Palin defends federal fund requests

WASHINGTON -- Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Friday blasted wasteful federal spending and insisted that she opposed the infamous "bridge to nowhere" project she had once championed.

In her third interview with ABC News, the Alaska governor also defended her request for about $198 million in federal funds for special projects and said Democrat Barack Obama regrets not picking Hillary Rodham Clinton as his vice presidential choice. ABC is the first network to interview Palin since she was named by John McCain on Aug. 29 to be his running mate.

Palin insisted that she never backed a proposed $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to its airport on a nearby island, but was instead interested in obtaining money to improve Alaska's infrastructure. She withdrew her support for the bridge after it became a symbol of wasteful spending added by members of Congress for special projects, known as earmarks.

"I was for infrastructure being built in the state. And it's not inappropriate for a mayor or for a governor to request and to work…with their congressmen, their congresswomen, to plug into the federal budget along with every other state a share of the federal budget for infrastructure," Palin said.

McCain has targeted wasteful spending in his presidential campaign and does not seek earmarks for his home state of Arizona. Palin said the abuse of earmarks "has always been an embarrassment."

In her interview, Palin defended herself when Gibson pressed her on Alaska's $155 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2008, amounting to what he said was about $231 per capita compared with earmarks of roughly $22 per person in Illinois. Palin insisted that she "drastically reduced" the state's earmark request.

The governor asked for about $198 million for 31 state projects for fiscal year 2009, according to a letter and supporting documents she sent to Alaska's congressional delegation. In 2007, Palin asked for 52 earmarks valued at $256 million.

McCain, appearing earlier in the day on ABC's The View, insisted that his running mate made no requests for earmarks. "Not as governor," he said.