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The Earmark Queen....Updated
THE EARMARK QUEEN....UPDATED....Sarah Palin is the gift that just keeps on giving. By now, we all know that far from being a mortal foe of earmarks, Palin was in fact a pioneer and trailblazer in the earmark world. Small towns in Alaska almost never lobbied for federal pork until Palin showed the way, and her success inspired others to follow.
However, what we didn't know until the LA Times told us today, is that John McCain's annual list of objectionable pork singled out Palin's requests not once, not twice, but three separate times:
Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time — Sarah Palin.
....In 2001, McCain's list of spending that had been approved without the normal budget scrutiny included a $500,000 earmark for a public transportation project in Wasilla. The Arizona senator targeted $1 million in a 2002 spending bill for an emergency communications center in town -- one that local law enforcement has said is redundant and creates confusion. McCain also criticized $450,000 set aside for an agricultural processing facility in Wasilla that was requested during Palin's tenure.
The McCain campaign's response to this is exceptionally slick: one part blatant lie (all small towns in Alaska depended on earmarks at the time) and one part clever lie (Palin was so upset about being practically forced to hire a high-powered lobbyist to beg for pork that it scarred her for life and made her the earmark foe she is today). Further questions were no doubt declined since asking about this stuff is plainly sexist and unfair and Governor Palin deserves some privacy on these matters.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Check out Palin campaigning in Ketchikan for the Bridge to Nowhere (via Baloon Juice).
Of course, she could answer this for herself... if someone in the McCain camp trusted her in front of the press.
Drat, I can't find it now but I saw quoted recently a 2006 newspaper column she wrote praising earmarks.
So she must have changed her mind pretty damned recently.
Or they're not telling the truth!
I was wrong, it was "this year" and it was in the LATimes piece Kevin linked to.
This year, Palin, who has been governor for nearly 22 months, defended earmarking as a vital part of the legislative system. "The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship," she wrote in a newspaper column.
SO she changed her mind sometime about the time she decided to run for VP, I guess.
and McCain was a POW!
I have to start watching daytime TV now. The writers of the soaps must be pulling their hair out. "Damn, why didn't I think of that?"
So many twists, lots of sex, and the characters have lots of skeletons in their closets. This could go on for months.
The challenge right now is to control the MSM narrative on Palin; this is a critical time where her narrative is being developed, because once that happens, the media is too slow, stupid, or lazy to do anything but repeat it.
Some in the MSM have picked up some of these stories, but they can't be allowed to get away with then burying them, as the stronger McCain pushback emerges.
There are 3 major stories here, each with emerging developments: troopergate, where she is withdrawing her cooperation; earmarks, where we see that she played the game so well she even drew McCain's attention to her requests; and her fringe-iness, where she wanted to bank books and court the secessionist movement in Alaska.
Keep these stories alive!
Alaskans (and Hawaiians) have lived off earmarks for a long time now. Why do you think Ted Stevens was re-elected so many times? Cause he was the king of earmarks.
If a politician is to be successful in Alaska, they have to have the know-how to get earmarks. Obviously Palin has that know-how.
And I would bet you that there are a large number of Governors and State Legislators who wish they had that particular part of her skill set.
Frankly I don't see any benefit for the democrats to attack her on this angle. Kind of like the pots calling the kettles black. There are just as many democratic earmarks as there are republican. And not all of them are bad. Most times they are used to help small local companies get business that, ordinarily, the government would give to the ultra large military industry beltway bandits.
I smell a great tv commercial.
The chance to get a photo of the Wasilla City Hall on TV is worth it by itself.
Pitting McCain's words against Palins actions to show the reckless way this VP pick was made is just gravy.
Optical Weenie,
The point is that the Rs are sunning her as the Brave Reformer, Taking On the Established Interests!
Manifestly, she ain't that.
If the Rs want to shift their narrative to "a typical local politician, looking for federal money, but no worse than the Democrats" I'm fine with that.
Sorry, 1:14 above was me, and it should be "running," not "sunning."
McCain's vetters could have begun by looking at McCain's own words on the Wasilla earmarks. Heckuvajob there.
McCain's choice of Palin conflicted with his key criterion on national security.
Now this shows that Palin's groveling for earmarks was in direct conflict with McCain's maniacal crusade on eliminating the process entirely. There is just no explaining away this.
Palin -- shattering the floor of McCain's credibility.
I used to call GW, "George Armstrong Bush". Now I have to wonder if 'Garryowen' is not McCain's favorite tune. Scary thought in two ways.
She did slash earmark requests from $350M to $197M in two years, urging only requests for necessary earmarks that would help Alaska benefit the country as a whole. http://newsminer.com/news/2008/feb/25/palin-visits-dc-lobbies-alaska-iss...