Palin loves pork

Ever since Senator John McCain introduced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, she's been playing up her alleged hatred for Congressional earmarks.

"I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere," Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan's Gravina Island bridge.

But the evidence shows otherwise. You see, Governor Palin actually campaigned in 2006 on building the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere."

The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere."

But it doesn't end there. It's not enough to try to waste your tax dollars for a bridge to nowhere. Governor Palin still has the taste for pork, despite what she says in current political situations.

Just this year, she sent to Sen. Ted. Stevens, R-Alaska, a proposal for 31 earmarks totaling $197 million — more, per person, than any other state.

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Palin's requests to Congress came at a time of huge federal deficits, while Alaska state revenue was soaring due to rising oil prices and a major tax increase on oil production that Palin signed into law in late 2007.

As a result, Alaska this year was in such a money-flushed condition — with no state income tax or sales tax and total state revenues of $10 billion, double the previous year's — that Palin gained legislative approval for $1,200 cash payments to every Alaskan. [emphasis mine]

But rather than spend the state's money on projects in the state, Governor Palin came to the federal government looking for a handout. Imagine what she would do as Vice-President, second in command, and representing a state where bringing home the bacon has become something of a sport.