The real politics of the Bridge to Nowhere....

With all the debate surrounding the Bridge to Nowhere earmark, I offer you a campaign photo from 2006 when the Bridge to Nowhere was considered the Bridge to Somewhere by one candidate seeking votes from the people of Ketchikan.

(Click on attachment to see photo)  

"Palin said Alaska’s congressional delegation worked hard to obtain funding for the bridge as part of a package deal and that she 'would not stand in the way of the progress toward that bridge."
Ketchikan Daily News 9/2006

A year later she abruptly cancelled the funding.

“She didn't make the announcement here in Ketchikan. She didn't alert local mayors that she'd made the decision. She didn't notify Ketchikan's Representative or Senator, or even the Congressional delegation, apparently, that a decision was made and an announcement was on its way. No, the effective end of three decades of effort towards a bridge was announced in a press release launched – perhaps coincidentally – early in the day to meet the East Coast media deadlines.”
Ketchikan Daily News Editorial, 10/11/07 - on Palin's abrupt decisions to cancel the bridge funding by sending out a 5am press release to hit East Coast news cycles

The politics behind the flip flop...

Governor Sarah Palin's interview with Charlie Rose 10/12/07

CR: What was that highway Senator Stevens wanted to build?

SP: He wanted to build a bridge.

CR: You stopped that didn't you?

SP: Stopped that because we'll make sensible decisions using other peoples money, federal money, and we'll make some wise decisions on how to build up our infrastructure.

CR: Did you get any feedback on your decision?

SP: From those in Congress?

CR: Yes

SP: Yes I did, but Alaskans are supportive, again just to make some wise decisions with other peoples money.

The governor's decision was made just 6 weeks after U.S. Senator Ted Stevens Girdwood home was raided by the FBI and rumors were at a fever pitch that an indictment was soon to follow.

The reason for sending out the 5am press release was to hit east coast newscycles to gain maximum national attention for the move. The move garnered big news coverage nationwide.

According to the Associated Press, when she was running for governor in 2006, Palin said she was insulted by the term "bridge to nowhere," according to Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, a Democrat, and Mike Elerding, a Republican who was Palin's campaign coordinator in the southeast Alaska city.

"People are learning that she pandered to us by saying, I'm for this' ... and then when she found it was politically advantageous for her nationally, abruptly she starts using the very term that she said was insulting," Weinstein said.

(Click on attachment to see photo)