Sifting through the wreckage on the Bridge to Nowhere

The Democrats’ desperate effort to take the sheen off Governor Palin’s slaying of the Bridge to Nowhere is working far too well.  As Jeremy Hinton notes, even Fox News is claiming that Congress, not Palin, killed the bridge.  Well, Fox News is wrong, period.

Let’s go through the timeline on this:

Prior to November 2005: Congress votes – not once, but twice – to fund the “Bridge to Nowhere” (Washington Post).  Among those voting to preserve the bridge funding were Barack Obama and Joe Biden (roll call vote).

November 2005: Congress, bowing to public pressure, takes the specific language on the bridge out of the appropriations bill, but as the New York Times notes:

The change will not save the federal government any money. Instead, the $442 million will be turned over to the state with no strings attached, allowing lawmakers and the governor there to parcel it out for transportation projects as they see fit, including the bridges should they so choose (RWL note: one other bridge – “Don Young’s Way” was included in the language strikeout).

So, in fact, the very appropriation that supposedly “killed” the Bridge to Nowhere did anything but.  In fact, it actually would have made it easier to start the project, as the Governor could have plowed the money into the bridge with no one watching due to the false sense of security over the language strikeout.

2006 campaign: Candidate Palin expresses support for the bridge.

December 2006: Less than two weeks after her inauguration, Governor Palin wipes out proposed state funding for the bridge in her first budget proposal to the legislature (outgoing Governor Murkowski would have spent $195 million), a clear sign that the price tag had led her to rethink her previous support.

Spring 2007: The state legislature complies; the Bridge to Nowhere gets no state funding.

Up until this point, the Bridge to Nowhere is still alive.  No one in Congress has killed it, or even said it couldn’t be funded.  Governor Palin could have demanded the bridge be funded (as Murkowski almost certainly would have, for he had personal reasons – Senate Conservatives Fund); she could have brought the media to Ketchikan, Alaska with sob stories from the locals; she could have taken some of the aforementioned $442 million, started the bridge, and then ask for more federal money to finish it.

She did none of those things; instead, she ordered the bridge project stopped (Anchorage Daily News) – something Congress never, ever, did.

She chose instead to use the money for other parts of the state road network, which, contrary to the views of some confused bloggers, was explicitly the choice given to her by Congress.

I conclude with a reliance on an unusual authority: the Alaska Democrats (via Senate Conservatives Fund, which added the emphasis):

On September 21, 2007, the State of Alaska officially killed the project . . . (Governor Palin) said it was clear Congress had little interest in spending any more money for it and that the state had higher priorities.

So, to recap:

Did Congress ever ban federal funds for the Bridge to Nowhere?  No.

Did the Alaskan GOP establishment still think the Bridge was a strong possibility before Governor Palin bounced them in 2006?  Yes.

So, who killed the Bridge to Nowhere again? Governor Palin.