Cantor Defends McCain’s Lie By Lying: Palin ‘Rejected The Monies’ For The Bridge To Nowhere
On MSNBC today, Norah O’Donnell asked Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) if Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was misspeaking or distorting the facts when he falsely claimed on “The View” today that Sarah Palin never asked for an earmark as the governor of Alaska. “The proof is in the pudding,” replied Cantor. “And the fact is Sarah Palin, when she was governor of Alaska, rejected the monies that came from Washington to construct the Bridge to Nowhere.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hR35jiRDjgCantor also claimed that “Palin rejected the earmarking that went on here in Washington,” but, as ThinkProgress noted earlier today, in her two years as governor, Palin “requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation.”
Transcript:
O’DONNELL: Let me ask you about, John McCain was on “The View” today with the ladies of “The View” in New York, also along with his wife, Cindy McCain. McCain said in that interview that Sarah Palin, his running mate, the governor of Alaska, has never asked for lawmakers pet projects as governor. But in fact as governor she requested $200 million in earmarks. Did he misspeak or did he distort?
CANTOR: No, you know, I think the proof, the proof is in the pudding, and the fact is that Sarah Palin, when she was governor of Alaska, rejected the monies that came from Washington to construct the Bridge to Nowhere. She has said repeatedly that Alaska did not need that money, they did not that bridge, and if they ever need that bridge, they will build it themselves.
O’DONNELL: Congressman, are you saying that she sent the money back to Washington? Is that what you’re saying?
CANTOR: No, I think Sarah Palin has said that she does not think it appropriate for federal tax payer dollars to be used to construct a Bridge to Nowhere.
O’DONNELL: I just want to be clear on that because she did initially support the Bridge to Nowhere then she said the bridge was not a good idea. But she did not send the money back to Washington, so I just want to be clear on that.
CANTOR: Well, again, transportation dollars flow to the states and are then allocated according to state formulas, state priorities. I believe and do not know, though, that the Bridge to Nowhere was not a priority for the Alaskan people and therefore I don’t know how Alaska then distributes it’s money. But I think it’s very clear that Governor Palin rejected the earmarking that went on here in Washington, which really did not reflect the will of the Alaskan people.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/12/cantor-palin-bridge/On ‘The View,’ McCain Falsely Claims Palin Never Requested Earmarks As Governor Of Alaska»
Appearing on “The View” today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) falsely claimed that Sarah Palin never requested earmarks as the governor of Alaska. “Not as governor she didn’t,” McCain told Barbara Walters after she noted Palin “took some earmarks”:
WALTERS: What is she going to reform specifically, senator?
MCCAIN: Well, first of all, earmark spending, which she vetoed a half a billion dollars worth in the state of Alaska.
WALTERS: She also took some earmarks there.
BEHAR: A lot.
MCCAIN: No, not as governor she didn’t, she vetoed…
WALTERS: As Mayor.
MCCAIN: Well, look, the fact is that she was a reform governor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc10INQmBwQMcCain’s claim that Palin never accepted earmarks as the governor of Alaska is divorced from reality. In fact, she actively sought them:
– Though Palin did reduce Alaska’s earmark requests, “in her two years in office, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation.”
– In March 2008, Palin wrote an op-ed in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, saying that her “role at the federal level is simply to submit the most well-conceived earmark requests we can” and that her reduction of requests was a response “to the changing circumstances in Congress.”
– In February 2008, Palin’s office sent Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) “a 70-page memo outlining almost $200 million worth of new funding requests for the state.”
– In her most recent earmark requests, “Palin requested millions of federal dollars for everything from improving recreational halibut fishing to studying the mating habits of crabs and the DNA of harbor seals.”
As ThinkProgress has noted, Palin has requested earmarks of the very type that McCain routinely mocks while on the campaign trail. As Walters pointed out, Palin was also a big fan of congressional pork as the Mayor of Wasilla, even hiring a lobbyist to help secure them.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/12/mccain-palin-view/