Ethics -- Lies To Nowhere

September 9, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

ETHICS

Lies To Nowhere

On August 29, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his running mate, he touted her as "someone who's stopped government from wasting taxpayers' money." Following McCain on the stage, Palin claimed that she "told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that Bridge to Nowhere." "If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves," said Palin. Since her debut on the national stage, the McCain campaign and its surrogates have reiterated this claim at least 19 times, even featuring it in a new TV ad. But the problem is that Palin's claim to be the the great bridge killer doesn't stand up to scrutiny. As The New Republic's Brad Plumer first noted, Palin "was fine with the bridge in principle, never had a problem with the earmarks, bristled at all the mockery, and only gave up on the project when it was clear that federal support wasn't forthcoming." "We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge," Palin said in August 2006, "and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative." In fact, not only did Palin support the project while running for governor in 2006, but when she finally redirected funds away from the bridge, she lamented the fact that Congress had "little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island." Afterwards, Palin "did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere."

RUNNING FOR THE BRIDGE: As the Associated Press wrote recently, "Palin was for the infamous bridge to nowhere before she was against it." In September 2006, while campaigning in the city that would benefit from the bridge, Palin spoke in favor of the bridge. "The money that's been appropriated for the project, it should remain available for a link," said Palin, according to the Ketchikan Daily News. "I think we're going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project." She also told the residents that "she felt their pain when politicians called them 'nowhere.'" In fact, Palin was so supportive, that she was even photographed displaying a pro-bridge t-shirt that proclaimed, "Nowhere, Alaska 99901." Asked by the Anchorage Daily News in Oct. 2006 if she would "continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges," Palin replied, "Yes," adding that she "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."

'A NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT': Funds for the project, which would build "a bridge nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge" to connect an island populated by 50 people to the mainland, were appropriated by Alaska's congressional delegation in a 2006 transportation bill. Soon after it gained infamy as the epitome of excessive pork-barrel spending. In October 2005, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) tried to "redirect the money" to a bridge damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but following Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) threat to resign, the Senate kept the project with an 82 to 15 vote. Coburn's failed effort "became a cause celebre on the left and the right." The conservative Heritage Foundation released a paper calling the bridge earmark "a national embarrassment." The Sierra Club issued a statement declaring that "widespread public outrage over such wasteful spending is understandable." A month later, Congress finally relented by killing funding for the bridge and another Alaskan bridge project. In a press conference with Stevens earlier this year, Palin appeared to admit that the political winds made support for some earmarked projects like the Bridge to Nowhere politically untenable, saying she could see "the writing on the wall."

OTHER PROJECTS TO NOWHERE: Though the Bridge to Nowhere has been abandoned, Alaska is still using excessive federal funds to build infrastructure projects that only benefit a limited number of citizens. In fact, after Congress removed funding for the Bridge to Nowhere, then-Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski approved the construction of a $24 million gravel "access" road, known as the Gravina Island Access Highway, that would lead to the nonexistent bridge. In a 2006 gubernatorial debate, Palin was asked whether she supported the earmarked project, or whether she would pledge to cancel it as governor. Rather than responding with "thanks but no thanks" to federal funding for the "access" road, Palin replied that she "wouldn't" cancel the project because she was "not going to stand in the way of progress." To this day, the state of Alaska "is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone -- because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government." As CQ recently noted, there is also "a second bridge, more than twice as expensive and just as controversial" as the canceled Bridge to Nowhere, but Palin hasn't tried to kill it. Palin also supports a $375 million "mega-project" known as the "road to nowhere," that connects a town of 2,400 to a town of 870.

ADMINISTRATION -- WATCHDOG GROUPS WARN THAT GOVERNMENT SECRECY IS ON THE RISE UNDER BUSH: According to a new report from OpenTheGovernment.org, "government secrecy is on the rise by almost every measure," the AP reports today. The report cites 14 different measurements to quantify government secrecy, "including patents hidden from the public, secret court approvals for surveillance in sensitive terrorism and espionage investigations and the expanding use of informal labels to keep documents from being disclosed." The group said the United States is now classifying more records as top secret or confidential, employing fewer workers who make federal documents publicly available. There was also an 80 percent decline over the last decade in the number of pages of records declassified, dropping last year to 37 million pages. The report also notes that federal surveillance activity under the secretive FISA court has risen for the ninth consecutive year, more than double the amount in 2000. The White House's penchant for secrecy is well-documented. In January, Sens. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) ), for example, said the White House had tried to "effectively eliminate" the FOIA office. In the 109th Congress, the Justice Department "squelched efforts" to pass the OPEN Government Act.

SECURITY -- REPORT: U.S. STILL 'DANGEROUSLY VULNERABLE' TO ATTACK: Seven years after 9/11, the United States is still '"dangerously vulnerable' to chemical, biological and nuclear attacks," according to a report card set to be released tomorrow by the bipartisan Partnership for a Secure America. The group, composed of 22 former U.S. officials and leaders of the disbanded 9/11 Commission, "gave the United States an overall grade of C." According to the report, "[a] nuclear, chemical or biological weapon in the hands of terrorists remains the single greatest threat to our nation," and "while progress has been made in securing these weapons and materials, we are still dangerously vulnerable." "Efforts to reduce access to nuclear technology and bomb-making materials have slowed, thousands of U.S. chemical plants remain unprotected, and the U.S. government continues to oppose strengthening an international treaty to prevent bioterrorism," the report says. The partnership recommends that the government "appoint a White House adviser with power to make funding decisions for counterproliferation programs, coordinate all such government programs under a strategic plan and strengthen international cooperation."

AFGHANISTAN -- U.S. MILITARY RELIED ON OLIVER NORTH TO DISPUTE CIVILIAN DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN: For weeks, the U.S. military has denied charges that its Aug. 22 attack on Azizabad, Afghanistan killed scores of civilians, despite the fact that Afghan witnesses, the United Nations, and other human rights and international officials all say roughly 90 villagers were killed. But according to The Times (UK), "the US military said that its findings were corroborated by an independent journalist embedded with the US force. He was named as the Fox News correspondent Oliver North." Aside from his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s, North's point of view, reporting and commentary has hardly been known for its fairness or accuracy. North once said that "there is no such thing as an Islamic moderate" and in 2004, said "every terrorist out there is hoping John Kerry is the next president of the United States." The military has since reversed course and requested an investigation into the strike in light of "emerging evidence" which includes cellphone images showing "at least 11 dead children."

Speaking yesterday to the annual Conference of the White House Initiative on National Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted that there are too few African-Americans in her agency. "I can go into a whole day of meetings at the Department of State -- and actually rarely see somebody who looks like me," Rice said. "And that is just not acceptable."

President Bush "has accepted the recommendation of his senior civilian and military advisers to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq by 8,000 in the early months of next year." Bush will unveil his decision today in an address to the National Defense University.

"The Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday that it would no longer ban voter registration drives among veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country," reports the New York Times. In May, the department had banned the registration drives, saying they would be "disruptive."

The bipartisan Partnership for a Secure America has found that "the federal government has made only limited progress toward preventing a catastrophic nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil and combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction abroad."

Yesterday, former congressional aide Kevin Ring was arrested and accused of conspiring to corrupt government officials, including Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA). Ring pleaded not guilty to a 10-count indictment accusing him conspiring with Jack Abramoff to win assistance from government officials "by giving them things of value, and helping them skirt requirements to report those gifts."

"The sharp rise in joblessness is draining unemployment insurance trust funds in many hard-hit states," such as California, New York, Ohio, and Michigan, "setting the stage for a federal bailout to keep the funds solvent." Roughly one-third of the jobless collect unemployment insurance from state governments.

One of the nation's largest Hummer stores will shut its doors. The Dan Towbin dealership in Las Vegas "is at least the eighth Hummer dealer closing this year, nearly a 5% decline in the brand’s U.S. dealer base." The WSJ notes that, "with the national average for a price of gas resting at $3.66 a gallon, it costs $84 to fill up Hummer’s smallest model -- the H3."

And finally: The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) has decided to repeal a policy requiring all players to speak English. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is incensed at the change, saying that "the players on the tour that will pay the price in the long term for not speaking English." Tancredo accused the the LPGA of caving to the "politically correct left."

"The Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday that it would no longer ban voter registration drives among veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country."

THINK PROGRESS: Historians: Stop Bush/Cheney from destroying presidential records.

WONK ROOM: Is "collaborative warfare" the new "shock and awe?"

YGLESIAS: The case for design as a part of infrastructure policy.

TPM MUCKRAKER: Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) failed to report gift of "a $2,695 massage chair."

OHIO: A bill pending in the Ohio legislature "would ban the use of tax dollars to pay for routine medical care for anyone older than 14 who lives illegally in the state."

NEW JERSEY: "Faced with an estimated budget shortfall of nearly $3 billion in January, lawmakers in the Garden State offered early-retirement packages to nearly 4,000 state workers."

RHODE ISLAND: "For the first time in modern accounting history, the State of Rhode Island ended a budget year in the red because of overspending."

"My job is a job to make decisions. If the job description were, what do you do -- it's decision-maker. And I make a lot of big ones, and I make a lot of little ones."
-- President Bush, 4/19/07

VERSUS

"It was Mr. Paulson who set the guiding principles for the subsequent deal [with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]; Mr. Bush endorsed them, a departure from usual White House practice, in which the president articulates principles for his underlings to follow."
-- New York Times, 9/9/08

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