A bridge to the truth

Trying to counter the myths of the McCain-Palin ticket is more than a bit Sisyphean.

Truth doesn't seem to be able to wedge itself between the rock and the hard place that is Sarah Palin's role as earmark reformer.

Knee-jerk supporters who can't really defend Palin on the "bridge to nowhere" simply credit her for eventually telling Congress no while taking the money anyway. And then these so-called crusaders against earmarks put the blame on Democrats who signed off on some of these omnibus transportation bills.

It would be a bit like criticizing John McCain for openly seeking $10 million for a law school building at the University of Arizona, named in honor of William Rehnquist.

McCain and Jon Kyl sought that funding in 2006 through a free-standing bill. One man's pork is another's earmark.

This is kind of like ethics. It may meet the proper definition of ethical behavior, but to the voters outside of the Grand Canyon State it's a bit like home-state bacon, no matter how it was fried.

But I won't criticize McCain for the law school money.

He's the genius who "reined in political money" with his eponymous legislation seeking to limit campaign contributions. All his reform has gotten us in the past is a new problem.

McCain-Feingold has led to the proliferation of 527s -- those indirect campaign operatives that have flooded federal races with more cash than even the reformers took out of the system.

I digress.

McCain has been a pretty reliable critic of profligate spending, pork and earmarks over his decades in Washington. In fact, his Senate office used to compile a big fat list of spending McCain criticized as pork. His definition was any spending that falls outside normal budget scrutiny. In other words, earmarks.

In 2001, that list included $500,000 for a public transportation project in Wasilla, Alaska. But that's not all. In 2002, McCain targeted the terrorist hotbed in the frozen tundra as a porker for another $1 million that created an emergency communications center in the town of 7,000 while Palin was mayor.

While Palin was mayor, her burg also raised some of McCain's hackles when it requested $450,000 for an agricultural processing facility.

Defenders of Palin as a reformer point out that Wasilla, like most of Alaska, was so mired in nanny-statism that it took a real leader to help break free of the free money. The myth makers tell us Palin actually fought the system of dependency.

Palin was mayor from 1996 to 2002, during which time there was no discernible break in the pork requests. In fact, Palin actively sought the earmarks while she was mayor, hiring disgraced Sen. Ted Stevens' lobbyist.

That move paid off, literally, with Wasilla receiving $600,000 in additional federal transportation money and $1.5 million for a local water and sewer project.

From the years 2000 to 2003 (showing this pattern continued even after the mythical reformer left office) Wasilla got $11.9 million in federal earmarks and an additional $15 million for a regional transportation center.

Those are what we in the journalism business like to call facts.

It's up to voters to determine whether Palin will walk the walk as a reformer in Washington now that she's actually next to an earmark fighter. Sort of like how her foreign policy acumen has been shaped by being next to Russia.

Now, criticizing Barack Obama and Joe Biden for supporting an omnibus transportation bill that included the "bridge to nowhere" funding is a bit like criticizing John McCain for voting to make rape victims pay for the forensic kits used to prove the crime.

But that's what he did in voting against an omnibus crime bill Biden sponsored that contained specific language requiring law enforcement to pay for rape kits.

Out in Wasilla, rape victims or their insurance companies were being charged $500 to $1,200 for the medical exams.

Billing the victims was a practice that began in 2000 when Palin was mayor. She signed off on the budget even though now she's pretty clear that rape victims shouldn't have to pay for their medical exams.

Alaska led the nation in reported rapes per capita in 2000. The little flap led to a state law and, ultimately, Biden's legislation banning the process of billing the victims.

Obama hasn't passed much legislation in his brief time in the Senate, but his name is on the most sweeping lobbying and ethics reform of the recent past.

The candidate has also said he would ban political appointees in his administration from lobbying the executive branch after leaving their jobs. And he has said anyone joining his administration would not be allowed to work on issues related to their former employers for at least two years.

I suppose someone can still make the case that McCain and Palin are going to be agents of change in Washington.

In this mythical world, it's the facts that are the hardest to push up the hill.

Contact Erin Neff at eneff@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2906.