The Bridge to Nowhere!

Black Swan

The Bridge to Nowhere was a major federal highway transportation fund scandal in excess of $300 million dollars that occurred in Alaska before Palin became McCain's running mate. The ABC transcript of anchor Charlie Gibson's interview with Palin in the last couple of days regarding this Bridge to Nowhere is word-for-word quoted below:

Sarah Palin on Congressional Spending and the ''Bridge to Nowhere':

GIBSON: One of John McCain's central campaign arguments, tenets of his campaign, is eliminating earmarks, getting rid of them. Are you with John McCain on that?

PALIN: I certainly am. And of course the poster child for the earmarks was Alaska's, what people in the lower 48 refer to as the bridge to nowhere. First it was a bridge to community with an airport in southeast Alaska. But that was excessive. And an earmark -- an earmark like that, not even supported necessarily by the majority of Alaskans. We killed that earmark. We killed that project...

GIBSON: You have said continually, since he chose you as his vice presidential nominee, that I said to Congress, thanks but not thanks. If we're going to build that bridge, we'll build it ourselves.

PALIN: Right.

GIBSON: But it's now pretty clearly documented. You supported that bridge before you opposed it. You were wearing a T-shirt in the 2006 campaign, showed your support for the bidge to nowhere.

PALIN: I was wearing a T-shirt with the Zip code of the community that was asking for that bridge. Not all the people in that community even were asking for a $400 million or $300 million bridge.

GIBSON: But you turned against it after Congress had basically pulled the plug on it; after it became apparent that the state was going to have to pay for it, not the Congress; and after it became a national embarrassment to the state of Alaska. So do you want to revise and extend your remarks?

PALIN: It has always been an embarrassment that abuse of the ear form -- earmark process has been accepted in Congress. And that's what John McCain has fought. And that's what I joined him in fighting. It's been an embarrassment, not just Alaska's projects. But McCain gives example after example after example. I mean, every state has their embarrassment. And, as I've said over and over, if Alaska wants that bridge, $300 million, $400 million dollars, over to that island with an airport, we'll find a way to build it ourselves. The rest of the country doesn't have to build that for us.

GIBSON: But you were for it before you were against it. You were solidly for it for quite some period of time...

PALIN: I was ...

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Was that a flip-flop? In how many minutes? Huh? I can just imagine how the federal deficit will continue to grow and grow and grow beyond the current $9.6 trillion that Baby Bush has helped create should McCain's heart skip a beat and Palin becomes President of the US. What Bridge to Nowhere will Palin support in the future as President... Hummmmmmmm, do we need a Bridge to Ireland from the US? Noooooooooo! Keep the crazies separated by the pond!

EDIT: "Oops! I left myself at risk to the McCain-Palin lovers!" B!ue forgets about 10 years of taekwondo training, drops her two swords with only 2 years of Iaijutsu training, and reaches for the ultimate weapon: her LIPSTICK!!!!!

Jack Sheehan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQXsuAey-NE

FatherTed

I have no problem in politicians changing their minds, we all do. Just as long as they have the balls admit it.

Interesting thing about federal spending, this is from 2005, Alaska has the highest per capita federal spending amount and the third highest Return on Federal Tax dollar (my state CT has the second lowest ). So I guess it's easy to give tax refunds to the state when there is so much federal money around. Also, interesting to note that the states with the highest return on federal tax dollars are so called Red states while the lowest are Blue states. You would think it would be the other way round.



http://www.nemw.org/taxburd.htm

Overheal

The Gravina Island Bridge, also known as the "Bridge to Nowhere", was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island. The bridge was projected to cost $398 million. Members of the Alaskan congressional delegation, particularly Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, were the bridge's biggest advocates in Congress, and helped push for federal funding.[1] The project encountered fierce opposition outside of Alaska as a symbol of pork barrel spending and is labeled as one of the more prominent "bridges to nowhere".[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Island_Bridge

Well done Palin. Well done -_-

K-9

I'll quote the end of that article Overheal.

In October, when asked, "Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?", she answered: "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now - while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."[17] Later that month, at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Wasilla, Alaska, Democratic candidate Tony Knowles criticized Palin for supporting the Knik Arm Bridge, the Gravina Island Bridge, and a road north out of Juneau instead of rebuilding the Parks Highway. The Ketchikan Daily News noted that, of the gubernatorial candidates, "Only Palin is consistent in support all of the projects..."[18]
In August 2007, Alaska's Department of Transportation stated that it was "leaning" toward alternative ferry options, citing bridge costs, despite having already received the funds from the federal government.[19]
The project was canceled in 2007 by bridge supporter [20][21][22][23] Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who changed her view [24][25] after national public opinion turned against the bridge for being wasteful spending.[26] Palin stated:
Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer. Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Much of the public’s attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened.[27][28]

Sounds like she put public opinion and lack of funding over her belief that the bridge was right!

Not much of a maverick there!

K-9

Just watching Fox here, there's a second bridge to nowhere that she supports.

It's to her hometown, so maybe it's to somewhere?

Victor

Strange bridge. The narrowest point of the crossing from the town (population: 8,000 and falling) to the airport is 300m and takes 6-10 minutes by ferry. The bridge needs to take a big detour, would be 1,000m long and 70m high (to allow ships under) and would take 13 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchikan_International_Airport
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3400226/The-controversial-Ketchikan-bridge-project.html

Of course, the money turned into a nice slush fund for Alaska - what other projects were funded?

They could have gone for a causeway and blocked the sea channel, but I suspect the proponents would be rebels without a causeway.

Manic Moran

The bridge was projected to cost $398 million.

Not entirely accurate. The bridge was projected to cost $190m when it was originally proposed and funded. Over five (!) years the cost ballooned. So technically Palin was in favour of a $200m bridge to do a job, and against a $400m bridge to do the same job.

NTM

Hobbes

Manic Moran wrote: »

Not entirely accurate. The bridge was projected to cost $190m when it was originally proposed and funded. Over five (!) years the cost ballooned. So technically Palin was in favour of a $200m bridge to do a job, and against a $400m bridge to do the same job.

NTM

She only voted against it once Congress voted against it. She also had no problems about taking that extra money for other projects she had rather then giving it back to the government.

Manic Moran

Hobbes wrote: »

She only voted against it once Congress voted against it. She also had no problems about taking that extra money for other projects she had rather then giving it back to the government.

Obviously neither did Congress. When Congress removed the earmark requirement (Which it failed to do to the island road, hence the $30m "road to the bridge to nowhere" is still being built because there's no legal option to do anything else with the money) it did not add in any lines about returning the money to Congress' pot, which it could have done had it thought it the right thing to do.

NTM