Posted on 09/08/2008 3:57:27 PM PDT by Fred
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. Republican presidential candidate John McCain (right) and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, at a campaign rally in Lee's Summit, Mo.
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
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Let it go. She killed it, as an official act as Governor.
Gee, even the Democrats earlier this year credited Palin with stopping the bridge, then they went and scrubbed any mention of it...but others have screen shots of their web sites congragulating her on stopping it.
If Team McCain aren’t willing to engage this then they deserve to lose... this is embarrassing. They have a good explanation but they’re doing nothing...
What may have seemed like a good idea when she was first running for office may have started to stink as she looked into the financial and logistic details of the issue more deeply. Therefore, she changed her mind and exercised the executive power entrusted to her by the people of Alaska.
No story.
Obama would have voted "Present" on the bridge. The money would have been siphoned off by consultants and community organizers, and the bridge would never have been built regardless.
-ccm
The funds, however, were NOT redirected by Congress. In fact, a proposal to transfer the funds for Alaska to Louisiana to subsidize FEMA credit card abusers was defeated and the funds continued to be credited to Alaska and they were used in other projects there.
(NOTE: I added the "credit card abusers", but the legislation would have sent Alaska's "share" to Louisiana and once there history has shown time and again they would have been stolen).
The bridge to nowhere controversy is a test of Team McCain’s ability to drive the right narrative. If they fail it, they will lose. It’s embarrassing, this should have been taken care of a long time ago.
Now there would have been the magic words. That'd slipped right under the noses of the MSM pundits.
Or, maybe they'd gotten the bridge if they'd called it "The Harvey Milk Memorial".
Obama voted FOR the bridge.
So did Plugs...
This is a very minor point of semantics and procedure and means very little in the scheme of things.
However, they will try to use it to destroy her credibility, regardless of the truth.
Doggone, he could have gotten 2 and a half bridges to Gravina Island for that money, and then Ketchikan would never suffer the tie-ups that so plagued the Chesapeake Bay Bridge between Annapolis and Senator Biden for so many years (until he got some earmarks to build another span).
Incoming fire from the Obama media.
While as a candidate for governor she supported the bridhe, she did stop the project as a governor.
“And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money...”
So in other words, she DID kill the bridge to nowhere. Why can’t these libs admit it? Yeah, of course she kept the money, but she never claimed she did not, and she would have been a sorry-ass excuse for a governor to send the money back to Washington, wouldn’t she?
The McCain campaign is not stupid. The bridge issue has been a focus since her speech, and they knew it. The fact that they even use it again today in the ad makes me think they're into something... As a bait, although I'm not sure what...
So the Bridge to Nowhere was built eh? Must’ve been invisible materials
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