The Road to Nowhere

As we know, Sarah Palin said “thanks but no thanks” on the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. Or, rather, she favored the Bridge to Nowhere, attacked its critics, defended it publicly, and then when it became clear congress wouldn’t fund it she ended construction on the project and reallocated the funds to something else. But alongside the Bridge to Nowhere was a Road to Nowhere — or, more specifically, a road to the Bridge to Nowhere. As Paul Kiel explains Palin actually kept this $26 million project going even though, absent the bridge, it was completely useless. Why? Well it seems that unless she finished wasting your tax dollars and mine on this bridge, she would have had to have returned the money.

UPDATE: Back in 2006, Palin specifically defended the road in a debate. Faiz pulled the video:

This is pretty unremarkable stuff — putting picayune Alaska interests above national interests — but it certainly cuts against the image that Palin is trying to make.