Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Supposed Reformer Secured Earmarks

By Brent Budowsky
September 3, 2008

Now John McCain learns, as we do, that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sent a 70-page memo to Sen. Ted Stevens, another Alaskan Republican, in February seeking $200 million for new Alaska earmarks. As mayor of the village of Wasilla, she lobbied hard for and won more than $26 million of earmarks.

Read on.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Be very careful, Mr. Budowsky, how you beat up on Sarah Palin. To you, she may be guilty of earmark sin, but to her supporters (and most Americans) if the Repubs spin this properly she'll look like a saint, because she was able to bring property tax relief to Wasilla (lowered the tax by 40%), but still grow the local economy and bring in new business, new services (including medical), and extend the impact of this small, but influential town, in the Mat-Su Valley which is home to over 7x the population of the town of Wasilla.

The employment growth in the Mat-Su during Palin's time on the Wasilla city council and as mayor of Wasilla increased by nearly 67% -- which was much greater than the state's overall growth rate of about 17% -- and her policies are credited with much of that growth.

Tue Sep 02, 10:28:00 PM 2008
Anonymous said...

[quote]
“When I look every day, the big oil company’s building is right out there next to me, and it’s quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry.” (Roll Call, 8/25/08)

A big spender, Palin must have already entered the International Banking Syndicate’s “Top Ten Most ‘Friendly’ US Governors’ Chart.” In June 2007, Palin signed into law the largest operating budget in Alaska’s history [more than $6.6 billion, the largest in Alaska's history, according to Wikipedia.]
[unquote]

quoted from

http://msrb.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/it-s-all-about-big-oil-stupid/

Wed Sep 03, 03:24:00 AM 2008
Anonymous said...

It appears that during her very brief career in Alaska electoral politics, Sarah Palin has distinguished herself in two areas that should be matters of concern: bringing home Ted Stevens-style pork for the home folks and the local business wheelers and dealers, and injecting partisan ideology and narrow family grudges into the public employment law enforcement sphere. If the media message goal is to depict Palin as a maverick reformer, the Republican veep vetting process appears haphazard, to put the matter kindly.

Palin's more significant credential from the neo-con true believers' perspective is her cachet as a "feminist" right winger who's comfortable shooting guns with the boys and reveling in frontier era machisimo.

I don't really think very many disgruntled Hillary supporters will actually buy into this superficial pick. To vote for Sarah, you've got to vote for McCain.

Female Republican voters however will delight in the opportunity to suddenly claim "womens' rights" as the GOP's cause this election cycle, seeking to redefine feminism as traditional role model, devoutly Christian anti-abortion hockey moms who now pack heat, and who are free at last to kick the good old boys on the other side square in their balls whenever it becomes politically expedient to do so.

Sarah Palin may well emerge as a dangerous attack dog in October. How Barack Obama and Joe Biden react to an unorthodox frontal assault upon what will be packaged up as 21st Century elitist liberal male privilege could be a big SNAFU percolating away that's just waiting to happen.

Bill from Saginaw

Wed Sep 03, 11:45:00 AM 2008
Anonymous said...

Brent--

I appreciated your comments in your post opining on Sarah Palin's address to the RNC. From your lips (fingers?) to God's ears. May this finally be the year that the public sees through the Republican party to all their opposite wording of things--IOW, lying.

I have spoken with many former Hillary supporters and they are highly insulted that McCain & Co. think that merely because Sarah Palin is a woman that all still-angry Hillary supporters will flock to her. Sarah Palin is the polar-opposite of Hillary Clinton in issues.........I think the Republican Party sells itself short if thinks tons of Hillary supporters will defect.

I experienced her speech as caustic and nasty. It did do some introducing of her but after her intros about herself, she did nothing but demean Obama and Biden. No issues, no explanation of how she and McCain would govern or solve problems. Now we hear that the press will not have any access to her--we're sounding like the USSR more and more.

DemWoman

Fri Sep 05, 10:07:00 PM 2008

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