"What was it unwastefully spent on?"
Would you believe for a road on Nowhere Island?
Outcry against the bridge prompted Congress to later remove the earmark designation, but the state still got the same amount of cash to be used at their discretion for transportation. And the Palin administration has spent "tens of millions of dollars" of that money on a road on Gravina Island ... that is meant to link up to the bridge, which still doesn't exist.
Message 24900049
and she still wants to build a bridge to somewhere..uh, home...
Breaking: Same Lobbyist, Another Bridge, TO WASILLA. Updated w/Silver background & Digg Link
by pattisigh
Fri Sep 05, 2008 at 07:05:51 AM PDT
It seems that Governor Palin's favorite lobbyist is also working on another bridge.
This one leads straight to the the most famous Alaskan Barracuda's back yard...yup, yup...Wasilla
pattisigh's diary :: ::
washingtonindependent.com...
Wasilla’s All-Purpose Lobbyist
Town Lobbyist Is 'Bridge to Nowhere' Lobbyist
By Mike Lillis 9/4/08 9:09 PM
Steven W. Silver, a Washington lobbyist who began representing the small town of Wasilla during Palin’s tenure as mayor, is also lobbying for construction of a controversial bridge linking Anchorage to the borough housing Wasilla, according to lobbying disclosure records.
That proposed span — dubbed "Don Young’s Way" after Alaska’s lone House member — gained notoriety in 2005, when Young and Sen. Ted Stevens (R) fought to earmark hundreds of millions of federal dollars for it and another controversial bridge connecting Ketchikan, Alaska (pop. 7,300), to an island airport. Both became symbols of wasteful federal spending, and were widely ridiculed as "Bridges to Nowhere."
snip
On Wednesday, Palin told the GOP faithful gathered in Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention, "I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’ If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves."
OOPS. As soon as the Bridge to Nowhere became a laughing stock, I guess Sarah figured it should be replaced with yet another bridge right to Wasilla.
I think it's obvious WHY THE CLOCK STARTED RUNNING upon her selection as VP last week to the present, to have her sit down with the press. So many questions and no one to answer them.
But she hasn’t come out against "Don Young’s Way." In fact, the Palin administration has plans to hire an outside contractor to estimate what the project would cost, according to a June report from The Anchorage Daily News. The contractor alone is expected to run the state $200,000, the report said. The bridge itself has been tagged at between $450 million and $1.5 billion.
No questions
No answers
Troopergate
Union files Complaint over confidential info being used in Troopergate
Lies about the Bridge to Nowhere
Hiding under the Bridge to Wasilla
Sarah....you can run, but you can't hide.
UPDATE: More history on Mr. Silver (H/T to MAORCA)
tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem...
The Washington Post reports today that, while Mayor of Wasilla, Palin oversaw the hiring of a lobbyist, Steven Silver -- a former chief of staff to now-indicted GOP senator Ted Stevens -- to help win federal earmarks for the city.
But Silver appears to have additional ties that could further undercut Palin's image as a squeaky-clean reformer. According to Senate lobbying disclosure reports examined by TPMmuckraker, from 2002 to 2004 Silver listed as a client Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. On Greenberg's behalf, Silver lobbied the federal government on "issues relating to Indian/Native American policy," "exploration for oil and gas" and "legislation relating to gaming issues" -- the very issues that Abramoff headed up for Greenberg at the time. In other words, Silver appears to have been a part of "Team Abramoff."
dailykos.com |
