First, a refresher:
"We’re not going to spend $3 million of your tax dollars to study the DNA of bears in Montana," McCain continued. "I don’t know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue, but ..."
Now who wants to guess which fan-favorite, moose-huntin', wolf-snipin', red meat-tossin' hockey mom wants to spend $3.2 million of the US taxpayers' dollars researching sea lion DNA?
If you guessed Sarah Louise Heath Palin, well you're right. Politico's got the story.
According to a "summary of requests for federal appropriations" posted to her budget office’s website earlier this year, Palin requested millions of federal dollars for everything from improving recreational halibut fishing to studying the mating habits of crabs and the DNA of harbor seals.
It’s a position at odds with her recasting as an anti-earmarking champion, and with the tone of the biting scorn she’s employed toward the budgetary practice this week.
"At odds with"? Perhaps the good people at Politico are reluctant to say it, but let's tell the truth: This demolishes "her recasting as an anti-earmarking champion."
Here we have Sarah Palin calling for the same ludicrous-seeming "wastes of taxpayer money" that Senator McCain has so fervently decried for so long. We've even got her on record championing the reception of such funds.
Among the fauna-related requests:
5 Million for the "Arctic Yukon Kuskokwim-Sustainable Salmon Initiative: Provides funding for the State collaboration with the AYK Coalition to understand the salmon run failures in the AYK region and to better manage the resource in the future.
2 Million for Bering Sea Crab Research and Management: Researches Bering Sea crab productivity and sustainability as necessary to restore crab stocks.
1 Million for Rockfish Research: Researches rockfish fisheries due to the lack of good biological data on these fish stocks. Adult fish of this species are highly vulnerable to over fishing and localized depletion.
3.2 Million for Seal and Steller Sea Lion Biological Research: Funds monitoring of ice seal populations in Native villages, research on the species delineation and genetics of harbor seals to understand the declines in population and provide for population restoration, and continues research into Steller Sea Lion population decline.
(Source: Alaska's FY09 Summary of Requests for Federal Appropriations)
Now, of course, Senator McCain will counter by informing us that Governor Palin has seen the light and now knows that "earmarks are bad." He'll also likely point out how much she didn't request in earmarks. But that's all beside the point. The point is that he no longer has standing in claiming he's grabbed someone who despises those accursed earmarks as much as he does. Governor Palin's government has petitioned the federal government for at least eleven million dollars in appropriations, which, on the surface look to be laughable.
Why on the surface? Well, because there's likely actual reasons behind these requests. Federal money goes to fill a need that could not otherwise be met. This sort of research increases our knowledge about the environmental impact of our actions and, in non-fauna-related spending, often keeps alive vital infrastructure projects. (Bridge to Nowhere excluded, of course)
Why the empathetic turn? Because I want to see the debate hinge on real issues. I want Real Talk, which is different from Straight Talk. We're not going to solve our half-trillion dollar budget deficit problem by cutting a few billion here and there in bridge construction and sea bass research. The press lets McCain off easy when he talks about the love of earmarks as the root of all evil. Solving our fiscal problems will require sober, realistic talk about our priorities with regards to defense and entitlements. I sincerely hope we can bring about this sort of debate between the major candidates, because, otherwise, we're screwed even if Gravina Island doesn't get its bridge.
In the short term, though, I hope to have many a laugh seeing McSame try to rationally explain the intricacies of "good earmarks" versus them bad ones while the Schadenfreude chorus cries out "3.2 MILLION FOR STUDYING SEA LION DNA?!?!?!"