Alaska Dems Hide Pro-Palin Web Page

Republican Vice-Presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has an unusual ally backing up her claim to have killed the infamous "bridge to nowhere," a $398 million earmark pet project sponsored by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R). The bridge was slated to connect sparsely populated Gravina Island with the mainland of Alaska near Ketchikan. Palin has mentioned her rejection of the project at nearly every opportunity on the campaign trail, famously declaring that she told Congress, "thanks, but no thanks," on the bridge. The Obama campaign and its supporters have cried foul, claiming that Palin supported the project before she was governor and only killed it after taking office for political expediency.

But the Alaska Democratic Party disagrees, at least according to a web site that the party sponsors. The website is an anti-Stevens campaign site and it credits Governor Palin with "canceling" the project.

The bridge would have connected Ketchikan, Alaska with its local airport on nearby Gravina Island (population 50). Congress stripped the earmark after a national uproar about it but appropriated the money anyway for unspecified transportation uses. Former Gov. Frank Murkowski's administration set aside about $113 million of the appropriation for the Ketchikan bridge. However, Gov. Sarah Palin said the $398 million bridge was $329 million short of full funding, and only $36 million in federal funds were set aside for it. She said it was clear Congress had little interest in spending any more money for it and that the state had higher priorities.

Now, however, Alaska Democrats have moved the website to a more obscure location as national Democrats try to make the case that Palin is not the foe of wasteful federal spending that she claims to be. The Obama campaign went so far as to call Palin's claims on the bridge a "lie" earlier today. "Despite being discredited over and over again by numerous news organizations, the McCain campaign continues to repeat the lie that Sarah Palin stopped the Bridge to Nowhere. McCain and Palin will say or do anything to make people believe that they will change something besides the person sitting in the Oval Office. That's the kind of politics people are tired of, and it's anything but change."

The Obama campaign may have done better to have checked with the Alaska Democratic Party before making its claims. In all likelihood, Palin's role in killing the bridge is not exactly as she claims. All politicians embellish their records with respect to issues that voters care about. Sen. Obama himself has been found to have exaggerated his record as a Senator and certain aspects of his background. But "lie" is a strong accusation and requires certainty on the part of the accuser that his facts are marshaled. In this case, the Obama campaign's accusation is not even backed up by his own party.