Palin says:
I told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to Nowhere.It turns out that Palin actually supported the construction of the $223 million bridge that would serve a population of a few dozen residents. According to Reuters, her support continued until the outrageous earmark became a national punchline, at which point she dropped her support for the project--but not really:
If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves.
Ah yes--she was so against the bridge in principle that she kept all of the earmarked money and began work on a road that would connect...to the bridge. Alaska state politics is awesome!National fury over the bridge caused Congress to remove the earmark designation, but Alaska was still granted an equivalent amount of transportation money to be used at its own discretion.
Last year, Palin announced she was stopping state work on the controversial project, earning her admirers from earmark critics and budget hawks from around the nation. The move also thrust her into the spotlight as a reform-minded newcomer.
The state, however, never gave back any of the money that was originally earmarked for the Gravina Island bridge, said [Ketchikan Mayor Bob] Weinstein and [Mike] Elerding [a Republican who was Palin's campaign coordinator in the southeast Alaska city].
In fact, the Palin administration has spent "tens of millions of dollars" in federal funds to start building a road on Gravina Island that is supposed to link up to the yet-to-be-built bridge, Weinstein said.
It's facsinating to me that Palin included her "opposition" to the Bridge to Nowhere right there in the middle of her big speech--an appluase line, no less--as if it weren't possible to expose the deception in literally one minute using an invention called "the Google". I wonder if whoever wrote her speech is hip to the internet thing. With the McCain campaign, I guess you never know.
