The Real Sarah Palin Scandal

Labor Day brought us an ugly media feeding frenzy when it surfaced that Sarah Palin's teenage daughter is pregnant. But the real scandal for John McCain's V.P.-to-be is the flurry of stories that as a politician in Alaska, Palin had a voracious appetite for the very congressional earmarks and pork barrel spending that John McCain has made a signature issue of trying to stamp out.

As mayor of Wasilla, a suburb of Anchorage, Palin hired one of Alaska's most connected lobbying firms to secure almost $27 million in federal appropriations for her constituents, according to the Washington Post. Wasilla benefited mightily from Palin's decision: federal earmarks for $900,000 in municipal sewer repairs, $1.9 million for a local transportation hub, and $15 million for a rail link, among other pet projects. For a town of just 6,700 people, this amounted to thousands of dollars per resident in federal largess. And the lobbying firm, Robertson, Monagle, & Eastaugh, wasn't just any band of wannabe legislators. The firm is closely linked to Alaska's two most notorious pork barrel Republicans, Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Don Young (Stevens was indicted this summer for accepting and failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from VECO, a now-defunct oil services firm).

It gets worse. The McCain camp has made much of Palin's supposedly principled decision as governor to decline federal money to build the "Bridge to Nowhere," a national symbol of pork barrel spending run amok. In her speech accepting the position as McCain's running mate, Palin recalled: "I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere....'If our state wanted a bridge,' I said, 'we'd build it ourselves.'"

Stirring stuff. But as USA Today reports, Palin was actually for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. Campaigning for governor in 2006, Palin trumpeted her support for the $233 million bridge to reach an island of just 50 inhabitants. And displaying an unnerving understanding of how the dirty appropriations game is played, she even urged quick action to build the bridge while Alaska's congressional delegation (i.e., Stevens and Young) was well-positioned to secure the necessary federal tax dollars. Only when the bridge became a public relations debacle did Palin flip positions and declare that Alaska didn't need it after all.

We've been told by the McCain camp to overlook Palin's thin résumé because she's an insurgent pork-busting reformer in the mold of John McCain. We've been misled. Palin was looking for federal handouts just like every other self-interested politician that John McCain excoriates. Take that card away, and what does she really offer?

That's the real scandal about Sarah Palin.

Comments

[bellindaba]

The public hasn't just been mislied....we've all been lied to about numerous things to do with Governor Sarah Palin and it's time that extensive investigation was done and it's time that these things began to be made the foremost central items of this election.

[pamelag1972]

Sarah Palin's nomination is tokenism at its best. She thinks she is going to fill the 18 million cracks that Hillary left in the glass ceiling when in reality she is no where near the stellar mind and heart of Hillary Clinton. She is simply a socially conservative Republican in a dress. Like most conservatives her social policy is against the rights of women to chose when or if they want to reproduce. She wants to censor books (even though she never named the books) in her local library and the person who stood up to her was fired. She is a step backward for many women in America. Her acceptance speech sounded more like she was just made prom queen, rather than vice president of the United States. Her interview with Charles Gibson was simply backpedaling, and she never really answer ed the questions with any depth.

[pjbuehler]

I'm concerned that the real issues regarding Palin are not getting much air time. I don't see ads clearly stating her push for the bridge and only changing positions when there was a backlash. The one I do see saying she was for it before she was against it really doesn't say much other than she changed her mind missing the real issue. It just seems like this, real news is not getting much media attention. are there any organizations pushing this forward?

[lucite]

Sarah never served in the military. Sarah was never a P.O.W. How does she qualify for the VP position?

[ChangeGonnaCome]

John McCain's Palin is already Failin.

[epinard]

Sister Sarah makes most of the fact that she is C-I-C of the Alaska National Guard. Isn't each governor the C-I-C of his/her National Guard?

How many members of the Alaska (pop. ~600,00) national guard are there compared to let's say New York or Kansas?

Where was McCain's lapel flag whilst he was introducing her?

[Gryffindor Hero]

Here's an ad that I want to see (before and after Palin's nomination acceptance speech):

----------­----------­-
(narration):
John McCain wants to reform Washington and have an open government.

His running mate, Sarah Palin, hired a Washington Lobbyist and received 27 million dollars
in pork barrel spending for her small hometown of 6000 people.

When John McCain railed against 527s bypassing his campaign reform law, Sarah Palin was running a 527 for indicted Republican Senator, Ted Stevens.

Sarah Palin was a big supporter of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere", and even urged the state of Alaska to quickly build the bridge as long as the Alaskan delegation could reel the pork barrel money in.

While John McCain wants an open government, Sarah Palin is refusing to disclose why confidential emails were sent to her husband, who is a private citizen. She is also refusing to disclose all details of the agreement with the TransCanada pipeline.

Sarah Palin is repeatedly delaying meeting with investigators probing her firing of her Public Safety Commissioner.

Is Sarah Palin a reformer ? Why did John McCain select her for his Vice President?
-----------------

[bunnyg]

I agree, one more added section to this ad should be John McCain: JUDGEMENT! He does not have any.

[tantip]

I can say that McCain did not put his Country first when he picked Palin.

[RobinSeattle]

Republicans don't care about ethics. They are a leave 'em dead by the side of the road ends justifies the means party.

[Kalinesboy]

The real scandal is what the Assemblies of God teach?!!!

In 2000 Time magazine did a rundown of the greatest events of the last millenium i.e. 1000-2000 AD.
In their top 100 was the ressurgence of Pentecostal Christianity to its current size of @ 600 million believers. Please go debate with the editors of Time as to whether or not belief in the end times is popular or not in Christian circles today. The Assemblies of God just happens to be one of the largest pentecostal groups in the world today. Oh, and where did Obama give his Father's Day message...a pentecostal church.

As the father of two police officers I do not want a president who is friends with a "cop killer wanna be."

Hero vs. zero......­..........­.bark eating woman vs. plagarizing DC insider...­..........­Republican­s have the winning hand.

[OdaNobunaga]

The word hero is thrown around too much, these days. A hero is someone who stands up for those who can't stand up for themselves. Someone who sacrifices on behalf of others.

Palin wants to the Polar Bear off of the endangered species list, despite the fact that they are dying in record numbers.

Palin likes to hunt animals from helicopters and planes.

Palin wants to take her morality, and force it down the throats of all those who don't agree with her, despite the fact that any intelligent person will tell you that morality is mostly relative.

Palin has worked tirelessly to secure earmarks for her state from our federal government, only to hand that money over to Big Oil.

Those aren't the markings of a hero.

[senordylann]

I want to point out how immature it is to mention Palin's hunting. Hunting and views on polar bear endangeredment have nothing to do with her morality or viability as VP. After all, she isn't advocating the slaughter of polar bears.

I think people like you are trying to find small flaws in Palin's character to relentlessly hold them against her. Give me the evidence that she is paying Big Oil off, please.

[demfriend]

The odds being as high as they are for something bad to happen medicaly to John McCain should put the fear of something really bad happening to all of us if he should off chance win. The have the person who has made millions of earmarks full of pork for Alaska and her friends in the OIl business and whose aggressive means to get these earmarks from Stevens and others says her real beliefs on these things and not the phoney put out by Mccain that she is like him but wait a minute, she is like him now. Gone is the 2000 model and the new and worse 2008 model loves lobbyists and what they can do for him. He also is in bed with the oil companies to the tune of millions donated so far to him so maybe the truth about them both isn't for the public to be told but to find out. But above it all this woman who has mis-used the "power" she has had in the two eleceted jobs thus far to fire people she "felt in her heart" didn't support her or because they failed to do her biddings and fire someone else. She is another form of Rove lite and she has pages taken from Bush/Cheney so we should all fear her.

[pcplz]

Palin offered her daughter up to turn the scrutiny away from her. Nice.

[KELLI2L]

Sarah Palin has a thicker resume than Obama, in my opinion (IMO).......
< Neither one has foreign experience > but Obama is running for President not VP, so in reality - he is really underqualified !!!!!

[KillTheMessenger]

Haahhhahah­ahahahaaa.­.. good one. Who says trolls can't be funny?

[heronimous]

yeh it's not like obama just gave a speech to a quarter of a million american flag waving germans or anything you know.. i mean the rest of the world must see him as some kind of joke.. oh wait.. i live in the rest of the world.. and i almost forgot that it's the fact this election is even seen as a contest that is the sad scary joke for us..

i mean really.. she has a thicker resme? sports reporter? hunter? mother? less time in public service than obama.. oh but wait she has less than two years of executive experience.. and she shares a border (really?) with russia.. so is that why you guys voted bush in in hindsight? given he'd never left the country.. that whole proximity to mexico thing?

fingers crossed the majority of your country does the right thing come november.

[KELLI2L]

Hope your not intimating that Democrats don't partake in Pork-Barrel Spending and Ear-Marks !!!
Let's visit the word Hypocrite......

[ChangeGonnaCome]

Don't you really mean Repulicrites. Because they are all hypocrites.

[MiddleRoadLiberal]

Saying you're against pork barrel when really you eat it all up = hypocrite.

Not saying you're against pork barrel while utilizing it = not hypocrite.

In summary, hypocrisy is saying that you're against something that you're actually for (or vice versa). Hypocrisy is not pointing out other people's hypocrisy just because you're not in on their game.

[tantip]

I really question John McCain's judgement in picking Palin, She has zero foreign policy experience and John McCain is 72 years old and has had a few of bouts with cancer and if he is elected President and something happens to him while in office then she would be our President and someone who has zero International or Foreign Policy experience going to do about Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran etc....It's a very scary thought that she could be the one handling our Foreign Policy affairs.

[Bobg]

McCain has already outlived his father (the admiral) who died of natural causes at age 70. Could it be he's in mortality denial, or is it that he will do and say anything to gain the presidency? Does he remind you of anyone else who had a powerful politically connected father who skated through his learning years with grades that literally shout out " hey, I'm not too bright", but who developed real skill at having a good time. Just how does one graduate 795th out of 800?

[JuniorIsaac]

Yeah, but the mainstream media wont report this, will they? I don't know. Maybe we can make up a stupid scandal that has nothing to do with the issue and slip it in somehow.