Sarah Palin supported the "Bridge to Nowhere" before flip-flopping

[NewJeffCT]

Brutal assessment from Media Matters here noting several times where she supported the infamous bridge to nowhere boondoggle.

Similarly, according to an October 5, 2006, Anchorage Daily News article, Palin supported the bridge project during a 2006 gubernatorial debate:

As for the infamous "bridges to nowhere," MacDonald asked if the candidates would forge ahead with the proposed Knik Arm crossing between Anchorage and Point MacKenzie and Ketchikan's Gravina Island bridge. Each has received more than $90 million in federal funding and drew nationwide attacks as being unnecessary and expensive. He also asked if they support building an access road from Juneau toward -- but not completely connecting to -- Skagway and Haines.

"I do support the infrastructure projects that are on tap here in the state of Alaska that our congressional delegations worked hard for," Palin said. She said the projects link communities and create jobs.

Still, Palin warned that the flow of federal money into the state for such projects is going to slow.

a lot more at the link below:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200808290023?lid=561652&rid=13609203

[moriah]

1. Yes! A real issue!

It truly was a total flip-flop on that.

She claimed in her acceptance speech that she told Congress "If we want a bridge, we will build it ourselves." But in her press release she said the reason that she decided to go against the project was that Alaska would have to pay for some of it.

She was more than happy to have that bridge if Congress would have paid for the whole thing.

[NewJeffCT]

2. I'd prefer to focus on the issues

see my thread here as well.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6829232

[moriah]

15. Very good stuff! Here's the link to the press release about the "Bridge to Nowhere", btw...

http://www.gov.state.ak.us/archive-28635.html

They are revamping the site so someone might want to webcrawl the page now to actually save other information that will be important.

I'll see if I can yank it all down sometime in the next day or two and preserve an archive of it.

[NewJeffCT]

16. thanks

I'm not good at that, but I'm sure at least some folks are on it... I know folks at Kos had picked up on Palin (or a family member) editing her own Wikipedia page.

[gemlake]

3. Thanks, we need to get this to the MSM.

And the Obama campaign. She's crooked and a liar. More of the same.

[Quixote1818]

4. Lets put this at the top of the Greatest Page. This is lethal! nt

[DCal]

5. She was for it before she was against it. (nt)

[apnu]

6. Now that's good stuff! great digging!

[PA Democrat]

7. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My dear dad was pushing this talking point with me this morning as proof of how Palin will supposedly clean up corruption. I'll send this article to him so maybe in the future he'll stop pushing his FOX News talking points!

[NewJeffCT]

9. please make sure you send the whole article

and not just what I put here on DU - there are several examples at MediaMatters.

[PA Democrat]

10. You betcha. I want him to see the entire article in a legitimate newspaper.

I told him not to believe a lot of what he hears on FOX.

[kikiek]

8. On one of the Air America shows today they listed all the earmarks she

received for the town she was Mayor/Manager of in Alaska. Millions of dollars for a town of 5000 they said.

According to that same Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database, Palin paid the lobbying firm of Hoffman Silver Gilman & Blasco to lobby on behalf of the City of Wasilla while she was mayor and according to Citizens Against Government Waste, in 2000 the City of Wasilla received a $1 million transportation earmark for the Wasilla Intermodal Facility for bus and bus related facilities while Wasilla’s Life Quest Community Mental Health Center gobbled up a $500,000 earmark, same amount as the town’s emergency shelter, although less than the $600,000 earmark for the Wasilla city bus facility. Meanwhile Wasilla received a $1 million earmark for the Wasilla Regional Dispatch Center, a $1.5 million earmark for water and sewer improvements, and a $2.6 million transportation earmark for an alternative route project. And back then only 5,000 people lived there. Now that’s pork.
http://forums.abcnews.go.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=abcpolitics&tid=287703

[NewJeffCT]

11. However, since she's a Republican

it means they're vital projects, and not earmarks or pork-barrel spending.

[kikiek]

13. yes excuse me I forgot that part.

[NewJeffCT]

17. It's easy to forget

sometimes people take it for granted.

[kikiek]

18. The news shows today disgusted me. All repugs all the time. And the Dems on

don't correct most of the lies they say. Frustrating as hell.

[obamican]

12. yep

we know

[NewJeffCT]

14. well

it bears repeating a few times, since the MSM seems to be reporting that she's been against it.