McCain Was Against Palin Before He Was For Her

One of John McCain's main selling points as a government reformer is that the Arizona Senator sure hates him some earmarks. He hates them so much that he's been willing to call them out by name. As a Senator, McCain's published "pork lists" full up with government spending he's deemed wasteful. On the stump he has promised much more of the same, vowing to make Congress' major pork players "famous."

That brings us, again, to Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Long before McCain focused the national spotlight on Palin as his Veep pick, he was making her famous as a dedicated feeder at the pork barrel trough. As the Chicago Tribune details:

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 as mayor and cleared Congress soon after she left office in 2002. The funding was provided to help direct locally grown produce to schools, prisons and other government institutions, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

McCain's surrogates contend that Palin had no other choice but to seek funding through Federal earmarks. McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin told the Trib that Palin said she was "disgusted" at the fact that "small towns like hers were dependent on earmarks." But the records actually show that "Wasilla had received few if any earmarks before Palin became mayor."

Comments

[DCtrain]

lol, what a joke.

Stand up and donate to Barak Obama... let's silence this nonsense from the country club GOP

[XME]

McCain has become the candidate of hypocrisy.

[grata2ude]

He may have but he doesn't remember it. That's scary.

[Relax08]

How could they not know this. McCain and his staff is incompetent. They shoot from the hip and never aim at anything but their ego's.

[WmC]

Good point. They didn't even vet their OWN records on Palin. Who used the term Mayberry Machiavellians? Anyway, it fits that crowd perfectly.

[zizyphus]

"When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got
the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one
of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no
background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great
job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the
high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the
structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this
Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party)
engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some
undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all
her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and
garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit,
exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

http://my2bucks.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/a-letter-from-someone-who-has-known-sarah-palin-since-1992/#comment-416

[Richard22]

Palin is nothing more than a petty-minded, vindictive small-town politician.

[Relax08]

That's why she works well with the like of Rick Davis Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. She is the perfect sidekick to John McCain- the great American Phoney! who was a POW least we all forget.

[valleygent]

Absolutely...spread the word, let's not let this morality cop insult our intelligence with her "hockey mom"rhetoric...she is a radical social conservative with an intent on destroying the constitution. She is a radical Christian Fundamentalist with the intent of forcing her religious views on national law and in the executive branch.

[valleygent]

Shame on McCain for picking the neophyte moral authority amateur from a state with 10 people, and some Grizzly Bears. Chicago alone has more people to govern than her entire state. Obama represents over 12 million in the state of Illinois, and deals with NATIONAL issues every single day. Alaska...who cares?

[Ohioliberal]

link to the infamous Sarah Palin pictures - Caution it's adult themed site visually - Shows you what a great job of vetting McCain's team did! (personally I loved Sarah's hooker's outfit but not in the White House.

http://www.uselessjunk.net/network/blog_entry.php?user=hoover&blogentry_id=696

[JerseyGirl4Obama]

After looking at these photos, how can any foreign diplomat, president, king or queen meet with Sarah Palin and have any measure of respect. Please America do NOT let this woman in the white house. I do not support her because of her politics, but i also believe she is crass and classless.

[HTN]

.

This should be on Page ONE!
.

[CamJam]

I agree!

[Grunty1]

The more I hear about her, the more Palin seems like the perfect GOPer.

Corrupt, greedy, hypocritical, whiny, unprepared.

[trinity29]

the chickens are coming home to roost. how much can you keep hiding in the age of the internet and free information transfer. msm doesnt have to do their job. they can spin all they like. people have a way of knowing the truth.

[Okieborn]

Same Old Bush Play Book.
Keep the American Citizenrys attention on SLIME AND LIES AND DECEIT The attacks from the Mccain Slime Machine
NOT THIS TIME !! NOT THIS TIME !!! NOT THIS TIME !!!

[margardner]

"Pork Barrel Palin" Randi Rhodes, green 960

[justobserve]

This is the reformer McCain has been touted of? "the records actually show that "Wasilla had received few if any earmarks before Palin became mayor."
The flipflops keep going! McCain: Please put Country First, not your own ambition!
VOTE FOR ISSUES: EQUAL PAY, WOMEN'S CHOICE, UNIVERSAL HEALTH INSURANCE.

[Grunty1]

In the Repoublican's Orwellian world, "reformer" means "more of the same"

[WatchmanD]

I can't wait to see the campaigns response to this one; eye, ear, nose and throat marks.

Obama/Biden 08

[egal]

And yet, the county that received few earmarks before her is now in massive debt after her wild collection of earmarks and immorally obtained monies.