OR-4: DeFazio sets record straight on Palin’s support of Alaskan bridge

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazioThe rest of the country can argue over what vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said about her support for Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere,” but U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) set the record straight on Tuesday.

"Sarah Palin seems to have forgotten that she joined U.S. Representative Don Young and U.S. Senator Ted Stevens in advocating for the Bridge to Nowhere project,” DeFazio said in a statement. “Apparently, what she stood for as a candidate in her state, is different than what she now stands for as a national candidate."

DeFazio, who is chairman of the House Transportation Subcommittee on Highways and Transport, would know. That project ended in September 2007, shortly after he took the reins of that committee. But since Palin took credit for ending the Bridge to Nowhere in her acceptance speech, and then on the campaign trail, DeFazio says that each time she brings up the project, she is only hurting her credibility as a candidate.

"As we can see from her record as Governor, Sarah Palin is not the reformer that John McCain is trying to present her as," DeFazio continued. "It's not reform to say no, then keep the dough."