The newsmedia are being tested to see if a bald-faced lie in a McCain ad will pass without comment. So far they are acquitting themselves well. Sarah Palin's lie that "she said thanks but no thanks" to the Bridge to Nowhere (accompanied by the Road to Nowhere), a lie proudly repeated by John McCain although he knows it's a lie and then inserted into a McCain campaign commercial approved by John McCain, is now being called out by just about everyone, including the Wall Street Journal (not to mention Newsweek, the Washington Post, Associated Press, etc., etc.):
Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the McCain campaign continues to assert that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the federal government "thanks but no thanks" to the now-famous bridge to an island in her home state.The McCain campaign released a television advertisement1 Monday morning titled "Original Mavericks." The narrator of the 30-second spot boasts about the pair: "He fights pork-barrel spending. She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere."
Gov. Palin, who John McCain named as his running mate less than two weeks ago, quickly adopted a stump line bragging about her opposition to the pork-barrel project Sen. McCain routinely decries.
"We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge," Gov. Palin said in August 2006, according to the local newspaper, "and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative." The bridge would have linked Ketchikan to the airport on Gravina Island. Travelers from Ketchikan (pop. 7,500) now rely on ferries.
A year ago, the governor issued a press release2 that the money for the project was being "redirected."
"Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer," she said. "Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Much of the public's attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened." (Wall Street Journal)
Let Governor Palin tell you:
Yes, God Bless Em, the Alaska congressional delegation sure is doing a good job -- bringing the pork home to Alaska. Palin only abandoned the Bridge to Nowhere after it became clear it was going just where it should go -- Nowhere. But she kept the money -- our money -- for Alaska to use on other transportation projects. You're welcome, Alaska. Not that you need it. Your state government is awash in money, thanks to oil. But you took my tax dollars anyway. Oink oink.
The outright lying of the McCain is shameless and brazen, so we shouldn't be surprised they defended themselves with still more lies. Again, the Wall Street Journal:
"The only people 'lying' about spending are the Obama campaign. The only explanation for their hysterical attacks is that they're afraid that when John McCain and Sarah Palin are in the White House, Barack Obama's nearly $1 billion in earmark spending will stop dead in its tracks," [the McCain campaign's] Rogers said.
At a rally today, Sen. McCain again asserted that Sen. Obama has requested nearly a billion in earmarks. In fact, the Illinois senator requested $311 million last year, according to the Associated Press, and none this year. In comparison, Gov. Palin has requested $750 million in her two years as governor -- which the AP says is the largest per-capita request in the nation.
AP reports the per capita earmark figure for Illinois at $25 per person last year, zero this year. For Governor Palin's Alaska this year alone it is $295 per capita. I don't begrudge anyone help they need. But Alaska is not a state that needs help. Its coffers are full. But still Governor Palin takes more.
The issue here is not so much she isn't the reformer she claims to be (indeed that understates the case). The issue is that she is a liar and so is John McCain.
- Log in to post comments
The 'big lie' is a time honored technique for getting people to believe the false instead of the true. And conservatives do like time honored things.
Well, at least she's not a serial liar like Al Gore, who claimed to have invented the Internet.
OK, granted, he never actually said that. But he did wear earth tones. And sigh, occasionally.
I just can't believe anyone would attack Palin for repeating a thoroughly debunked lie 23 times and counting. I mean, this is a woman who has a special-needs child and is close personal friends with Jesus. Is nothing sacred?
What is it exactly that the VP does, everyday? [...] We want to make sure that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things were trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the US, before I can even start addressing that question
- Sarah Palin ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pak-rH0dCeA )
I'm telling you, the media don't care. If it's not on TV it didn't happen. And what's more, the American people don't care.
quote:
Three times in recent years, McCain s catalogs of objectionable spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town [of Wasilla], requested by its mayor at the time Sarah Palin.
http://www.alan.com/2008/09/03/palin
Yes, Palin Did Stop That Bridge
By JIM DEMINT
September 10, 2008
"But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up." -- Barack Obama, Sept. 6, 2008
In politics, words are cheap. What really counts are actions. Democrats and Republicans have talked about fiscal responsibility for years. In reality, both parties have a shameful record of wasting hundreds of billions of tax dollars on pork-barrel projects.
My Senate colleague Barack Obama is now attacking Gov. Sarah Palin over earmarks. Having worked with both John McCain and Mr. Obama on earmarks, and as a recovering earmarker myself, I can tell you that Mrs. Palin's leadership and record of reform stands well above that of Mr. Obama.
Let's compare.
Mrs. Palin used her veto pen to slash more local projects than any other governor in the state's history. She cut nearly 10% of Alaska's budget this year, saving state residents $268 million. This included vetoing a $30,000 van for Campfire USA and $200,000 for a tennis court irrigation system. She succinctly justified these cuts by saying they were "not a state responsibility."
Meanwhile in Washington, Mr. Obama voted for numerous wasteful earmarks last year, including: $12 million for bicycle paths, $450,000 for the International Peace Museum, $500,000 for a baseball stadium and $392,000 for a visitor's center in Louisiana.
Mrs. Palin cut Alaska's federal earmark requests in half last year, one of the strongest moves against earmarks by any governor. It took real leadership to buck Alaska's decades-long earmark addiction.
Mr. Obama delivered over $100 million in earmarks to Illinois last year and has requested nearly a billion dollars in pet projects since 2005. His running mate, Joe Biden, is still indulging in earmarks, securing over $90 million worth this year.
Mrs. Palin also killed the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in her own state. Yes, she once supported the project: But after witnessing the problems created by earmarks for her state and for the nation's budget, she did what others like me have done: She changed her position and saved taxpayers millions. Even the Alaska Democratic Party credits her with killing the bridge.
When the Senate had its chance to stop the Bridge to Nowhere and transfer the money to Katrina rebuilding, Messrs. Obama and Biden voted for the $223 million earmark, siding with the old boys' club in the Senate. And to date, they still have not publicly renounced their support for the infamous earmark.
Mrs. Palin has proven courageous by taking on big spenders in her own party. In March of this year, the Anchorage Daily News reported that, "Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is aggravated about what he sees as Gov. Sarah Palin's antagonism toward the earmarks he uses to steer federal money to the state."
Mr. Obama had a chance to take on his party when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered a sham ethics bill, which was widely criticized by watchdog groups such as Citizens Against Government Waste for shielding earmarks from pubic scrutiny. But instead of standing with taxpayers, Mr. Obama voted for the bill. Today, he claims he helped write the bill that failed to clean up Washington.
Mr. Obama has shown little restraint on earmarks until this year, when he decided to co-sponsor an earmark moratorium authored by Mr. McCain and myself. Mr. Obama is vulnerable on this issue, and he knows it. That is why he is lashing out at Mrs. Palin and trying to hide his own record.
Mrs. Palin is one of the strongest antiearmark governors in America. If more governors around the country would do what she has done, we would be much closer to fixing our nation's fiscal problems than we are.
Mrs. Palin's record here is solid and inspiring. She will help Mr. McCain shut down the congressional favor factory, and she has a record to prove it. Actions mean something. You can't just make stuff up.
Mr. DeMint, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from South Carolina.
Mr DeMint should read FactCheck first:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gop_convention_spin_part_ii.html