’)At any point now, I expect Ashton Kutcher to jump out and tell us this whole Palin thing is just John McCain doing a “Punk’d” on the entire country.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog.
…
McCain’s crusade against earmarks — federal spending sought by members of Congress to benefit specific projects — has been a hallmark of his campaign. He has said earmarks are wasteful and are often inserted into bills with little oversight, sometimes by a single powerful member of Congress.
Palin has also railed against earmarks, touting her opposition to a $223 million bridge in a remote corner of the state as a prime credential for the vice presidential nomination. “As governor, I’ve stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies, and the good-ol’-boy network,” she said Friday.
In her years 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 for allegedly 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.
Ash Josh Marshall notes and the NY Times is now reporting, it is clear Sen. McCain used the same sort of judgment in bringing Sarah Palin into his campaign as he did when he voted for the Iraq War: None at all. It is just the latest bad decision and lack of judgment John McCain has demonstrated in both his public and private life, and the sort of impulse control he would exercise if God forbid he was elected president.
The Obama campaign should just run an ad saying “Barack Obama thinks before he makes important decisions”. It would be an excellent rebuttal to Bush, McCain, and the entire Republican apparatus.
“reformer!”-Dick Morris
Wow. Just, wow.
Let me go ahead and write the comments of duh and Jay real quick:
WELL GORSH SHE WUZ MAYOR HER JOB WUZ TO GET MONEY FOR HER TOWN AMIRITE U GUYZ DON’T UNDERSTAND CAPITALISM U IZ COMMUNISTS
I lurve it. The nutters _have_ to defend her, even as it’s becoming clear to Americans that she’s a total whack-job hypocrite.
The press is obviously biased towards McCain, but c’mon, they _have_ to ask him about this one. Is he for reforming pork-barrel spending? And if so, why did he choose someone who is for it?
Crickets?
Interesting how Obama is rumored to be a Muslim militant and asked to disassociate himself from a Congregationalist (albeit Christian) pastor, but Palin is not asked to disavow her secessionist past. Also odd how Obama’s judgement re- allowing Rev. Wright to officiate his marriage and baptize his kids was deemed poor judgement of character by the Hammity’s and Carlson’s, but McCain’s selection of a veep candidate facing a pending abuse of power investigation, who has a knocked up underage daughter, is not considered poor judgement by righties.
Guess Obama is a horse of a different color. Cindy- get me some painkillers!
McCain is fucked. And because Palin is proving to be a problematic selection, to say the least, but because shit like this is leaking out:
McCain wanted Lieberman or Tom Ridge, both of whom are pro-choice. From the same New York Times article that Oliver linked to:
So now the righties know that McCain didn’t really want their new hero, Palin, and that Palin was, when it’s all said and done, nothing but a purely political pick intended to mollify the GOP whackjob base.
If McCain throws Palin overboard now he’ll be totally screwed as the base, who already don’t trust him, wouldn’t vote for him if he paid them. If he sticks with her, the Evangelicals will still know that she wasn’t even close to his first choice even as more and more revelations about her own political problems leak out.
McCain fucked himself on this one, completely.
I have no idea why this is the last sentence in the WaPo story but this should have been right at the top:
I mean, c’mon. The woman presented herself as a champion for cutting wasteful spending and a foe of earmarks but her office is asking for $200 million worth of new federal earmarks? Please.
I’ve been up to Alaska for THE SKINNY ON GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN.
Sarah Palin Inauguration Speech. 2006
“I will unambiguously, steadfastly and doggedly guard the interests of this great state as a mother naturally guards her own.”
Kinda of scary isn’t it.
I found a lot about her executive experience. She fires everyone that doesn’t support her and her family, her election campaigns, and oh yes, any guy that tries to date Todd’s friend’s ex-wife.
Palin fired Wasilla’s police chief and librarian because they didn’t help her govern enough and by the way they didn’t support her election campaign either.
MCCAIN forgot to tell us about the WASILLA RECALL OF MAYOR PALIN that was settled by the rehiring of the librarian and an out-of-court settlement with the Chef of Police. Yeah did the city of Wasilla have to pay for her executive blunders? What is a public settlement?
What I found most troubling is that citizens that complain about her are doing it anonymously. On the newspaper community website her critics are being asked to identify themselves. I wonder why? Maybe they know how Sarah shoot?
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/121691#comment-218053
Here are two comments about her story of her Texas flight home and what some of her citizens thought about it.
April 21, 2008 – 8:29am | Boodle1
Cover Up
Oh Mah Gawd….. You are so correct…..the news story at 6:00 was totally different than the story at 5:00. I just want to know if the FEDS are going to invesitigate her and put her onthe NO-FLY list since she laughed off the fact that she had to “sneak” (per Channel 2 news) onto the plane. What kind of person has her water break, gives a speech and then flies home. She put the passengers at risk and she certianly put her child at risk. She knew it was a high risk pregnancy and yet she was willing to get on a plane. She could have killed her child if he needed extreme medical care and she knew that was a possibility. She is a selfish. egomanical, law breaker who needs to be banned form flying for the rest of her life. If she would be this deceptive to get on a plane I can’t even imagine what she would try to pull next time.
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April 21, 2008 – 8:45am | Syrin
She is a selfish, egomanical and a law breaker
“BANNED” from public office would work! Become responsible and have the availability of an attentive mother. SP RESIGN..Please for the sake of your family RESIGN
Here is the website I found for some of her critics – SYRIN. Syrin has compiled a complete profile and timeline of Sarah Palin with links to many of her controversial acts of incompetence.
http://syrin.vox.com/library/post/gearing-up-for-the-rnc—republican-for-a-reason.html
They’re conspicuously absent from this thread. Perhaps because Jaim already told us what they’re gonna say, so what’s the point?
That was funny, Jaim.
Yes, Managers get money for their cities …
This “guilt by association” crap ( “so-and-so rode the same bus as so-and-so on March 12, 2004″ ) might work in the McCarthyesque world of Oliver Willis, but in the real world , you are setting her up as “yet another victim of the Leftist attack machine”
The only day that matters is November 5, when the MSM goes into overdrive explaining why Obama lost … EBTI* stories …
*EBTI – Everything But The Ideology
Funny that you have a problem with GBA now, Frank.
I suppose you’ll go back two or three years to find something I said to make YOUR point , which will only serve to prove MINE …
It’s clearly the left wing attack machine’s fault that Palin got $27 million in earmarks, the same sort of congressional money requests her running mate has said is the root of all evil. We clearly controlled her mind and made that happen.
Of course you didn’t make it happen — but you will distort it and try to spin it as eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil , when it is done all the time, and not at all the same as earmarking legislation to buy votes in your District …
I’m not distorting anything. McCain is against earmarks. Palin brought in a ton of earmarks. I don’t have a problem with earmarks. But John McCain does. I do think $27 million worth for a tiny Alaska town is a little much, however.
“Of course you didn’t make it happen — but you will distort it and try to spin it as eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil , when it is done all the time, and not at all the same as earmarking legislation to buy votes in your District …”
Wow. You are fucking retarded as ever.
Whatever happened to Republicans attacking earmarks and lobbyist as the scourge of fiscal responsibility? Hell, McCain was actually running on that platform earlier in the year, so what the fuck happened to make the party change its mind on this issue?
This, like the previous meme is stupid.
Earmarks have been a part of government here for decades. Other than John McCain himself, few are completely free of them. A small town in alaska, with a small population is going to have the same infrastructure needs (roads,sewers, police) as a larger town and no tax base to get it from.
Getting money from the Feds is not a bad thing in itself, the earmarking process is. McCain and Palin aim to changed the process.
But in the meantime, those are the rules of the game.
Lets look at it this way: All those rich hollywood lefties, the ones that are always complaining that we don’t pay ENOUGH taxes. How many of them fill out a 1040 EZ form do ya think? How many write off as much as their accountants will let them get away wtith…..
Same deal here.
Palin fired Wasilla’s police chief and librarian because they didn’t help her govern enough
She can fire librarians? How do librarians help the governor govern?
Four grand a resident. Hot damn. I guess she was over the extremist libertarian phase by the time her little hamlet was swimming in federal cash.
[...] immediately after I heard that John McCain’s running mate was the largely unknown Sarah Palin I caught one of the brewing controversies surrounding that choice: that her 17 year old daughter is [...]
Think “$640 toilet seat” and you’ll get a better picture …
I seriously doubt each resident got a check for $4,000.
What do YOU think?
You know what I think?
I think that Gov Palin has energized the base to the right of McCain, that were going to sit this Election. It’s not “flop sweat” you smell but the fear of defeat …
While you are waiting for “the kids” to put down their bongs and jello shots to go vote ( “Uh, what day’s Election Day again?” ) those dangerous “Fundies” will be lined up at the Polls – hoping that McCain will go to meet his Maker in, say, February of 2009 …
“…those dangerous “Fundies” will be lined up at the Polls – hoping that McCain will go to meet his Maker in, say, February of 2009 …”
I can see the bumper stickers in the bible belt now:
“Vote McCalin-Palin 08: Because He Ain’t Gonna Make It To 09″
Too awesome.
Frank, I wasn’t suggesting that each resident received four thousand dollar checks, only that that was the amount per resident that the city government received through earmarks. Which strikes me as pretty high – from what I’ve seen, typically towns that size can expect to see federal funds in the tens of thousands, hundreds if they’re lucky. They cobble that together with state, county and city sources, and that’s generally plenty to support an infrastructure.
I’m not sure how the ‘fundies’ and libertarians are taking the choice of Gov. Palin – so far, evidently, pretty well. I have a feeling that those in the swing states were never going to sit it out anyway – they may distrust Sen. McCain but not enough to countenance the prospect of an indirect vote for Sen. Obama. But as a current attendee of a university, for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t put any money on the ‘kids’ missing this election…
So, over a four year period, the mayor of a town received $26,000,000 in ear marks for their town, over half of which, $15,000,000 was for a single item; public transportation with their neighboring towns. I’m far from a stats guru, but that’s like $6,500,000 annually and about $1,000 per resident per year. Probably not the worst return on $36,000 a town has ever received.
Do Democrats really want to get into a discussion on ear mark spending with their current candidates? That same article mentions the $85,600,000 in earmarks from Senator Biden in 2008. Hell, at least then-Mayor Palin’s suckling from Uncle Sam’s teat resulted in repairs to her city’s sewer system. Senator Obama managed to spend $100,000,000 to improve education in Chicago without actually making any positive change. But Palin lives in the same state as Ted Stevens, so I guess that means she’s just as corrupt.
The point is that John McCain thinks earmarks are equivalent to murder, yet picked a running mate who used the federal government as a slot machine.
And yes, Frank, that “fear” and “flop sweat” are the same fear and flop sweat you predicted in 2006.
Bush won in 2004 thanks to fundies and the swing voters, especially women. In 2008, McCain still has problems with the fundy vote (that’s part of why he picked Palin), is losing independents, and faces a double digit gap with women voters – who are increasingly less likely to support McCain because he insults them with picks like Palin.
[...] while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog. Sarah Palin Hired Lobbyists To Bring In $27 Million In Federal Earmarks Oliver Willis And I don’t fantasize about Palin’s daughter. I was focusing more on Chaney’s lesbo daughter who [...]
[...] while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog. Sarah Palin Hired Lobbyists To Bring In $27 Million In Federal Earmarks Oliver Willis There are other sources for this information by the way. Just do a search for Palin $27 million in [...]
[...] she left office, Wasilla, with aid of the lobbyist and the blessing of Stevens and Rep. Don Young, got $27 million in earmarks, according to the [...]
Here’s the issue with the earmarks: it’s not that Democrats have never earmarked. The issue is hypocrisy and that the Republicans characterize themselves as the party who wants to keep money in your pocket not let the federal gov’t spend it on pork-barrel projects. When a candidate gets up and claims the moral high-ground on an issue, and yet we find out that the candidate has been guilty of the same political games, then that person’s ethics are in questions. I can respectfully disagree with people on issues, but what I cannot tolerate is someone who lies, card stacks, and takes things out of context to score a political point, changing the rules to suit his/her needs. That’s the real issue here, not whether or not earmarks are good or bad.
[...] running dishonest advertisement campaigns and employ high-powered Washington lobbyists — liked Sarah Palin did — to do their bidding. Otherwise they are knocking their own field staff all for a petty, [...]
I would like for an investigstive Reporter to look into where this 27 million was spent. Has it been all accounted for or is it in somebody’s pocket. Curious!!!!