By on Mon, 09/08/2008 - 12:55pm

A: Their lips are moving.

Bridge To Nowhere - $398,000,000
[img=192x252]http://www.knikbridgefacts.org/images/watershedkbf...
Here's an example that leaves me wondering why politicians feel compelled to misrepresent their record in making their case for their candidacy. It seems the facts don't support the story they present to you as their political history.

Here is McCain's latest ad, which celebrates McCain and running mate Sarah Palin: “The original mavericks. He fights pork barrel spending. She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere….”

Original Mavericks

But Governor Sarah Palin supported the Bridge to Nowhere. From the Anchorage Daily News :

The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere."

...In September 2006, Palin showed up in Ketchikan on her gubernatorial campaign and said the bridge was essential for the town's prosperity.

She said she could feel the town's pain at being derided as a "nowhere" by prominent politicians, noting that her home town, Wasilla, had recently been insulted by the state Senate president, Ben Stevens. "OK, you've got Valley trash standing here in the middle of nowhere," Palin said, according to an account in the Ketchikan Daily News. "I think we're going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project."

One year later, Ketchikan's Republican leaders said they were blindsided by Palin's decision to pull the plug. link

On August 29, 2008, when introduced as Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain's running mate, Palin told the crowd: "I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere" — a line that garnered big applause but upset political leaders in Ketchikan.

Palin's campaign coordinator in the city, Republican Mike Elerding, remarked, "She said 'thanks but no thanks,' but they kept the money." wiki

If Palin were a fiscally responsible government reformer, wouldn't she return the $398,000,000 to the Federal government?

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2008 elections

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Comments

By Anonymous
Mon, 09/08/2008 - 12:57pm

Link to the McCain ad, Original Mavericks.

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By sheenaspleena
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 12:59am

from cnn...she's not trying to force her views on anyone:

Palin has done little while in office to advance a social conservative agenda. She told the Associated Press in an interview in 2006 that she would not allow her personal beliefs to dictate public policy.

"I've honestly answered the questions on what my personal views are on things like abortion and a lot of controversial issues," Palin told the Associated Press. "I won't hesitate to answer those questions about what my personal views are, but I am not one to be out there preaching and forcing my views on anyone else."

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By Anonymous
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 3:12am

John McCain's stated policy is to reverse Roe v Wade and make it a states' rights issue.

Sarah Palin ran for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska on an anti-abortion platform. Political pandering? Consistent with her values? Do you think she'll be a voice for choice in the White House? No. Me neither.

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By Marc
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 1:43am

Just in case you were wondering... the bridge was never built!

So who killed it then? Was it NOT Sarah Palin?

Even the Alaskan Democrats said so when attacking Ted Stevens:
http://www.retireted.com/teds-connections/earmarks/

Or as reported here, in the Anchorage Daily News:
http://www.adn.com/front/story/343508.html

Some political ideas are just too juicy for you to let pass by, I understand.

I don't expect a sympathetic ear here. But let me just point out that trying to seriously pretend that Palin was NOT the final arbiter in killing the Bridge to Nowhere, even in the face of some fierce local opposition, is so essentially asinine that arguing it will have the opposite effect on others from what you hope for.

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By Kaz
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 2:09am

The point isn't whether she ultimately terminated the project or not. That is a fact that nobody is contesting.

The point of contention is with her "thanks but no thanks" attitude and stump speeches. She presents herself as having been the one to tell Congress off from the start. However, the record plainly tells that she was completely in favor of the bridge project until it was un-earmarked by Congress (on their own, not because she asked them to do so) and it became so politically untenable that she was forced to stop the project from a state level. She is simply lying outright about the time line and logic behind her decision to cancel the project.

In fact, she *still* began the $15 million road that now terminates at the water because it was to attach at the bridge that was never built. It is part of a $300+ million SECOND project being dubbed the "Road to Nowhere" that intends to connect Juneau to two nearby communities by road and ferry. As part of her debate answers in the 2006 gubernatorial election, she made it very clear that she is in favor of this project because AK's Congressmen were hard at work getting infrastructure funding and she would not want to stand in the way of such progress. Only very recently did she actually now call for a new review of the scope and necessity of this OTHER project.

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By Anonymous
Tue, 09/09/2008 - 3:07am

I agree she did what you say she did.

She also campaigned for Governor as a supporter of the bridge and kept the earmark money in the state treasury instead of returning it.

JOHN McCAIN

“The fact is that Gov. Palin learned that earmarks are bad and she did say, we don’t need our bridge to nowhere, and we will pay for it ourselves if we need it. I mean, that is just a fact.” [WWBT, 9/8/08]

“And as governor of Alaska, Governor Sarah Palin said ‘We don’t need a bridge to nowhere and if we do, we’ll build it ourselves.’ That’s the kind of person — leader — we have.” [Press conference in Cedarsburg, WI, 9/5/08]

“Look, we couldn’t get the ‘bridge to nowhere’ out, although we tried. … Yeah, the pork barrel project, $233 million bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it. She, as governor, stood up and said, we don’t need it, and if we need it, we’ll pay for it ourselves.” [Fox News, 8/31/08]

“You know, I tried to stop the $233 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska. She got it done! She stopped it! (Cheers, applause.) You know what she said? She said, we don’t need that money from Washington. If we’re going to need a bridge, we’ll build it ourselves. That’s Governor Sarah Palin!” [Rally in O’Fallon, MO, 8/31/08]
SARAH PALIN

“I championed reform of earmark spending by Congress, and I told the Congress thanks but no thanks on that ‘Bridge to Nowhere.” [Rally in Albuquerque, NM, 9/6/08]

“I told the Congress ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.” [GOP Convention, 9/3/08]

“And as the senator said, I told the Congress thanks but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted to build a bridge, we would build it ourselves.” [Rally in O’Fallon, MO, 8/31/08]

“And I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress — I told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ on that bridge to nowhere.” [Nomination speech, 8/29/08]
CAMPAIGN ADS

“She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere.” [9/8/08]
CAMPAIGN SURROGATES

Spokesman Tucker Bounds: “And she was the one that drove the nail in the coffin that killed the Bridge to Nowhere.” [MSNBC, 9/8/08]

Spokesman Brian Rogers: “After taking office and examining the project closely, Governor Palin consistently opposed funding the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ and ultimately canceled the wasteful project.” [Memo, 9/8/08]

Campaign Manager Rick Davis: “Congress didn’t beat back the ‘bridge to nowhere.’ … That funding was in the grant, and she said, ‘I’m not spending that money.’ And what they did — they took a $500 million bridge and she turned it into a $2 million ferry. And that’s what she did on her own without any help from anybody else.” [Fox News Sunday, 9/7/08]

Cindy McCain: “My husband always wanted someone that would think like he did, in terms of approaching the issues in a tough way and not afraid to say to you, ‘No, we don’t want that Bridge to Nowhere. We’ll pay for it if we want it.’” [The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, 9/3/08]

Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL): “Everyone wants to be more introduced to this fantastic governor who gets up to go moose hunting, who defeated a legend in her own party to become the governor of that state, who’s taken on wasteful Washington spending and told Washington what they could do with their Bridge to Nowhere.” [MSNBC, 9/3/08]

Senior Adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer: “In Washington, Mr. McCain spoke out against the ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ a $400 million waste of the taxpayers’ money that led to an island with a few dozen residents. In Juneau, Alaska, Ms. Palin made sure the bridge went nowhere, canceling the earmark.” [Wall Street Journal, 9/2/08]

Pfotenhauer: “She refused the $400 million bridge to nowhere that people like Senator Obama and Senator Biden, you know, supported.” [CNN, 8/31/08]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “She has done things that Barack Obama would never dream of. To go in her state and say, I’m not going to build a bridge to nowhere.” [ABC’s This Week, 8/31/08]

Spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker: “She vetoed the bridge to nowhere earmark.” [8/30/08]

Hazelbaker: “Gov. Palin has spent her time in office shaking up government in Alaska and actually achieving results — whether it’s taking on corruption, passing ethics reform or stopping wasteful spending and the ‘bridge to nowhere.’” [Chicago Tribune, 8/30/08]

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By Anonymous
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 2:02am

Sometimes, the public wants to know what its elected officials are doing. That's what Andree McCleod, an "independent government watchdog," tried to find out when she requested internal documents from Palin's office that she suspected linked top-Palin aides to an effort to oust Alaska's Republican Party Secretary. But, as Mother Jones reports, Palin's office withheld 1,100 emails from McCLeod, claiming the correspondence covered confidential policy matters. It didn't. As Mother Jones' David Corn points out:

... the subject lines of some of the withheld emails suggest they were not related to policy matters. Several refer to one of Palin's political foes, others to a well-known Alaskan journalist. Moreover, some of the withhold emails were CC'ed to Todd Palin, the governor's husband. Todd Palin -- a.k.a. the First Dude -- holds no official state position (though he has been a close and influential adviser for Governor Palin). The fact that Palin and her aides shared these emails with a citizen outside the government undercuts the claim that they must be protected under executive privilege.

As McLeod states, "When the finger is pointed at somebody else, she's all for accountability. When it's pointing at her, it's different."

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By Anonymous
Sat, 09/13/2008 - 12:37am

Q:Did Sarah Palin sell the governor's plane on eBay for a profit?

A: The jet was placed on eBay for sale, but it wasn't purchased from the site. The plane was eventually sold through an aircraft broker to businessman Larry Reynolds for less than the asking price and the original cost.

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