McCain criticized Wasilla earmarks in 2001

Source: CNN

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain criticized two of his future running mate's hometown projects in broadsides in 2001 against congressional "pork-barrel" spending, records from the Arizona senator's office show.

McCain and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have criticized such spending as a central part of their campaign for the White House. McCain has made pork-busting a centerpiece of his maverick pitch for years.

But when Palin served as mayor of her hometown of Wasilla, outside Anchorage, she obtained about $27 million in federal "earmarks" during her last four years in office, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

In a 2001 statement opposing a transportation spending bill McCain singled out for criticism about $3 million worth of those projects. McCain's list of "objectionable" spending included a $2.5 million road project for the town that then had a population of 5,500, as well as a $450,000 appropriation for an agricultural processing plant there.

McCain's campaign responded Wednesday by saying the record on pork-barrel spending "is one we are eager to discuss."

"As mayor of Wasilla, Gov. Palin was forced to work within the current system to obtain critical funding for a growing city," the campaign said in a statement. By comparison, it said, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama "has consciously attempted to manipulate the system by requesting nearly $1 million every working day he has been in the Senate."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/palin.earmarks/

Fact.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:kick:

all they have to do is put video statements together. There are huge contradictory statements on video on virtually every issue by both Palin and McSame. They have no shame!

Does anyone know WTF he's talking about?

of downtown Chicago then there are in all of Alaska (let alone the whole state of Illinois). Gee, I wonder if the McCain campaign is going to welcome discussing pork barrel spending on a per capita basis?

works out to about $25 per person. But hey, who needs facts these days.

Although, you've gotta love how he changes the comparison from population to days in office. I wonder what palin's numbers work out to in days of office.

Just thought I'd throw that correction in there. :D

"As mayor of Wasilla, Gov. Palin was forced to work within the current system to obtain critical funding for a growing city," the campaign said in a statement.

This is a LIE. Palin was the FIRST mayor of Wasilla to go after earmarks! (And she did it with a lobbyist tied to Abramoff and Stevens.)

"Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996 on a campaign theme of "a time for change." According to a review of congressional spending by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, Wasilla did not receive any federal earmarks in the first few years of Palin's tenure."

And the town never had before...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090103148.html


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x381088

From the WaPo link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090103148.html

As mayor of Wasilla, however, Palin oversaw the hiring of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, an Anchorage-based law firm with close ties to Alaska's most senior Republicans: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, who was indicted in July on charges of accepting illegal gifts. The Wasilla account was handled by the former chief of staff to Stevens, Steven W. Silver, who is a partner in the firm.

Palin's Lobbyist Has Abramoff Ties
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/palins_lobbyist_has_abramoff_t.php

The Washington Post reports today that, while Mayor of Wasilla, Palin oversaw the hiring of a lobbyist, Steven Silver -- a former chief of staff to now-indicted GOP senator Ted Stevens -- to help win federal earmarks for the city.

But Silver appears to have additional ties that could further undercut Palin's image as a squeaky-clean reformer. According to Senate lobbying disclosure reports examined by TPMmuckraker, from 2002 to 2004 Silver listed as a client Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. On Greenberg's behalf, Silver lobbied the federal government on "issues relating to Indian/Native American policy," "exploration for oil and gas" and "legislation relating to gaming issues" -- the very issues that Abramoff headed up for Greenberg at the time. In other words, Silver appears to have been a part of "Team Abramoff."


Now that is juicy.


ETA:

Abramoff, McCain, Palin, Corruption & the GOP…
http://suzieqq.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/abramoff-mccain-palin-corruption-the-gop/

And leading the efforts to slow down a real investigation has been John McCain.

During a November 17, 2004 Hearing on the Abramoff Scandal, John McCain made a promise to the representatives of the Tigua Tribe of Texas:

"I pledge, as a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, that we will not stop until the complete truth is told."

It was a promise—like all John McCain promises—that McCain quickly broke. Before the same hearing was over, it was clear that McCain had little interests in exposing the truth.

Instead, he spun a narrative of gullible Indians, greedy lobbyists and the straight talking Senator who took them on.

The recent Ralph Reed ad from the Obama Campaign pointed out that McCain never called Reed to testify under oath. Another Abramoff co-conspirator given a pass by McCain was Grover Norquist. In fact, the extremely corrupt Grover Norquist is now one of McCain’s advisors on tax policy. And then there was McCain’s promise to NOT INVESTIGATE any elected Republican involved in the Abramoff scandal.

At the heart of McCain’s cover-up are 750,000 plus pages of Abramoff Scandal documents that McCain has sent to the National Archives stamped with a Do not open until 2056 sticker on each box. Less than 5,000 pages of these documents have been released to the public. There are a lot of uninvestigated crimes in those files.

Oh, and McCain’s chief foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunermann, was hired by Abramoff’s old lobbying firm to “advise” Greenberg Traurig on how to “work” with McCain’s “investigation”. Since then the lobbying firm has given McCain over $160,000.


JUICY!

:yourock:

GD:P is cranking today!

THIS is the type of information the MSM needs to report. Not the nonsense and smokescreens they've been reporting in cooperation with the McCain campaign.

If the news media properly investigated Palin and accurately reported the results the McCain campaign would collapse.

...mclame said he would name and make these people famous. looks like he kept his word.

This is good stuff.

Unless, of course, you're a lunatic, in which case...

Wow. What shameless bullshit. How can he look himself in the mirror every morning?


:wow:

Being a maverick's maverick means being able to cricize mavericks in their maverick positions, even when the maverick is one's previous maverick self being a maverick. John McCain will proudly say that he's such a maverick, he can condemn his previous maverick positions.

:kick:

"But longtime Alaska journalist and former Palin staffer Larry Persily said the governor "is telling only half the story, as far as the earmarks."

"She was hungry for funding from the federal government that could help her community," Persily said.

Palin not only sought money from Alaska's congressional delegation, but she hired the former chief of staff to veteran Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens -- now under indictment in a wide-ranging corruption probe -- for help. The result was that Wasilla won $600,000 for a new bus facility, $1.75 million to upgrade its dispatch center and $2.4 million to improve water and sewer facilities."

This would be funny if it weren't so DAMN sad. Actually, it is still a little funny....

Was it a dirt road? :rofl:

A great big AT&T sports complex right in the middle of nothing much. My kids go there for gym class.

Technically it's Wasilla and Palmer together so more than the 5500 population that people are using as a figure, but not much more.

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Who, me? I'm just counting backwards....

Or something like that.

:evilgrin:

:popcorn: