reply to post by iamcamouflage
This is a pretty weak case for McCain hypocrisy. Even Palin, for that matter.
How do the articles you cite support your assertion of McCain's hypocrisy? In fact, the first article confirms:
McCain...refuse[s] to ask for any federal money for local projects.
So where is his hypocrisy? If it's because he picked Palin as a running mate, that's a pretty strong conclusion for such a weak connection.
In another article you cite, it explicitly states:
The state has requested 31 earmarks in fiscal year 2009. Of those, 22 represent continuing appropriations from previous years, four have been funded
intermittently in the past and only five requests are new.
The state’s funding requests are in line with the governor’s call in December to reduce the number of earmarks to no more than 10 or 12,
excluding ongoing appropriations and earmarks for the Alaska National Guard, said John Katz, the governor’s Washington spokesman.
“We have reduced the total number of earmark requests from 54 last year to 31,” Katz said. “The total amount of money requested has gone down
from $550 million to less than $200 million.”
Link.
So Palin has done as Governor what she said she would do. (And prior to her selection as VP, I might add.)
In another link of yours, it states:
In 1996, when Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla, a city of about 8,000 some 40 miles north of Anchorage, she did not take part in the earmark
process.
But by 2000, into her second term, the city had hired a Washington, D.C., lobbyist, Steven Silver, a former aide to Stevens, then the ultimate
rainmaker as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
"She was hungry for earmarks just like everybody else," said Larry Persily, who worked at the Alaska state office in Washington, D.C., until earlier
this year. "Everyone was feeding at the trough."
Link.
That's Mr. Persily's characterization. But I wonder why he fails to mention the federal surplus everyone was working with. Remember that? Moreover,
can it be demonstrated any of the Wasilla earmarks were abusive? Can Mr. Persily?
BH provides similar links and concludes with McCain's and Palin's "blatant dishonesty".
Yet, I still don't see it.
FACT: Ten years ago, during a federal surplus, the 36 year old Mayor Palin of Wasilla sought earmarks for the town.
FACT: No one has demonstrated how these were in fact abusive.
FACT: As Governor, ten years later, she called for the reduction of earmarks...and followed through.
FACT: At best, McCain has only EVER sought
a single earmark (
this link)
during his 24 year Congressional career.
You people's sense of scale is a little off, don't you think?
Incidently, Obama made a similar pledge:
Last year Sen. Barack Obama, submitted a laundry list of federal funding requests, known as earmarks, to the Senate Appropriations Committee: 112
earmarks totaling more than $330 million in taxpayer funds.
But that was last year.
This year, as the Senate funding request deadline approaches and the final primaries of the Democratic nomination process draw near, Obama's staff
told CNN the junior senator from Illinois will request no earmarks for fiscal year 2009.
So Obama feeds at the public trough during his limited time in Congress, and now as a Presidential candidate, pledges otherwise. And that doesn't
look like pandering?
Too odd.
[edit on 6-9-2008 by loam]
