THE ROAD TO NOWHERE

This is an improvement over The Bridge to Nowhere but it still isn't evidence that Palin is a fiscal reformer.

Palin touts stance on 'Bridge to Nowhere,' doesn't note flip-flop

By TOM KIZZIA
tkizzia@adn.com
ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS

Published: August 31st, 2008 02:29 AM
Last Modified: August 31st, 2008 03:06 AM

When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, her reputation as a tough-minded budget-cutter was front and center.

"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 Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.

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

Meanwhile, Weinstein noted, the state is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone -- because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government.