Sarah Palin Love Lobbyist As Well

[rsmith6621]

Yesterday I speculated that McCain picked Sarah Palin as his VP over the objections of his advisers. I thought that McCain -- who prides himself on fighting corruption in politics -- somehow saw himself in her. But both politicians have experience with the very thing they pride themselves on fighting.

Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin, knows a thing or two about lobbyists. The New York Times reveals that she won that post after taking on bribery charges from the oil industry against politicians -- her attack against such corrupting influences helped her prevail over former Alaska governor, Frank Murkowski. That's why it came as a surprise to learn that as governor Palin employed a lobbyist for an energy company for which she procured $500 million in state subsidies so it could build a gas pipeline.

How so? According to the Times, Palin appointed as her chief adviser on the project to build a gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope, a former lobbyist for TransCanada, the company that ultimately won state subsidies to build it. The adviser was Marty Rutherford, her deputy commissioner of natural resources, who in 2003 "earned about $40,000 lobbying the state government" for a subsidiary of the Canadian pipeline company. Palin is proud that the Alaska legislature this summer approved her plan to "give a $500 million subsidy to TransCanada to help build the project" according to the Times.


http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/08/30/palin-and-mccain-share-a-love-of-lobbyists/