LAT: Palin relied on earmark system she now opposes

Palin relied on earmark system she now opposes
The governor's past practice on earmarks stands in contrast to the views of her running mate, a researcher at a watchdog group says.
By Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 1, 2008

ANCHORAGE — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin presents herself as an ally of presidential candidate John McCain when it comes to curbing wasteful government spending.

On Friday, when McCain introduced her as his running mate, she said she "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending," the legislative technique used to slip projects into appropriations bills without rigorous congressional review.

But under her leadership, the state of Alaska has requested 31 earmarks worth $197.8 million in next year's federal budget, according to the website of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Palin has recently been publicly critical of requests made in past years by Stevens and others for $223 million in federal funds for a bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Gravina Island, calling it "the Bridge to Nowhere," a derogatory label critics attached to the project.

As a candidate for governor in 2006, she backed funding for the bridge.

After her election, however, she killed the project, saying she would use the federal funds for other purposes.

As mayor of the small city of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin appears to have made use of the system she now decries, hiring a Washington lobbyist, Steven Silver, to represent the town. Years ago, Silver worked as an aide to Stevens.

After he was hired, the city obtained funding for several projects, including a city bus facility that received an earmark valued at $600,000 in 2002. That year a local water and sewer project received $1.5 million in federal earmarks, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog organization.

Continue Reading: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-earmarks1-2008sep01,0,6108885.story

like shooting fish in a barrel.

The sooner all of this comes out the better. I predict she will be gone by next week and replaced with someone slightly more competent. But who?

It's one scandal after another.
Did he not realize that all this would surface?
That people would have questions about her????

This is his first important decision, and he blew it.

Man at this point they may have said their daughter is pregnant to get the media not to focus on all this fraud and corruption.