McCain Blames Minnesota Bridge Collapse on Earmarks

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 3:07 PM on 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.