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

[TXfemmom]

They should have commercials of McCain specifically mentioning these earmarks, WHICH WERE ALL UNDER PALIN. That or show him throwing stones at earmarks, and then list all of the ones under Palin in the foreground.

[pjean]

Guys she is going to do good tonight. It's planned to work out that way, she will be very scripted and unless she can't read, I expect her to do ok. Not a BO type of speech but what does that prove???? that she can read. I am sick of people trying to compare Senator Obama's experience and education. The men got his degree from Harvard and was president of the Law Review where did Sarah get her Journalism again???

[WatchmanD]

She will do extremely well tonight. She has former TV reporter experience and excellent speech writers. Now, that is no reason for Dems to start the hang wringing. If it is one thing we can learn from the Repubs it is to stay on message and remain disciplined.

The Obama campaign has so much material they are probably wondering where to begin.

[SENCvoter]

My goodness, I live in a small corner of North Carolina and the market here is bigger than Palin's market ever was. And even the TV personalities here will never make it on the national market. I saw Palin on one of the clips. It was laughable. High school performance. The danger of staying on message that is old and untrue is that you risk being delusional. I would say that Bush, McCain, and Palin are all starting to sound delusional.

[tlgeiger62]

Frankly I don't expect her to do badly tonight. What I want to see is the VP Debate on Oct. 2 !!! Now THAT is gonna be something to watch!

[Grunty1]

All 4 debates will be well worth watching.

The GOP doesn't stand a chance.

[mymomma2]

I see, McCain/Palin is what Rush Limbaugh meant by OPERATION CHAOS. I don' think I can take anymore. Please guys, stop just stop, you're killing me!!!

Now McCain says that they MAY think about suing the National Enquirer for reporting that Palin had an affair with her husband's business partner.

Stay tuned!

[globality]

She hired a Lobbyst with ties to Abramoff to get these earmarks

If Mc Cain was a horse we would be leading him to the glue factory

[CabaretArtist]

I think she's going to give a great speech tonight. I believe she thrives off this type of stuff...she's like a female Obama in many ways, only not as seasoned. IT's too bad she's on the wrong side of history.

[AnotherToerag]

The McCain surrogates are contending that small towns depend on earmarks for their livelihood.
Can someone tell me why McCain is against earmarks?
Why does John McCain hate small towns in America?

[kayatarms]

McClone is one hot mess!

[rollingdivision]

As a mayor Palin had no control over earmarks and was doing her job trying to qualify the town for the maximum amount of funding from county, state and federal funding. I'd be more concerned if she hadn't.

[ChandraSF]

I suppose that gives her right now to rail against any and all earmarks. You would also be offended if she has not been for "the bridge to nowhere", and then abruptly to take the funds and apply them elsewhere. And revisionist history would read that "she was always against the bridge to nowhere". Hypocrites!

[SENCvoter]

Of course she had control. She had a Jack Abramoff-linked lawyer as a lobbyist. That's what lobbyists do. They try to influence federal spending.

[southernfried]

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Who_is_Sarah_Palin_14

[JRsNana]

You can't ask her or anyone in the McCain campaign ANY QUESTIONS about ANYTHING! Didn't you see that one?

[macbabe]

she goes back into hiding after her speech!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVyAw925oX0

[nachomom]

Palin's over-riding "qualification" is that she will drive the evangelicals who were going to sit out this election to the polls. McCain has groveled at their feet several times but they were still suspicious of him.

[msmith2008]

Wow...I wonder how much Biden and Barack have gotten for their constituents...aren't they at least as good as Palin. Oh, thats right, Democrats would never get involved in pork barrel projects.

I wish you people would stop spouting the same crap and think realistically about the future of this country and not just getting your guy elected.

Why don't we make both candidates detail their plans instead of talk about who's daughter got pregnant or whether Barack has enough experience? Lets 'make a change we can believe in' and voters and elect our next president and vice president on something other than how upset we are with Bush. Democrats are great at complaining how terrible Republicans are and Republicans are great at bashing Democrats for their pie-in-the-sky dreams of an ideal world...why don't the voters come back to reality and realize that Barack isn't a god and McCain isn't a demon and vice versa. They are both great Americans and both parties have some good ideas, so lets take the best of both, the middle of the road policies and enact them.

[Schnittke]

Amen. Barack is a good man, but he is the Michael Dukakis of our time. The world will soon find out that Palin is Reagan in a dress. McCain will have the last laugh when he's sitting in that Oval Office next year, Palin by his side, ready to renew the world.

[IndomitableLion]

Wake up! Wake up!.....you're dreaming...

[Petey131]

Schnittke take a nap please.

[OdaNobunaga]

If you watch the Republican National Convention, you get to see what amounts to a mass of hate speeches against "the Angry Left," gays, abortions, and Barack Obama, and ludicrous praise of McCain and Palin as "Reformers" despite the fact they've never given the American people any reason to believe they wouldn't continue the failed policies of George W. Bush.

Barack's actually given some detail on his policy, while McCain has just made cries of "I was a P.O.W." or "That's sexist!"

The Republicans have nothing to offer in this election.

[christabor]

"The Angry Left" is the most accurate way to decribe your side. Well, Winey or Born Losers would also work. This is how y'all have chosen to define yourselves. Needy, seeking the government to fill a void left by not having a good father or mother. Now you can't handle life. Need the government to provide you a god job, health insurance, money to pay your bills and give you a bottle so you can sleep. You're angry when you think you may have to grow up and take care of yourself.

You guys still believe in Santa. You just think he's running on the Democratic ticket every 4 years. Something for nothing is a fairy tale. The only people who experience it are the leaders of your party. Well, no they actually use the childish fantasies you hold as fuel for their own desire for power and wealth.

[DesertDivine]

Good idea....And I have two words that should be foremost when you go out there to vote.....Supreme Court.

[AnotherToerag]

Obama hasn't made eliminating earmarks one of the central focuses of his campaign. It's the hypocracy of picking a VP that goes against one of the main foci of his campaign that is getting McCain in trouble here.

The Democrats won't "come back to reality and realize that... McCain isn't a demon." Why?
Because there is far too much at stake in this election.
Because McCain wants to keep our troops in Iraq when even the Iraqi leadership wants us out.
Because McCain wants to invade Iran for no good reason.
Because McCain wants to tap the rest of our fossil fuel resources without regard to our environment for the sake of profit, instead of developing alternatives to fossil fuels.
Because McCain would like to appoint judges to the Supreme Court that would intend to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Because McCain doesn't believe in equal pay for equal work for women.
Because McCain doesn't want to give our troops the benefits that they have earned and that they deserve.
Because McCain proposed tax policies will make the wealthy richer and the middle and low income families suffer because of it.

As for pie-in-the-sky dreams: Some of the goals are lofty, but with goals, with an idea of how things would be if they were in an ideal world, we can at least make some progress to get there. With progress, things get better, sometimes little by little. Some of these policies don't have a middle ground.

[Tobiasism]

$450,000 for an agriculturalprocessing plant?
Wasilla must be the breadbasket of Alaska.
How long a growing season do they have?
Maybe it was an indoor pot plant.

[arthur2008]

John McCain has moved so far from any principles he once had that he can't remember what he believed this morning, let alone seven years ago.

". . . political intolerance by any political party is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value. The political tactics of division and slander are not our values.
"They are corrupting influences on religion and politics and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.

"Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right."

John McCain

April 2000

[Rumba]

When Palin finally goes before the press she had better be prepared for questions she has never faced before in red neck country.

[eden4barack08]

Well, they say she's very smart, but I don't know how much she was able to cram in three days.