The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin: XXVII

She said she'd turned down some of the federal stimulus money:

Palin announced last week she was not accepting $288 million of the $930.7 million that the state is due in the federal stimulus.

No, she didn't say she did.

"The governor has not rejected any funds -- that I think was perhaps the interpretation and I know certainly in some of the coverage of the press event last week," Karen Rehfeld, the governor's budget director, told the House Finance Committee on Tuesday.

But she did:

Palin announced last week that she was only requesting the portion that would go for construction and infrastructure and that "in essence we say no to operating funds for more positions in government."

She made arguments for not accepting the money -- including that some has strings attached and that the state might be left to pick up the tab if people expect programs to go on after the federal money runs out. ... A reporter asked Palin at the time if it was fair to say she was rejecting the money. "If that's the way you want to look at it," she replied.

But she didn't:

“The governor said she’s not taking it, then she said, ‘I didn’t say that.’ Now she’s saying she’ll take it,” Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks, paraphrased. “She’s playing her national politics at the cost of Alaskans. It’s bizarre. It’s whacko.” ... Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, said Palin’s political ambitions are coming into play. “The political grandstanding she did was terrific for the conservative base, but speaking as a conservative, this battle has been fought and lost by those of us who think we’re digging a hole for the next generation,” Ramras said.