems that these moves were merely political vindication.
ReplyDeleteHuey Long in Max Factor sans the populist appeal.