Ms.Palin's PAC: Gaming the truth

(1/29/09) My Inbox has been abuzz over the last twenty four hours since Governor Sarah Palin announced the formation of her own political action committee (PAC) named sarahpac.

Who were the senders?

Angry lawmakers who say that Palin is taking false credit on her self congratulatory PAC website, claiming accomplishments that she had little or nothing to do with. However Palin's overreach shouldn't surprise anyone.

After all this is a person who stood in front of 70 million Americans and said she was building the "$40 billion dollar natural gas pipeline." She continued to repeat the lie on the campaign trail, even though when she first said it back in August at a press conference, her Revenue Commissioner grabbed her arm and corrected her.

This is also the person who quickly forgot that in 2006, not only did she support the Ketchikan Bridge, but she advocated that we build it sooner rather than later so we could take advantage of federal funds brought home by former Senator Ted Stevens. But yet went on to tell Americans she said "thanks, but no thanks."

Still, lawmakers who have done the heavy lifting on the issues that Palin is now taking credit for are burning. On the site (www.sarahpac.com) a page lists Palin's supposed accomplishments.

"Under her leadership as Governor, Alaska has invested $5 billion in state savings, overhauled education funding, and implemented the Senior Benefits Program that provides support for low-income older Alaskans," the narrative boasts.

However Palin had very little if anything to do with any of these issues.

First it was the legislature that has the power of appropriations and they were the ones responsible for depositing $5 billion in state savings. Palin had nothing to do with the deposit. 

Second, the overhaul of Alaska's education funding was completed by the Legislative Task Force on School Funding, chaired by Representative Mike Hawker. In fact Palin contributed nothing to the overhaul with the exception of adopting the task force's recommendations and then putting her name on the legislation.

Third, if anything at all, Palin is entitled to some blame - not credit -  as the senior benefits program failed to pass during the regular session because the lack of leadership on her part.

In 2007, Rep. Mike Hawker introduced HB198 which strengthened and extended the Senior Care program. The bill included a provision that would have removed any mention of the longevity bonus from Alaska's statutes. On the House floor, a fight occurred between those who wanted to keep the language and those who didn't.

The bill was unceremoniously pulled from the floor before a vote on final passage killing the program. Meanwhile, Palin remained silent on the sidelines allowing the bill to die.

In short, almost 7,000 of Alaska's neediest seniors were put at risk because a lack of leadership from Palin on the issue.

On June 27, 2007, the day after the special session on Senior Benefits, former Speaker of the House and now respected co-author of Bradners' Alaska Legislative Digest, Mike Bradner, wrote a stinging analysis of the lack of leadership Palin showed on the issue.

“Palin likes to play with issues publicly, but not work at them”, Bradner wrote. “Palin likes to just sort of muse about issues. But she seems unwilling to get down and dirty in a dogfight. She did nothing when she could have to salvage senior care, when it would have been easy and cost less.

In fact, after criticizing the legislature for spending too much on one time expenditures, Palin never once said how she would pay for the new $20 million per year senior benefit package that she originally introduced at a cost of $10 million per year.

Bradner went on to write, she “seems, at least so far, unwilling to become involved in legislative issues that are in process (at a time when they can be changed, limited or even stopped)."

But today on her new PAC website, Palin wants credit for a government program that ended up taking longer to get done and ended up costing twice as much.

The sarahpac site also claims, "During her first legislative session, Governor Palin's administration passed two major pieces of legislation - an overhaul of the state's ethics laws and a competitive process to construct a gas pipeline."

Democrats would argue that they did all of the heavy lifting on the ethics bill the year before.

In 2006, in the wake of the Greg Renkes debacle, Democrats including Les Gara and Hollis French worked hard on crafting legislation to strengthen ethics laws. Ironically, the bill was killed by Republicans who voted against it, who then flipped the following year and voted for it after Palin got elected and ethics suddenly became fashionable.

And the competitive process to construct a gas pipeline?

If you think giving $500 million of taxpayer money to a Canadian Pipeline company who has said publicly that they cannot build the pipeline until their competitors agree to underwrite the cost is a competitive process; then get out your checkbook and write a big check to sarahpac.com.

But where most of us come from, both situations are called throwing good money after bad.

Ms. P's PAC is playing games with the truth.