The Trail

Friday, May 2, 2008

REBUKE FROM AN ALLY

McCain Backtracks on Earmarks and Bridge

Sen. John McCain yesterday attempted to clarify comments about last summer's deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis, saying he never intended to say federal budget earmarks led to the disaster.

Responding to reporters's questions as he traveled through Iowa, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said he meant to say only that earmarks divert money from necessary projects toward unneeded pork-barrel ones.

"When you divert money to projects that are unneeded and unwanted, any project that is deserved is not going to receive the funding that's necessary," he said. "And I will maintain again that I believe that when you fund a bridge to Alaska or you fund a highway in Florida that the people there don't even want, then money is diverted from much-needed projects."

In Pennsylvania on Wednesday, McCain said the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in August happened because lawmakers have consistently spent taxpayers' dollars on items aimed at bolstering their political standing at home. "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money," McCain told reporters. "The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

That had prompted a mild rebuke from Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), a national co-chairman of McCain's campaign. He told reporters they should not necessarily accept the senator's analysis that the bridge's collapse stemmed from wasteful spending.

Pawlenty, who is often referred to as a possible running mate for McCain, said people should not draw conclusions about the bridge collapse until the National Transportation Safety Board completes its probe of the incident.

The probe has focused on a possible design flaw in the bridge. Pawlenty said he called McCain's aides to remind them that the safety board will be issuing a report in a matter of months.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, a Democrat, also questioned McCain's response. "I'm surprised he is saying something different than the governor, who has said that this wasn't about resources," Rybak said.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, echoed Rybak's remarks. "John McCain's comments regarding the I-35 Minneapolis bridge tragedy are disappointing and inappropriate," he said in a statement. "I agree with Mayor Rybak that it's wrong for Senator McCain to try to use a catastrophe that killed 13 people and injured hundreds to score political points. Senator McCain should apologize to the people of Minnesota for his remarks."

McCain was not the first presidential candidate to mention the I-35 bridge. In defending his opposition to the idea of a gas-tax holiday, Barack Obama said last weekend that the proposal would rob the government of funds for road construction and added, "Remember that bridge in Minneapolis?"

-- Juliet Eilperin and Michael D. Shear

DEATH TO A HOLIDAY?

Pelosi Criticizes Gas Tax Proposal

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lent her name yesterday to the growing chorus of Democrats opposed to a gasoline tax holiday proposed by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain.

Pelosi (Calif.), who is neutral in her party's nominating contest, said that Congress will not consider a suspension of the 18-cent federal gas tax.

"There is no reason to believe any moratorium on the gas tax will be passed on to consumers. That's first and foremost. Second, it will defeat everything we've tried to do to lower the cost of oil," Pelosi said, noting that Democrats have been trying to shift the nation to alternative fuel sources, not promote gasoline consumption.

Sen. Barack Obama has ridiculed the proposed tax suspension, saying that the savings for drivers would be minimal.

At an event in Jeffersonville, Ind., hours after Pelosi's comments, Clinton said that she believes "it is important to get every member of Congress on the record. Do they stand with hard-pressed Americans who are trying to pay their gas bills at the gas station, or do they once again stand with the big oil companies? That's a vote I'm going to try to get, because I want to know where they stand and I want them to tell us -- are they with us or against us?"

On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Congress's Democratic leadership has no intention of providing a tax holiday. "A suspension of the tax would not be positive," Hoyer said. "The oil companies would just raise their prices."

-- Jonathan Weisman

SUNDAY DVR ALERT

Obama on NBC, Clinton on ABC

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will duel on competing Sunday-morning political talk shows.

Obama will appear on NBC's "Meet the Press," while Clinton will be on ABC's "This Week." Clinton will take questions from host George Stephanopoulos, who helped run her husband's first presidential campaign, as well as from members of the studio audience and from voters in North Carolina via satellite. Both shows will be taped from Indianapolis.

-- Perry Bacon Jr.