Palin the Reformer? I LOVE PORK-so tasty

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Palin the Reformer? I LOVE PORK-so tasty
8
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 3:05am

Pork always trumps moose. lol.

Palin's Pork Requests Confound Reformer Image

ST. PAUL, Minn. -

John McCain touts Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a force in the his battle against earmarks and entrenched power brokers, but under her leadership the state this year asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from one of McCain's top adversaries: indicted Sen. Ted Stevens.

Sarah Palin
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That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress for the current budget year, and runs counter to the reformer image that Palin and the McCain campaign are pushing. Other states got just $34 worth of local projects per person this year, on average, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington-based watchdog group.

Palin actually reduced the state government's requests for special projects this year to 31 earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 person, in the wake of President Bush's demand for a cutback in earmarks.

The state government's earmark requests to Congress in her first year in office exceeded $550 million, more than $800 per resident. But there's only so much Palin could do with state bureaucrats used to a free-flowing spigot of federal dollars from Washington.

"I have championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress," Palin said in her vice presidential campaign trail debut last week.

Palin's current request to Stevens, "would still put Alaska No. 1," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group that tracks earmarks closely.

The McCain campaign said Tuesday that Palin realized that Alaska was too reliant on earmarks and ordered state officials to cut back on their requests. It also said Obama requested nearly $1 billion in earmarks over three years for Illinois — a state with nearly 20 times the population of Alaska.

"We cannot and must not rely so heavily on federal government earmarks," Palin told state legislators in January.

Obama hasn't asked for any earmarks this year as he and Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered on the issue. Last year, he asked for $311 million worth, about $24 worth for every Illinoisan.

For his part, McCain doesn't seek pork projects.

Budget watchdogs allied with McCain have annually railed against Stevens, Alaska's senior senator, and his state's addiction to earmarks, those locally popular pet projects added to the federal budget by senators and House members. McCain and Stevens are not friends, and the two men have openly clashed on the Senate floor over earmarks.

In addition Palin's requests on behalf of the state government this year, 124 public and private entities in Alaska have asked Stevens for earmarks this year.

In her earlier political career as mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a private lobbyist to help the tiny town secure earmarks from Stevens, entering Washington's "pay to play" culture in which lobbyists, campaign contributions and lawmakers are intertwined.

The town obtained 14 earmarks, totaling $27 million between 2000-2003, according to data compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

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Federal lobbying records show that Wasilla hired the firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh in 2000 to arrange "funding of city projects." The signature on the registration form is that of Steven W. Silver, a former top aide to Stevens, who chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee on and off between 1997 and 2005.

The firm initially was paid $24,000 a year, an amount that increased to $36,000 in 2001. The firm has continued to work for the town government since Palin left as mayor in 2002. Silver gave $2,000 to Stevens' Northern Lights political action committee in 1999, according to federal records.

Stevens was indicted in July for failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts from VECO Corp., an Alaskan oil services company.

At the same time, Palin's campaign trail braggadocio last week that she told Washington "'thanks but no thanks' on that Bridge to Nowhere" didn't tell the whole story.

In fact, Palin was for the infamous $398 million bridge — to connect the town of Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport on it — before she was against it, speaking in favor of it during her 2006 race for governor.

Alaska has become so accustomed to largess flowing from Congress through Stevens that most of Palin's earmark requests this year — such as studies of Alaskan fisheries, grants to combat drug trafficking, and rural airport upgrades — simply keep ongoing programs going. Among her requests was $150,000 to pay the travel bills of state and fisheries industry representatives on the boards that implement North Pacific fisheries agreements.

"They've definitely become addicted to earmarks," said Ellis, of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "And Gov. Palin has continued in at least some form that addiction."

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Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 3:44am

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26616212/page/2/

ANCHORAGE - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

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The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel and many of the trips were to and from their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Has campaign on reform message
Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

Before she became the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee, Palin was little known outside Alaska. Now, with the campaign emphasizing her executive experience, her record as mayor of Wasilla, as a state oil-and-gas commissioner and as governor is receiving intense scrutiny.

During her speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin cast herself as crusader for fiscal rectitude as Alaska's governor. She noted that she sold a state-owned plane used by the former governor. "While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for," she said to loud applause.

Speaking from Palin's Anchorage office, Leighow said that Palin dealt with the plane and also trimmed other expenses, including foregoing a chef in the governor's mansion because she preferred to cook for her family. The first family's travel is an expected part of the job, she said.

"As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state," she said. "It's absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community events."

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Strict regulations don't cover governor
The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor's office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: "The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it."

The popular governor collected the per diem allowance from April 22, four days after the birth of her fifth child, until June 3, when she flew to Juneau for two days. Palin moved her family to the capital during the legislative session last year, but prefers to stay in Wasilla and drive 45 miles to Anchorage to a state office building where she conducts most of her business, aides have said.

Palin rarely sought reimbursement for meals while staying in Anchorage or Wasilla, the reports show.

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Fast-track governor
View images of Sarah Palin’s rise from Alaska beauty queen to governor to John McCain’s running mate.
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She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.

Thousands spent on children's flights
In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin's daughters' expenses and $19,000 for her husband, Todd Palin.

Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange, and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor's office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300.

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children's travel expenses, Garnero said: "We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that."

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of "state business" with the party extending the invitation.

One such invitation came in October 2007, when Willow flew to Juneau to join the Palin family on a tour of the Hub Juneau Christian Teen Center, where Palin and her family worship when they are in Juneau. The state gave the center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo.

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Leighow noted that under state policy, all of the governor's children are entitled to per diem expenses, even her infant son. "The first family declined the per diem the children," Leighow said. "The amount that they had declined was $4,461, as of August 5."

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won.

Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife.

‘She flies coach’
Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

"She flies coach and encourages her cabinet to fly coach as well," said Garnero, whose job is equivalent to state controller. "Some do, some don't."

Leighow said that the governor's staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski's wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.

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In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

Murky rules on kids' expenses
Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could "count on one hand" the number of times his children accompanied him.

"And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state," he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor's office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel.

Nizich is now Palin's chief of staff. He did not return a phone call seeking comment. The rules governing family travel on state-owned aircraft appear less clear. Knowles said he operated under the understanding that immediate family could accompany the governor without charge.

But during the Murkowski years, that practice was questioned, and the state attorney general's office produced an opinion saying laws then in effect required reimbursement for spousal travel.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 3:56am
Where do you dig up this stuff? You are ruthless, I LOVE IT!!!!
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 4:07am

(((Where do you dig up this stuff? You are ruthless, I LOVE IT!!!! ))))

Aw shucks. Glad to ablige ya'. lol. I can't take much credit, because the media is printing out this stuff faster than I can post it. lol. I knew that there would be blow back from the media for Sarah's divisive and accusatorial words. She picked the wrong fight. lol. I am goin' back in to see if I can find some more stuff. lol.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 4:29am

Questions remain on Palin vetting
By DAN JOLING

updated 11:29 a.m. ET, Sat., Sept. 6, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - John McCain's presidential campaign did not speak with the Alaska House speaker and other leading Republicans before McCain tapped Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

The low-profile vetting allowed McCain to spring Palin onto the national scene uncolored by media scrutiny. But it has left the campaign open to criticism that McCain did not fully explore her qualifications.

"I haven't heard of anybody being contacted, not that that's bad," said John Harris, speaker of the state House of Representatives. "I just haven't heard of anybody."

The subject is now closed, said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.

"Gov. Palin was fully vetted as previously described and we are no longer commenting on the vetting process," Bounds said Friday. "She was selected, is qualified and is ready to serve."

Attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., who led the review for the McCain campaign, and told The Associated Press earlier this week that Palin underwent a "full and complete" examination.

But Harris, state Senate president Lyda Green and Alaska Republican chairman Randy Ruedrich said no one called them in advance to talk about the governor.

"I've not heard of one person who was talked to," said Green, who lives in Palin's hometown of Wasilla and has feuded with the governor.

Palin also has had a rocky relationship with Ruedrich, whom she tried to oust as party chairman.

It was the same story at one of Palin's previous elected offices. Mary Bixby, executive assistant to Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller, said no one contacted the office for information about Palin before her selection. Since the announcement, the only attention had been from reporters.

"Nobody has been here," Bixby said.

Culvahouse said Palin's review, like others, began with two dozen people sifting through information from public sources: speeches, financial records, tax information, litigation, investigations, ethical charges, marriages and divorces.

For Palin, the team studied online archives of the state's largest newspapers, including the Anchorage Daily News.

Palin answered a personal data questionnaire with 70 "very intrusive" questions, Culvahouse said, and was asked to submit years of tax returns. Culvahouse conducted a lengthy interview.

"They obviously felt like they did enough research and were comfortable," Harris said.

Henry Brady, professor of political science and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, said Friday that campaigns should be more diligent about examining the record and background of lesser-known candidates than well-known ones.

"Any sensible due diligence would include not just looking at the public record, not just looking at the newspaper, but also talking to people," he said.

When Democrat Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, she was not fully vetted, Brady said. Questions about her husband's financial holdings and tax returns became a central issue in that election, won in a landslide by Ronald Reagan.

Since the Palin announcement, snippets of potentially damaging information have dribbled out — Todd Palin's youthful intoxicated driving conviction, the pregnancy of the Palin's unmarried teenager daughter, Palin's lack of international traveling, reality vs. hype on her effectiveness as a governor.

"The question is whether all these other little shortcomings are going to accumulate into a not-such-a-great picture," Brady said.

The process does, however, reflect on McCain's decision making. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination in March, giving him plenty of time to investigate potential running mates. Barack Obama did not clinch the Democratic nomination until June after battling Hillary Rodham Clinton in an extended primary campaign.

"You've got months to make this decision," Brady said.

He called it astonishing that with so many unknowns about Palin, more was not done. Brady said he suspects McCain did not seriously consider Palin until just before he picked her.

Still, he said, "This is one where there was time to do it right."

In the end, it may not matter, Brady said.

"She's worked out pretty well," he said of Palin. "She gave a heck of a speech."

___

Associated Press writers Matt Volz and Gene Johnson contributed to this story.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 4:47am

(((One of Palin's first acts as governor was to sell the governor's jet on eBay. She thought it was wasteful and, besides, couldn't even land on many of the state's short, gravel airstrips. ("It was for out-of-state trips," she said, disapprovingly.) She keeps a float plane, along with some snowmobiles, in her backyard in Wasilla. At the governor's mansion in Juneau, she got rid of the chef. The NEWSWEEK reporter asked her what working mother in her right mind would dismiss someone whose sole job was to cook for her family. She replied, "I don't want them thinking when I'm done being governor that it's normal to have a chef. It's OK for them to have macaroni and cheese.")))

So, the plane didn't FIT on Alaska's run ways? Not to mention she doesn't travel much. But she claims it was "wasteful"? She sounds like Eddie Haskel from Leave it to Beaver. Spinning her story to make herself look like a reformer. lol.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 5:31am

(((When Democrat Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, she was not fully vetted, Brady said. Questions about her husband's financial holdings and tax returns became a central issue in that election, won in a landslide by Ronald Reagan.

Since the Palin announcement, snippets of potentially damaging information have dribbled out — Todd Palin's youthful intoxicated driving conviction, the pregnancy of the Palin's unmarried teenager daughter, Palin's lack of international traveling, reality vs. hype on her effectiveness as a governor.

"The question is whether all these other little shortcomings are going to accumulate into a not-such-a-great picture," Brady said.)))

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 3:33pm

http://www.cnbc.com/id/26315278/for/cnbc

McCain and Palin castigate the earmarks she seeksBy JENNIFER LOVEN updated 2:05 p.m. ET Sept. 10, 2008 Font size: FAIRFAX, Virginia - Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, equated lawmakers' requests for funding for special projects with corruption on Wednesday, even though Palin herself has requested nearly $200 million in so-called "earmarks" for her state this year.

Campaigning in Virginia, McCain blamed earmarks — the practice of lawmakers slipping special requests for money for home-state projects into Congressional spending bills — for high food and gasoline prices and the trouble that many homeowners face in making mortgage payments. He vowed again to veto any bill that contains such funding.

"I got an old ink pen, my friends, and the first . . . earmark, big-spending bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. You will know their names. I will make them famous and we'll stop this corruption," McCain said during a rally at a park in suburban Washington, D.C.

Palin has sought $197 million worth of earmarks for 2009, down about 25 percent from the $256 million she sought in the 2008 budget year. As mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska, she hired a lobbyist to seek federal money for special projects. Wasilla obtained 14 earmarks, totaling $27 million, between 2000-2003, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hasn't asked for any earmarks this year. The Illinois senator sought $311 million in such funding last year. McCain, an Arizona senator, doesn't seek earmarks for his state.

Undaunted by his running mate's ties to earmarks, McCain said: "I've fought big spenders in both parties who spend your money on things you don't need, and things you don't want."

Palin said she was ready to join McCain in Washington "so we can end the corrupt practice of abusive earmarks after all."

The practice of earmarking is a longtime target for politicians running for office. Many find that, once in office, requests from constituents for help on a particular project is too tough to resist and support bringing that kind of money home to their states and districts.

The campaign said McCain and Palin drew the biggest non-convention crowd of his campaign, with local officials reporting an estimated 23,000 at the event.

The enthusiasm seemed driven primarily by the presence of Palin, who has electrified both McCain's campaign and the party since he announced her as his running mate almost two weeks ago.

Whether that fervor sticks to McCain will be tested when Palin splits off from her running mate for the first time to return to Alaska for a few days.

McCain was traveling to Philadelphia for an afternoon roundtable with women business leaders in a diner. He was to spend Thursday, the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and New York for events marking the milestone before returning to Washington on Friday evening.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Thu, 09-11-2008 - 2:37am

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080911/POLITICS01/809110311

Palin panned for follow-through

Alaska lawmakers in both parties say governor leaves details to others after initial proposals.
Tom Hamburger and Kim Murphy / Los Angeles Times
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Three years ago, when a Democratic state legislator tried to get bipartisan support for investigating charges of unethical conduct by a senior Republican official, only one member of the GOP answered the call -- Sarah Palin.

Palin pursued the allegations -- as well as ethics charges against another top GOP official -- so vigorously that both had to leave office.

The public acclaim that followed helped propel her into the governor's office a year later with promises of reform and a more open, accountable government that would stand up to entrenched interests, including the big oil companies.

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Yet a strange thing happened on the ethics issue once Palin became governor: She appeared to lose interest in completing the task of legislating comprehensive reform, some who supported the cleanup say.

The ethics bill she offered was so incomplete that its supporters undertook a significant rewrite. Moreover, when it came to building support for the bill, politicians in both parties say the new governor was often unaccountably absent from the fray.

And the seeming paradox of the ethics reform fight -- the bold, even courageous readiness to take on a tough issue, coupled with a tendency to drift from the nitty-gritty follow-through -- appears to be a recurrent theme of Palin's record as a political leader. Some lawmakers were so perplexed by her absence from a recent debate over sending oil rebate checks to Alaska's citizens, for example, that they sported buttons at the state Capitol reading "Where's Sarah?"

A spokesman for the governor's office rejects such criticism. Bill McAllister, Palin's press secretary, said, "She has always been sufficiently informed and engaged. ... In just two years in office, she accomplished more than most governors in their entire careers."

Even her critics credit Palin with a major role in pushing a state known for its relaxed approach to political ethics into a long-overdue housecleaning. And Palin has pushed hard to make oil companies pay more for access to the state's oil and gas reserves.

At the same time, she has fallen short of her proclaimed goals in other areas, especially when it comes to how she governs.

Her administration has not been marked by the transparency she promised: She invoked executive privilege in refusing to disclose information about one ethics case, and last week she moved to hobble a legislative inquiry into the governor's role in the firing of a state public-safety official.

Several legislators also say that the governor's office is not a place for open debate: Palin does not tolerate much dissent, they say, sometimes cutting off relations with those deemed unhelpful or critical.

And she shows only marginal interest in crafting policy proposals and getting them passed, these critics say.

"Her ethics proposal had to be beefed up substantially with very basic additions," said Rep. Les Gara, an Anchorage Democrat who tried to get the governor's attention on ethics and other issues. It lacked such provisions as language making legislators subject to prosecution for bribery if they exchanged votes for campaign contributions. To Gara and some others, including Republicans who often have supported the governor, their experience on the ethics bill has proved disconcertingly similar to their experience with Palin on other topics.

"When it comes to the real work of crafting policy, she's often not there," Gara said. He acknowledged her broad accomplishments but added: "I don't know if she's disinterested in details or not comfortable with them, but the bottom line is: She is not truly a hands-on governor."