Quote of the Day, II

Daniel Larison:

The GOP candidates are the ones who want to make the earmark “game” a central issue of the campaign, while simultaneously pretending that the fresh outsider member of the ticket had nothing to do with said “game.” To that end, they have repeatedly made false and misleading statements about her actual record on the bridge and her willingness to accept earmarked funds. If Palin was simply taking advantage of a broken system, there’s not much reason to be outraged by that, but there is good reason to take issue with her decision to engage in a pattern of deceiving the public about her record, which she has clearly done in the hopes that her past obscurity will shield her from being held to account for making false claims. More to the point, once you strip away the hostility to earmarks Palin’s “reform” credentials become pretty thin, and the more it becomes apparent that adding Palin to the ticket really was as much of a P.R. stunt as the critics said it was.

For my part, I think the Republican preoccupation with earmark reform reveals a truly bizarre view of what is wrong with the federal government and how its dysfunction might best be fixed, as if pork-barrel spending were the main problem with Republican governance over the last decade. Still, this is the field where McCain and Palin have chosen to fight, and this is what they are choosing to lie about, so it seems fair that they pay some political price for that.

The Sarah Palin Files, Pt. 26

I know I said I'd stop, but I just. need. one. more. fix. man!



Or, you know, two more fixes.

The Sarah Palin Files, Pt. 24

The Hot Rod has been spilling a lot of virtual ink about Sarah Palin over the past week. Carpel Tunnel Syndrome cannot be far away.

As Palin now retreats to Alaska (to avoid scrutiny, -er, I mean, to learn her brand new, "long-held core beliefs" on national domestic and foreign policy), the Hot Rod is going to go a hiatus of sorts on Sarah Palin writing. I've been writing so much on her because this has been (objectively speaking) a fascinating curve-ball from John McCain. Let's give him that. John McCain caught the world with its pants down and its dick in its hand with his VP pick.

Then, adding even more intrigue to the whole thing is how the McCain campaign got caught with its pants down and its dick in its hand with respect to Palin's background. I won't go through the ever-expanding list of scandals, contradictions, lies, and fringe beliefs again. Suffice it to say, it has been more than I can keep up with. Reading about all this shit is one thing. Coming up with an opinion about it all is another. But writing a blog about it is very, very time consuming. And, contrary to popular opinion, I do have some better things to do. I think I've more than made my point anyway.

So it's time for a break. Time for a deep breath. And time to focus on other topics that shouldn't fall from the consciousness of the public. Like David Lee Roth, or perhaps how the Hot Rod's fantasy football team, "The Kevin Federlines" is doing this season.

In time, I'll be revisiting the Sarah Palin Files. Until then, try keeping up with her at these sites:

Andrew Sullivan
Daily Kos
Talking Points Memo
Political Punch (Jake Tapper, ABC News)
The Jed Report
and
Ben Smith at Politico

My parting shot, for now, on the Queen of Pork, Sarah Palin:

In Indiana today, a state known for its pork cutlets, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, attacked the GOP ticket as less than sincere about combatting wasteful pork barrel projects.

"I know the governor of Alaska has been, you know, saying she is change," Obama said of Gov. Sarah Palin. "And that is great. She is a skillful politician.

"But when you've been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person, that is not change, come on!" Obama said. "I mean, words mean something. You can't just make stuff up. You can't just make stuff up. We have a choice to make and the choice is clear."

Obama was referring quite factually to the fact that despite her self-styled anti-pork image, Palin was quite active in seeking pork in the past.

In two years as governor, Palin sought 83 federal earmarks at a cost of $453 million, according to the Anchorage Daily News. "The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship," Palin wrote in a newspaper column, according to the Los Angeles Times.

As the mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired lobbyist Steve Silver, a former aide to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to secure earmarks for the town.

In fact, the Los Angeles Times reports today that three times in recent years, McCain himself listed Palin-requested projects for Wasilla as "objectionable" spending.

"While Sen. McCain was going after cutting earmarks in Washington, Gov. Palin was going after getting earmarks," Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense told the Times.

Oink, oink, baby!