One of the most oft-repeated claims by the McCain/Palin campaign is that Sarah Palin opposed the infamous bridge to nowhere, a $450 million pork project inserted into the budget by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK) a few years back. In fact, the exact line "I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks' for that bridge to nowhere." appears in many of Palin's speeches. The problem? It's a dirty lie.

TPM has a timeline of the issue, but what it boils down to is that Sarah Palin was a staunch supporter of the bridge earmarks back when she was running for Governor, even though they had already been stripped from the budget in 2005. The funny thing about the appropriations process was that Alaska got the money anyway, but it just wasn't specified that it would be used for the bridge. When she got into power it was clear that there would be no more federal money coming for the project, but she didn't kill it until late last year, well after it became clear the state would have to pick up the rest of the tab. Sarah Palin kept the money anyway.

So Palin is lying about her position on the bridge. She not only supported the bridge, but is keeping the federal largesse now that the bridge is killed. She did kill the bridge, but that was only because the state of Alaska would have had to pony up a lot of the money for it. She didn't care about the expense when you would have to pay for it, only when Alaskans would. The idea that she is going to be some sort of staunch opponent of earmarks is ridiculous on its face, without even considering things like this.

In the meantime, the state is spending $24 million of federal money to build a road that would have gone to the bridge, because otherwise that money would have to be returned. That's $24 million of federal funds -- your money -- being wasted by Sarah Palin.

The bottom line? Sarah Palin being against earmarks is laughable, and the McCain/Palin campaign's specific claim that she opposed the bridge to nowhere is a flat out lie. Not a misstatement, not a half-truth, not a distortion, a lie. And they want you to believe it. They must think you're stupid.

-David Kleppinger, Morons.org Political Analyst