Sarah Palin Aide Flames Fightin' Jake Tapper

A few days ago, I reported that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's home state was #1 in per capita earmark dollars in the recently passed omnibus bill. I used the same source that Jake Tapper used in his post on the subject, which has drawn fire from Palin's director of communications, Bill McAllister:

"I am disturbed by this item," wrote Bill McAllister, director of communications for Gov. Palin, referencing a blog entry from last night in which we referred to an article in the liberal magazine Mother Jones noting that Palin -- after what seemed like a campaign against earmark abuse -- was back at the proverbial trough.

"The headline doesn't seem very dignified for a major news organization," said the spokesman for the governor who repeatedly referred to then-Senator, now-President Obama as "palling around with terrorists." He also quibbled with our referencing Mother Jones. (We also reference conservative publications here. But anyway.)

I have a problem with a government official trying to play editor, or censor, to a member of the press. Tapper's "offending" headline? "Palin's Back to Lovin' Her Some Earmarks." At least he didn't compare her to a pig.

Tapper wasn't taking the criticism lying down, letting McAllister know exactly how much he appreciated the notes.
Tapper even gets a pretty funny one-liner in on McAllister.

McAllister tried to mitigate Alaska's earmarks by comparing them to...Alaska's earmarks in other years. Unless I'm mistaken, that doesn't change the fact that #1 means #1, numero uno, the big kahuna. Maybe that's what they mean by "the lower 48."

Tapper handles McAllister's criticism handily:

In any case, the point is, Gov. Palin as a vice presidential candidate claimed that she "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending of Congress."

And yet, she has asked for and is still asking for -- and receiving -- tens of millions of dollars in earmarks -- pork barrel spending that does not go through the normal appropriations process.

Including, you might be interested to know, moneys for alcohol bootlegging interdiction and North Pacific fisheries programs.

Her former running mate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., requests no earmarks.

That's a fiscally conservative position.

Political figures have become far too used to trying to push the press around, so I love to see it when a journalist pushes back hard.
As I've said before, hypocrisy arguments are fun, but not very productive. Tapper couldn't have expected McAllister to issue a statement saying, "Wow, Jake's right, we are big fat hypocrites. And Governor Palin does talk like that." I think his time would have been better serveed explaining what was so important about those earmarks.

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