Sarah Palin's Distaste for Earmarks is the Same as McCain's: False

[erpowers]

For years John McCain has tried to say he is against earmarks, but Winslow Wheeler, a former congressional staffer and author of "Wastrel of Defense", called McCain a "pork enabler". Today, Sarah Palin, during her introductory speech, tried to claim that she had fought against earmarks. However, to read what was written by
Gov. Palin's Special Counsel, John Katz, Gov. Palin was not against earmarks because she did not like them, she turned against them because of the bad publicity toward earmarks that was coming from Congress. Therefore, Gov. Palin was not a leader on the issue of ending earmarks, but a follower. She turned against earmarks because she had to in that others were making it harder to produce earmarks. It seems that if Gov. Palin had had her way earmarks would have stayed at a high level. There is a link to the whole article at the end of the post. Here are a few quotes from an article written by Gov. Palin's Special Counsel:

"The Palin administration has responded to this message by requesting 31 earmarks, down from 54 last year. Of these, 27 involve continuing or previous appropriations and four are new. The total dollar amount of these requests has been reduced from about $550 million in the previous year to just less than $200 million."

"The Palin administration has responded to this unwanted attention in a number of ways. Certain previous decisions concerning transportation earmarks are being re-examined. Currently, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is conducting an audit to determine the status of all recent earmarks."

"This discussion is precipitated not only by the earmark reforms in Congress but by requirements imposed on all states by the Federal Highway Administration."

"In responding to the new realities, we are not abandoning earmarks altogether but are seeking to constrain and document them in the ways discussed here."

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/031808/opi_258953362.shtml