The blogosphere’s buzzing with talk that the infamous “Bridges to Nowhere” has been defunded.

This is smoke and mirrors. It’s a cheap stunt by the GOP to deflect public criticism that doesn’t really change much of anything. All the conference committee did was remove the earmark for the bridges. Alaska will still be getting the same obscene amount of money from the federal government, it’s just that the state won’t be required to use it to build those two particular bridges. It’ll be up to the executive and the state legislature to decide how to spend it.

Now it’s possible that the legislature, which seems to be at least a hair more reasonable than Alaska’s governor and congressional delegation, will nix the bridge idea. I’m not optimistic. But even if they do, the original half billion dollars earmarked for the bridges won’t go to more worthy projects like rebuilding the Gulf, or, better yet, back to the taxpayers. Instead of going toward Ted Stevens’, Don Young’s, and Lisa Murkowski’s pet projects, it’ll merely be redirected toward the pet projects of Gov. Frank Murkowski and the Alaska state legislature. And don’t forget, Murkowski, who’s wife owns land on Gravina Island, fought long and hard for this bridge, too.

And incidentally, Ben Stevens, son of Ted Stevens, is president of the Alaska state senate. And it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that he’s been the target of multiple allegations of corruption, conflict of interest, and abusing his office for personal gain. Life father, like son.

Putting that half billion in his hands instead of his dad’s or Don Young’s is hardly a victory for taxpayers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 at 10:36 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.