When she wasn't running a snowmobile over the Democratic ticket, Gov. Sarah Palin in her Republican convention speech championed the cause of fiscal conservatism.

"I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' for that Bridge to Nowhere," she proclaimed, referring to the as-yet-unbuilt icon of pork barrel spending in southeast Alaska. "If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves."

More generally, she said, she'd pressed for "reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress."

A look between the lines of the bold talk from the former Wasilla mayor (1996-2002) and current Alaska governor (since 2006) suggests an alternate reading.

Belittling Barack Obama, Palin declared, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities." She didn't list those duties, but one was to hire the city's first-ever Washington lobbyist, well-connected to Pork King (northern division) Sen. Ted Stevens, who reeled in major congressional bacon -- $12 million by one count, $27 million by another -- for a municipality with fewer than 10,000 people.

Some of that earmarked spending -- meaning appropriations slipped into the federal budget without full hearings -- even caught the eye of earmark-fighting Sen. John McCain, who, in vain, put it on his "objectionable" list.

So Mayor Palin knew her earmarks. And in her two years as governor, Alaska has sought nearly $750 million in special federal spending, tops in all the land per capita, even though the state is flush with oil- and gas-related revenue.

As for the Bridge to Nowhere money, it's true: With national indignation focusing on a costly span to an island with 50 or so residents, Palin, who'd earlier backed the bridge, backed off. But the $223 million in earmarked federal funds? That money stayed up north.

All this is not to say that Palin hasn't learned useful lessons about spending restraint, or to deny that she comes from a cold climate traditionally warm to federal largess. But when Alaska's governor touts spending restraint and reform, consider the context.

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