hard to be a "reformer" when you're a big part of the problem

Palin's pork requests confound reformer image

ST. PAUL, Minn. – John McCain touts Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a force in the his battle against earmarks and entrenched power brokers, but under her leadership the state this year asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from one of McCain's top adversaries: indicted Sen. Ted Stevens.

That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress for the current budget year, and runs counter to the reformer image that Palin and the McCain campaign are pushing. Other states got just $34 worth of local projects per person this year, on average, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington-based watchdog group.

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More from Think Progress:

Sen. John McCain has long campaigned against Congress earmarking federal money for pet projects back home, having gone so far as publishing “pork lists” detailing these financial favors. However, “three times in recent years, McCain’s catalogs of ‘objectionable’ spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time — Sarah Palin.”

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