'McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin'

[Kajsa]

from the front page of the
Los Angeles Times this morning,

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,6145252.story

Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of 'objectionable' pork spending have included earmarks requested by his new running mate.

By Tom Hamburger, Richard Simon and Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 3, 2008

WASILLA, ALASKA -- For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.

Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.
Now, McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has chosen Palin as his running mate, touting her as a reformer just like him.

McCain has made opposition to pork-barrel spending a central theme of his 2008 campaign. "Earmarking deprives federal agencies of scarce resources, at the whim of individual members of Congress," McCain has said.

But records show that Palin -- first as mayor of Wasilla and recently as governor of Alaska -- was far from shy about pursuing tens of millions in earmarks for her town, her region and her state.

This year, Palin, who has been governor for nearly 22 months, defended earmarking as a vital part of the legislative system. "The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship," she wrote in a newspaper column.

Conflict of interest here?
It sure looks like it.

[writes3000]

1. K&R!!! Forward to media outlets! nt

[Kajsa]

12. Thanks so much, Writes3000!

Spread the word- this is a
BIG ONE!

:) :hi:

[Marrah_G]

2. Ouch that is going to leave a mark.

[msallied]

3. Big Government Conservative = Huge Hypocrite.

[renie408]

4. Oh dear...this is very GOOD!! How do we make the MSM pay attention to this?? n/t

[Kajsa]

11. We need to forward this to them.

I was so pleased to see this HEADLINING the front page
of the print copy of the LA Times this morning!

:-)

That's going to reach a lot of people.

:thumbsup:

[dkf]

Vetted? What a JOKE!

And then he sells her as something opposite of what she truly is. What a LIAR. She knows what her history is and could have corrected him, but she lets him make a fool of himself.

Great partner McCain.

[earthdragon]

10. McCain NOT vetted by own party Keating 5

McCain was in the Keating 5 scandal in the 80s!  A major
ethics scandal!  One wonders if anyone in the Republican party
even vetted McCain.

Look under Keating 5 in wikipedia.  I don't know how to post
links.

Why no discussion about Keating 5?!

Mark

[BeyondGeography]

5. Shows you what a joke he thinks the whole thing is

[KittyWampus]

6. What earmarks for pork, i thought Palin was a corruption fighting maverick?

[earthdragon]

7. and McCain part of Keating 5!

Everyone look at Wikipedia and learn about the Keating 5 scandal and McCain's "darkest moments." And this is a presidential nominee?! excuse me?

[Cush]

8. but the McCain team said it was no big deal! She was putting Alaska first!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. .

[gcomeau]

13. K&R. To the top of the Greatest with you!

This hits them where it hurts, kills this ridiculous "She's a maverick reformer like me!!!" line of garbage they've been trying to peddle. What's McCain going to do, try to discredit himself and say he didn't have sufficient grounds for criticizing her?

Must. Distribute. Far. And. Wide.

[Kajsa]

14. Thanks, Gcomeau!

This makes it clear that Palin was NOT
his choice for running mate.

She was picked by the extreme RW faction of
his campaign staff.

"Maverick"?

I don't think so.

:)

[Orsino]

15. Frankly, this is weak as an attack on their ticket.

Republicans march in such lockstep that this is probably the closest thing to a disagreement you'll find between McCain and Palin. And no one beyond a few policy wonks will care, McCain himself having long given up on earmarks.

[Kajsa]

16. But it does point out a huge discrepancy

in their platforms.

McCain has been targeting earmarking for some time.

Palin is all for it.

They do NOT have the same goals and MO in government.

They claim they do, but this proves otherwise.

Exposed hypocrites aren't too damn popular with any
thinking voter.

[Orsino]

18. It's only huge to people who care...

...and who assume that either McCain or Palin is actually committed to particular policy.

This should matter, but it won't.

[Kajsa]

22. You have a good point, Orsino.

But knowledge of this large divide with make listening
to their speeches of "unity" really interesting tonight.

I could hardly contain my laughter with the single feed
we were getting during Georgie's speech last night.

Oh my- did he look foolish.

:)

[Orsino]

23. Well, dang.

If I'd known that it might actually be fun, I might have tuned in. My wife managed to watch it for a while, but I couldn't stand the idea.

[dkf]

17. Its a bigger problem than you think...shows he has no clue what she has done in the past.

Again its all about the vetting.

[Orsino]

20. But this point has already been acknowledge more or less openly...

...and has been discarded as unimportant. You're worrying about a lack of vetting? That's so twenty-two-and-a-half hours ago!

:evilgrin:

[Cha]

19. Kick for mccain's hypocricy and show of bad

judgement.

[robertpaulsen]

21. Earmarkgate. It just gets better and better. Or vetter and vetter.

:kick:

[lumpy]

24. Bump

x

[Kajsa]

25. Thanks,Lumpy!

:hi:

[fizzgig]

26. the only conflict they care about is on the other side of the aisle

i consider this, as loathsome as it may be, par for the course for these guys

[Kajsa]

27. BREAKING NEWS-- Palin just stated she will FIGHT

earmarking- she said so in her speech!

:eyes:

[Kajsa]

28. Self- delete

Duplicate post-