McCain blames Minnesota bridge collapse on earmarks

May 1, 2008

Joe Klein recently predicted that John McCain would avoid a cheap and pathetic style of campaigning. McCain, Klein said, “sees the tawdry ceremonies of politics — the spin and hucksterism — as unworthy.” If he doesn’t, “McCain will have to live with the knowledge that in the most important business of his life, he chose expediency over honor.”

At this point, if McCain is experiencing any kind of internal dilemma, I’m pretty sure hucksterism is winning.

Republican John McCain said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota that killed 13 people last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending.

Federal investigators cite undersize steel plates as the “critical factor” in the collapse of the bridge. Heavy loads of construction materials on the bridge also contributed to the disaster that injured 145 people on Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board.

“The bridge in Minneapolis didn’t collapse because there wasn’t enough money,” McCain told reporters while campaigning in Pennsylvania. “The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects.”

This is so cheap and crass, I’m almost surprised his remarks didn’t spark some kind of controversy. If McCain is willing to aim this low in the spring, what can we expect from in the fall?

As Wolfrum put it, “Using the death of 13, the misery of their families and the 145 people that were injured in the bridge collapse in order to push his pandering, unrealistic and stupid ‘Earmarks, never again’ platform?”

This one was so shameless, even some of his supporters in Minnesota are keeping their distance.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), a close McCain ally and rumored VP possibility, seemed to find his buddy’s comments a little awkward.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty warned Thursday against a rush to judgment about the cause of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse, a day after Republican John McCain blamed it on wasteful pork-barrel spending. […]

In the past, the governor has criticized Democrats for politicizing the collapse that killed 13 people and injured 145 last summer. Pawlenty is stepping gingerly around the McCain comments that the Minneapolis bridge failure could be traced to money spent on pork-barrel projects.

Pawlenty told reporters that McCain’s theory is the senator’s opinion.

With each passing day, McCain appears increasingly incoherent. For all of his promises about eliminating all earmarks, McCain doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. He can’t decide what an “earmark” is, he’s lied about his own record on earmarks, and he publicly endorses earmark projects all the time.

Just yesterday, McCain visited a hospital and met a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated in a clinical trial program – funded by an earmark. It prompted McCain to concede that some earmarks have merit.

“It’s the process I object to,” McCain told reporters. “We need to start over from scratch.”

Oh, I see. It’s the process. According to McCain’s argument yesterday, a bridge collapsed in Minnesota, killing 13 people, because of a congressional spending process — which frequently finances transportation projects.

Over the course of a couple of weeks, McCain has gone from wanting to eliminate every federal earmark, to keeping some earmarks, to praising the result of some earmarks, to saying that earmarks are fine but are part of a flawed process.

I get the distinct impression that McCain’s reputation as an impressive campaigner and lawmaker has been greatly exaggerated.

McCain appears increasingly incoherent…

Maybe he’s taking some his wife’s medication.

  • We need to realize too, that it is really the mainstream media that is responsible for how his lies are “catapulted” and how the public is distracted from his endless contraditions and flip-flops.

    The fact that mclame is a liar, probably one with extremely limited mental capacity, is not a problem – THE FACT THE MSM PRESENTS HIM AS A “STRAIGHT TALKER” AND “MAVERICK IS!

    If the MSM gave the likes of dur chimpfurher and mcsame one tenth the scrutiny of political opponents and dems, they would be laughed off the national stage.

    An AWOL alcoholic/cocaine addict would never have been fraudulently hoisted on the world as a “war president.”

  • Remarkably, he gives the impression of someone who has no idea how pretty much anything in government actually works. 25 years in DC and he knows nothing.

    Must be a RePugnantcan.

  • About a month after President George W. Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln before a banner proclaiming, “Mission Accomplished,” Fox News’ Neil Cavuto asserted to Senator John McCain that, “many argue the conflict isn’t over” in Iraq. McCain responded, “Well, then why was there a banner that said mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier?”

    For a detailed history of John McCain’s predictions of a short war and claims U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators to his casual attitude towards casualties and his ongoing confusion over friend and foe in Iraq, see:
    “John McCain on the Mission Accomplished in Iraq.”

  • Obviously the real solution to the problem, as with any other problem, is to cut taxes. Cutting taxes will bring in more revenue and strengthen bridges. If you look real close at the Laffer Curve you will find the bridges somewhere.

  • Is McCain suggesting that they knew the bridge was in danger of collapse? Did Coleman offer an earmark and the Senate refused to approve it?

  • Along with RacerX and Ron, my reaction was, this is from the guy who wants to forego gas taxes????? The gas taxes that we use to build & maintain our transportation infrastructure, such as it is given the way we underfund it and underinvest in it. Without which, even more bridges would fall down. What in heaven’s name is he thinking?

    For all that I’ve lost my enthusiasm for Hillary, if she wins the nomination, McCain will have done a great job of revitalizing my support for her.

  • MCCain seems to be flip flopping on earmarks:

    http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/01/mccain-earmark-hospi/

    McCain Says He No Longer Objects To Earmarks, Just The ‘Process’»

    Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has repeatedly pledged that if elected president, he “will veto every bill with earmarks.” But in recent months, McCain has slipped further and further away from that promise:

    – After ThinkProgress pointed out that military housing and aid to Israel, McCain said that he would make an exception for certain projects.

    – On April 24, McCain backtracked from his sweeping pledge, saying he would now judge spending cuts “on the basis of need.”

    – McCain has repeatedly used earmark-funded projects and venues as backdrops to his campaign events.

    Yesterday, McCain held a health care event at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. While there he met Mary, a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated “in a $80 million clinical trial program funded by an earmark.” Confronted with this “human face of earmark spending,” McCain again backed away from his campaign rhetoric:

    McCain praised the woman’s treatment and later said some earmarks were clearly worthy.

    “It’s the process I object to,” McCain told reporters. “We need to start over from scratch.” […]

    “When you earmark in the middle of the night you have no budgetary constraints,” he said.

    As Politico’s Ben Smith notes, “That’s one thing about spending cuts: Much harder when you get to the details.”

    Here’s the problem with McCain’s constant flipping: The reason the senator has said he opposes earmarks is because they are fiscally irresponsible. “No is always the right answer to wasteful spending,” according to McCain. Similarly, his campaign aides like to tout the costs McCain will supposedly save taxpayers by getting rid of all earmarks.

    So now, if McCain is only opposed to the “process” and willing to fund some “worthy” earmarks, which programs will he cut to come up with that $95 billion in savings he has promised? So far, his campaign hasn’t been willing to give any specifics.

  • Of course, Ron.

    The Laffer Curve is parabolic in shape.

    Bridge supports often use parabolas because of their load dispersing properties.

    Ergo, Laffer contemplated strong bridges. We should lower taxes!

  • Isn’t much of the transportation money the very definition of pork-barrel spending whether it is a bridge in MN or the Wilson Bridge on the Capitol Beltway? And even if the money for transportation wasn’t directly proposed for specific projects, whose to say the state would have directed the money to that particular bridge?

    Maybe he should talk to Ted “Bridge to Nowhere” Stevens.

  • This one was so shameless, even some of his supporters in Minnesota are keeping their distance.

    Yet they will still support him, and the people who will still support him will, yet again, vote against themselves (and the rest of us).

    Personally, I think that Clinton has it in the bag. That’s who they really want, not McCain. He’ll tell someone to fuck off if he doesn’t want to do something which infuriates the right. If he had any principles that might be ok for US, but since he doesn’t, he scares me more than BushCo.

    Why is the radical right choosing Clinton? Is it REALLY that they want to decimate her in the fall or get her to win? Four years from now, they would get a gooper in the WH just by spending four years railing against her for that long. Short term loss for their always long range plans (and I wonder how much of a loss for them it would be).

    She voted for war, she voted for labeling the Iranian military as terrorists, she said she wouldn’t hesitate using nukes. Which neocon does that sound like? Oh, right…all of them.

  • I’m beginning to think that “John McCain” is Latin for “Alzheimer’s Patient”. But that would be kind of mean, I guess.

  • However we get there, “No More Earmarks” is a great goal. Most of them are nothing more than political favors or paybacks, added to bills behind closed doors. They only serve to keep the powerful in power. They are a disgrace.

  • What MsJoanne said.

    Clinton is the dream candidate of the right. Even if she’s elected they win.

  • Are we certain he hasn’t had a stroke? He sure looks and acts like he did.

    The media is certainly doing the old “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” monkey routine with him. Controversy? The media wouldn’t find any”controversy” if he soiled himself on Larry King Live.

  • Is McCain capable of playing more than two chords … OK, three? He is attempting to play the simpler and fewer themes the better MO of Reagan but he is finding that he may just have to give in to some nuance lest he come out of this looking a hell of a lot more like Bush whose presidency is blocked up on the axles. And that is just about the state of the country too. The people may just be searching for more than a shade tree mechanic with two rusty tools in his box. Jeez, McCain is giving ‘The Simpsons’ writers some good material here.

  • Nice to know. I was of the opinion the gods made that bridge collapse because fish were fornicating in the river below.

  • If the government hadn’t funded that bridge, private sector ferries would have been hauling people across that river, my friends. Ferries don’t fall like bridges, and though they do occasionally catch fire, capsize, wreck into things and sink, I’d be in favor of granting them retroactive immunity from those greedy trial lawyers.

  • There are a couple of fundemental problems with McCan’ts claim, but for one, I have no problem with him attacking earmarks, even though it’s hypocritical.

    Problem one, bridges are repaired using the highway trust fund. You know, the one he proposed to gut this summer without any replacement revenue. It’s funded by the gas tax.

    Problem two, if the Republican’t wing that put Boy George II in power believed in Government they would put competent, rather then politically acceptable (Liberty University), staffers in the executive branch. Since they don’t it would not matter how much money you gave the Department of Transportation, our bridges will continue to fall and our highways continue to deterorate.

    Because of problem two, and the fact that Congress can’t manage to write laws directing the Executive branch to actually spend funds in a manner they consider fair, they insist on doing the job of the executive branch and distributing funding between programs and projects.

    Hence, Earmarks.

    The system is very, very broken. For McCan’t to fix it he has to assert that HE can lead an executive branch that can actually do the job that his Party is convinced Government can not (and should not) do.

  • “…I get the distinct impression that McCain’s reputation as an impressive campaigner and lawmaker has been greatly exaggerated.”

    A reputation he has given himself and bribed the press to spread. This is what I’m talking about. Just let him speak and then question him and it becomes apparent that most of the time he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and really isn’t that bright. Once you see through the phony “my friends” routine, and past the press that covers for him constantly you realize what a buffoon this guy really is Living off a rep he doesn’t deserve which is incredibly dishonest. Really, on every issue he addresses he borders on or surpasses the ridiculous. Sit the Sunnis and Shiites down and say stop the bullshit?? Bridge collapses because of earmarks?? Iran training and arming al qaeda (the Sunni group)?? Bring the troops home now…but it would be ok if we stayed in Iraq for a 100 yrs??
    If McCain stood on one foot at the podium and began drooling while staring at the floor Lieberman and the press would just say he was having a senior moment and proceed to tell us what he really meant.

    He’s not a hero or a maverick or a straight shooter. He’s a show off, ego maniac elitist flying around in his wifes jet longing for his party days, getting people killed just to make himself look good.(from the sailors who died as a result of him showing off a “wet start” on his naval carrier to getting people killed after his “rug buying” visit with Graham in an Iraq market place telling the American public how ‘safe’ the marketplace was). Born to Admirals and a rich wife he’s had strings pulled all his life. Getting captured does not make one a hero. Bombing from high altitudes does not make one an expert on war. Why should ‘he’ worry about veteran’s benefits since he’s never had to depend on them?? An idiot on every issue.

    Just let him open his mouth and continue to stick his foot in it and sooner or later even the press will not be able to cover for him. He does nothing to better this country and was only the least embarrassing candidate the GOP could come up with.

  • I think that if we cut all earmarks and used the trillions that would save to attack every other country on the planet, we should have fully funded bridges by the time McCain leaves office. Of course, this would also require that we cut tax rates below zero in order to maximize government revenue streams, as well as having the government subsidize all gasoline purchases by 110%. But if the do-nothing Democrats attempt to obstruct McCain’s brilliant plan in any way, then the whole thing collapses and it’s their fault.

  • “the fact that Congress can’t manage to write laws directing the Executive branch to actually spend funds in a manner they consider fair, they insist on doing the job of the executive branch and distributing funding between programs and projects.

    Hence, Earmarks.”

    Baloney!! It’s all about power and political paybacks and favors. Fairness has nothing to do with it. Get ride of earmarks and you’ll cut the lobbyists in half.

  • #18 Chopin

    Actually it was the unmarried and gay fish fornicating under the bridge that incurred God’s wrath.

  • I guess he could have been blaming the collapse on the Iranians, so, by that standard, earmarks is better.

    About as sensible as blaming it on wombats, though. Or the fish, whatever their orientations.

  • OK, Am I the only person who read the article that said the bridge collapse was NOT the result of poor maintainance or lack of maintainance funds, but a design error? Perhaps the engineer who did the strength calculation on the gussets was distracted by the wombats who were watching the gay unmarried fish fornicate who were being paid to do so through a federal earmark. Except the bridge was designed long before earmarks were prevalent.

  • Joe Klein recently predicted that John McCain would avoid a cheap and pathetic style of campaigning.

    So why is Klein still on the payroll of TIME Mag? Why does he get paraded about on TV like he is liberal, when he seem more like a Repug plant?

  • Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is considered by many to likely be on the short list for McCain’s running mate. As I understand it, Pawlenty gutted state appropriations for transportation infrastructure (among other things) and the bridge collapse was something of a spotlight on his administration’s shortsightedness. Since McCain has figured out that he can do no wrong in the eyes of the media, he’s probably just trying to draw some blame away from poor old Tim who has had people be so mean to him.

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