Pre-VP Palin: No Need to ‘Live Without Earmarks’

On the stump, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) rails against congressional earmarks, but in an interview with the New Yorker a few weeks before being selected as John McCain’s running mate, Palin was singing a little different tune.

“There isn’t a need to aspire to live without any earmarks,” Palin told the magazine’s Philip Gourevitch. “The writing on the wall, though, is that times are changing.”

Palin added that the national attention to the issue, as well as the likelihood that indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) won’t be serving the state next year, will require Alaska to adjust to living without as much federal funding.

“Presidential candidates have promised earmark reform, so we gotta deal with it,” Palin said, “we gotta live with it, understanding that our senior senator, especially