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Maybe...just maybe...Chris Wallace had enough of McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis's ridiculous spinning on Sarah Palin that he wasn't about to let Davis get away with the standard campaign glossing over of her "executive experience." Who knows, maybe Wallace is nursing a grudge for not being able to book Palin this Sunday and having to settle for the unctuous Davis. Whatever the reason, Wallace was uncharacteristically hard on Davis's attempt to bolster Palin's reputation for being a reformer.

But honestly, I think that all of this sturm und drang about Palin is EXACTLY what the McCain campaign wants. Suddenly the campaign has become all about Palin vs. Obama, shunting off McSame into the shadows, where he gets to spend less time trying to refute that his will be a third term of proven failed Bush policies.

Palin's aggressive stance in getting federal money is the same thing that every governor does (although as a Californian, who pay more taxes than we get back, the per capita federal funding makes me a little ill--think of how much better our infrastructure would be here in Cali, if we didn't have states like Alaska sucking us dry). I don't think that there should be that much focus on it other than to point out that Palin herself was named THREE TIMES by none other than McCain as a Pork Barrel Princess.

So doesn't this go more towards the poor and reckless judgment of McCain, who picked someone as a running mate that he personally has castigated in the past for her fiscal irresponsibility?

So are they trying to tell us that this kind of hypocrisy is acceptable?

transcripts below the fold

WALLACE: But aren't you vastly exaggerating her record as a reformer? Take a look: as Mayor of Wasilla, she hired a Washington lobbyist and got $27 million in earmarks. And in her less than two years as Governor, Alaska has asked for $589 million in pork barrel projects. Her record, as a reformer, particularly on the issues of earmarks, is far from clean.

DAVIS: Well, well, let's be clear about this. When she was Mayor of Wasilla, there were already people in place who were getting those grants from the federal government. And small towns do a lot of that kind of activity, because mayors...

WALLACE: She hired a Washington lobbyist [crosstalk-inaudible] close to invited senator...

DAVIS: ....She was already involved in that...

WALLACE: No, she did hire...she did hire a lobbyist...

DAVIS: ...And so, let me also point out these pork barrel projects that you talk about. These were not projects that she tried to get. These were projects that the Republican establishment in Alaska, who she campaigned against, and beat many times over, were the ones picking those grants up.

Let me remind you, she vetoed more bills. She cut back on more pork barrel spending in the state legislature than any previous governor. She converted that legislature into reform, because she passed ethics reforms and corruption reforms. She railed against the establishment in Alaska and was able to accomplish great things by passing a significant energy bill that allowed them to create a natural gas pipeline. These are all things that a true reformer is able to accomplish. So, you know, I don't disagree with the fact that these...there were...there were pork barrel projects coming to Alaska, but not from her. Within the state legislature she beat back those efforts.

WALLACE: Wait a minute, first of all...

DAVIS: She's not a federal...

WALLACE: As governor, Alaska, during her year and a half, two years as governor, Alaska continued to get more federal money for pork barrel projects per capita than any state in the country...

DAVIS: Yeah, that's Ted Stevens...that's Ted Stevens...

WALLACE: and, and...let me, it just works better if I get to ask the question.

DAVIS: Okay.

WALLACE: And she supported the "Bridge to Nowhere" and it was only after the federal government dropped it out and killed it - the Congress killed it - that she then opposed it and in fact, she still got the money for the approach, the ramp to the bridge to nowhere.

DAVIS: Congress didn't beat back the Bridge to Nowhere.

WALLACE: Yeah, but she accepted the money.

DAVIS: That funding...that funding was in the grant and she said, "I'm not spending that money." And what they did? They took a $500 million bridge and she turned it into a $2 million ferry. And that's what she did on her own, without any help from anybody else.

WALLACE: Well, actually, it was Congress that killed the money for the Bridge to Nowhere, but let me move on to something else.