Even the WSJ Calls Bullshit: Record Contradicts Palin's 'Bridge' Claims

[jefferson_dem]

Record Contradicts Palin's 'Bridge' Claims
By ELIZABETH HOLMES and LAURA MECKLER
September 9, 2008

The Bridge to Nowhere argument isn't going much of anywhere.

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.

But Gov. Palin's claim comes with a serious caveat. She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.

"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."

On Monday in Missouri, Gov. Palin put it this way: "I told Congress thanks but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere. If the state wanted to build a bridge we would built it ourselves."

<SNIP>

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB122090791901411709.html

[Coexist]

1. kick!

[BOSSHOG]

2. But she's a maverick and an agent of change and a republican

how could it possibly be bullshit? The important factor is that if you are a dumb as a rock, dittohead conservative who swallows better then a bourbon street whore she's just a sweetheart who crossed swords with special intersts in Alaska and won. She's fred phelps in pumps by gawd.

[Major Hogwash]

3. And I say, "thanks, but no thanks to a McCain presidency"!!

No way, no how, not now, not ever - never!!!

[Eric J in MN]

4. Thanks. That's a well written article.

I've read most of those facts before, but I still enjoyed how the writers of that article pulled them together.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. But she eats mooseburgers!

And she is so damned cute!!

:sarcasm:

[WheelWalker]

7. I think her penchant for mooseburger has led to her contracting Chronic Wasting Disease...

Something's definitely wrong with her brain. Can such a level of cognitive dissonance be merely congenital? Methinks NOT!

[Vattel]

6. This isn't the whole story

WSJ: "She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere."

This is a bit misleading. She didn't reallocate funds Congress had supplied for the bridge to other projects. Congress itself had cancelled the earmark for the bridge 13 months before Palin took office. Worse still, her stated reason for cancelling her state's own plan to build the bridge was that "Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island." So she didn't stand up to Congress and say no thanks to the bridge to nowhere, as she claims; rather Congress stood up to Alaska and refused to pay for the bridge.

[Marsala]

9. In fairness, she did cancel the project instead of continuing to fight for it

There is a tiny bit of wiggle room there and we shouldn't focus on that; it's better to hit her on being "for it before she was against it" and keeping the money afterwards.

[WheelWalker]

10. No - if I understand correctly, Congress cancelled the funding, not her. She just had an

episode of AIRS (Acute Involuntary Reality Syndrome).

[Vattel]

11. The point I was trying to make

is that she couldn't have stood up to Congress and said, "Thanks but no thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere" given that Congress had already cancelled the earmark for the bridge. She is pretending to have stood up to Congress and refused their offer of pork. It's a clear lie. And the lie is even worse given that her stated rationale for cancelling her state's plans to build the bridge was that Congress wasn't interested in funding it.

[jefferson_dem]

14. Bullshit.

She cancelled the project when she realized the federal dollars would't flow as she hoped.

[Eric J in MN]

12. Congress provided $223 million Alaska could use for any transportation projects.

Governor Palin 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."

So according to her own words at the time, she changed her mind because Congress didn't provide even more money.

But in her convention speech, she claimed her position was that Congress shouldn't supply money to Alaska for a bridge, since "If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves."

[Eric J in MN]

8. Even the defenders from the McCain campaign...

...quoted in the article don't claim that Sarah Palin tried to stop Congress from spending money on the bridge.

The line Sarah Palin keeps repeating ("I told Congress thanks but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere") is a lie because she never said any such thing to Congress.

Whether her position shifted on the bridge isn't the main issue.

She's a liar because she's repeatedly claiming to have told Congress something she never said.

[calmblueocean]

13. Think about it: her first major speech, a BIG FAT LIE.

What an introduction to the American people.

[Eric J in MN]

15. She told the same lie in her first speech after McCain announced her...

..and repeated the lie in her convention speech.

Two major speeches within a week to introduce herself, and the same lie, using practically the same words, both times.

[mwb970]

16. Did you catch this incredible part at the very end?

The McCain campaign jumped back with spokesman Brian Rogers calling the attacks "hysterical."

"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," Mr. 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.

Holy crap! Will they keep up this stream of lies even as the MSM debunks them?

[Purveyor]

17. Thank you for posting... K&R eom