I reckon it all depends on what your definition of liar is. And what yer definition of is is. Not being a lawyer, those are pretty clear terms to me.
A fable for the gullible
This picture of Sarah Palin campaigning for the Bridge to Nowhere contradicts her false claim that she was against it from the beginning. (h/t: Ben Smith)
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Now that she's a national politician, Sarah Palin says she told Congress "Thanks, but no thanks" when it came to the pork barrel bridge to nowhere.
It's a lovely story, but the idea that a sitting governor would turn down free money is an absolute joke. Such a thing never happens, and in this case, it did not happen.
Remember, when the Bridge to Nowhere was still a feasible option, Sarah Palin not only supported it, but she campaigned for it. In fact, Palin's eventual opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere only occured after Congress had already effectively killed it off.
But she still kept the money that Congress had appropriated for use on Alaska's transportation projects.
There's nothing wrong with what she did. The only thing that's wrong is that she's lying about it now.
Basically, what we're left with is two options:
John McCain is naive and gullible and actually believed Sarah Palin's false story that she had been against the fabled Bridge to Nowhere from the beginning; or
John McCain thinks voters are naive and gullible and is willfully spreading Sarah Palin's false story that she had been against the fabled Bridge to Nowhere from the beginning.
Whichever option it is, the fact remains that the basic story just isn't true. Here's some of the reporting that debunks the McCain-Palin fable:
Anchorage Daily News (McClatchy):
Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.
The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere." They're still feeling pain today in Ketchikan, over Palin's subsequent decision to use the bridge funds for other projects -- and over the timing of her announcement, which they say came in a pre-dawn press release that seemed aimed at national news deadlines.
"I think that's when the campaign for national office began," said Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein on Saturday.
USA Today:
"I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere," Palin said Friday in Ohio, using the critics' dismissive name of the project. "'If our state wanted a bridge,' I said, 'we'd build it ourselves.'"
While running for governor in 2006, though, Palin backed federal funding for the infamous bridge, which McCain helped make a symbol of pork barrel excess.
And as mayor of the small town of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002, Palin also hired a Washington lobbying firm that helped secure $8 million in congressionally directed spending projects, known as earmarks, according to public spending records compiled by the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste and lobbying documents.
Wasilla's lobbying firm was headed by Steven Silver -- a former chief of staff to Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, a key proponent of the bridge project.
PolitiFact:
In the fall of 2005, Congress removed the language specifically directing the money to the bridge, but it kept the money in place and left it up to Alaska to decide which transportation projects the state would like to spend it on.
By the time Palin pulled the plug on the Gravina bridge project in September 2007, much of the federal funding for the bridge had already been diverted to other transportation projects. The bridge would cost $398 million, Palin said then, and Alaska was $329 million short.
"Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer," 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."
Finally, after the bridge failed, Palin complained:
"Much of the public's attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here."
jedreport.com |
