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.
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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?
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(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?
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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.
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.
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.
< Neither one has foreign experience > but Obama is running for President not VP, so in reality - he is really underqualified !!!!!
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.
Let's visit the word 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.