Reply #54: Posted on www.politico.com's blog

[JPZenger]

A post above noted Palin's opposition to basic building codes. I looked into it and found the following post on www.politico.com, which is apparently based upon an LA Times news article:

"In 1997, she broke a tie in a city council vote to kill building codes. Even some area homebuilders supported the building codes.

"Among the many similarities to Bush she bears, Palin -- like Bush -- is a borrow & spend fiscal fraud. She took a town of less than 9,000 people that was debt-free in 1996 and ran it over $18 million into debt by 2003. She implemented a 25% increase in the most regressive tax possible -- the sales tax -- to finance her hockey rink project. In 2002, Pailn used city employees (on the clock), city equipment, and city facilities to work on her campaign for Lt. Governor.

She opposed an ordinance changing the closing time of bars in Wasilla from 5:00 AM to 3:00 AM. The Wasilla police chief at the time, Irl Stambaugh, supported the change as a public-safety measure. Palin, who had accepted numerous campaign contributions from local bar owners and the liquor lobby, fired Stambaugh immediately upon taking office.

On top of all that, it appears that Palin is either a major league flip-flopper, or a hypocrite. From yesterday's LA Times: "McCain has made opposition to pork-barrel spending a central theme of his 2008 campaign. "Earmarking deprives federal agencies of scarce resources, at the whim of individual members of Congress," McCain has said. But records show that Palin -- first as mayor of Wasilla and recently as governor of Alaska -- was far from shy about pursuing tens of millions in earmarks for her town, her region and her state.

She actively sought federal funds -- a campaign that began to pay off only after she hired a lobbyist with close ties to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who long controlled federal spending as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He made funneling money to Alaska his hallmark. Steven Silver was a former chief of staff for Stevens. After he was hired, Wasilla obtained funding for several projects in 2002, including an additional $600,000 in transportation funding. That year, a local water and sewer project received $1.5 million, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, which combs federal spending measures to identify projects inserted by congressional members. This year she submitted to Congress a list of Alaska projects worth $197.8 million."