This post is for my bud Shemp Messing. I thought he would especially appreciate this. By now it's common knowledge that Sarah Palin supported the "Bridge to Nowhere" until she realized she could get further politically by opposing it. What fewer people know is that though the bridge project was scrapped, Gov. Palin gladly kept the earmarked money intended for the bridge and spent it on other pork projects instead. But I digress... Though it may be through a consistently repeated false boast, Palin has attempted to cultivate this image of a mavericky reformer who is absolutely totally against federal earmarks. Her track record paints a different picture.
"In 2000, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist for $24,000 a year (later increased to $36,000) to make the federal monies rain on her fair city (pop. 6,700).
The rain came down: $500,000 to purchase a parcel of federal land; $450,000 for rehabilitating an agricultural processing plant; $15 million for a rail project to connect the city with Girdwood, Alaska.
All told, during Palin's last for years in office, Wasilla received $26.9 million in earmarks. That total is roughly the same amount that Boise, Idaho, received during the same period.
Not a bad haul for Palin, considering Wasilla's population is 28 times smaller than Boise's." [In These Times 10.08]