Palin vs. "The Bridge To Nowhere"
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at
6:33 pm
A commenter recently noted that there was a tape of Sarah Palen supporting Ted Steven’s pork project nicknames “The Bridge to Nowhere”. A writer on a local group blog, “Peach Pundit” says she was for it before she was against it. As one of their commenters notes, she was for state funding if the state wanted, and her speech in Dayton confirmed that.
Filed under: Doug • Government • Politics • Republicans
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I was the original poster on Peach Pundit and while, yes, the question was about state funding for the bridge, Palin’s answer was much more revealing in that she said that it was important to do it now “while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.” In other words, federal money would need to be involved from the likes of Ted Stevens and Don Young.
Though the single statement doesn’t really say anything specific other than “we could use some federal help”. The CNN story on the abandonment of the earmark by Congress shows Palin very easily abandoning the project herself.
This doesn’t sound like someone who fought long and hard, or even short and moderately, for the project.
The whole kerfuffle is over a single sentence that doesn’t give a clue as to level of fight or for how much. I will grant that her Dayton speech gave an impression of complete rejection, but her attitude at the time reaslly doesn’t seem to be all that broken up over it. And though it, too, is one sentence, it expresses more of her thoughts than does her answer to the question.
I wish she hadn’t put it that way, but to paint her with the same brush as Ted Stevens is a bit much.
Here is all the facts!
Gov. Sarah Palin was for the so-called infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” before she was against it. There were 2 bridges planned, a phase one was the main hightway to Ketchikan then from Ketchikan to a small island with about 50 ppl. Palin support phase one for saftey and traffic reasons. Right now Ferries adn water taxis handle access. When Palin was running she supported phase one and not phase two. When she learned that they were a package deal she raised objection to the WHOLE project.
McAllister, who covered the 2006 campaign as a TV reporter, said Palin was lukewarm about the bridge as a candidate and cooled on it as governor. “Of course when you become governor things come into much sharper focus than when you are a candidate,” he said. “Then she is forced to pay very close attention to the fiscal realities of it.”