Palin plays the earmark game

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin won the governorship of Alaska two years ago by campaigning as a reformer against the clique of Republican officeholders beholden to the now-indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. But as Washington Independent’s Matthew DeLong reports, Palin built her career as a small town mayor by hiring lobbyists to bring earmarked federal spending to her constituents. In February, she “submitted a request for $200 million in earmarks” to Stevens. Her claim “to being an anti-earmark crusader is a bit off,” DeLong notes.