SNIDELY BACKLASH:

Misfire at Palin: Associated Press story offers skewed picture of gas line work (Anchorage Daily News, 11/01/08)

Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment -- a contract to build (sic) a 1,715 mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 -- emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration."

This report from The Associated Press is a remarkably skewed account with little new information to support the charge it implies. Presumably, readers are supposed to conclude that Palin tilted the gas line bidding toward a favored company, one that had previously employed one of her key staffers.

Here's the truth: The pipeline terms were not "Palin's." They were the terms requested by the sovereign state of Alaska, as provided in the Alaska Constitution.

While Palin did indeed start by proposing very similar bid terms, all of Alaska's key decisions about those terms and the contract award itself were made through an unusually open public process that culminated in formal and enthusiastic approval from the Alaska Legislature.

COMPLAINTS CONSIDERED, REJECTED

The basic complaints raised in the AP story were fully aired during the 59-day special session the Legislature held before voting to approve the final TransCanada deal. AP's investigative crew, imported from outside the state, drew heavily on Palin's Republican critics who lost this particular battle in the Legislature. Alaska's major oil companies spent huge sums on advertising and lobbying legislators to derail the TransCanada proposal.

SUPPORTERS' VOICES IGNORED

AP's version didn't include the voices of legislative Democrats, who overwhelmingly supported the Republican governor's recommendation to award a state license and state matching funds to the independent pipeline company.

Reacting to the AP story, House Democratic minority leader Beth Kerttula told the Juneau Empire, "I don't think this story was fair and accurate." [...]

BOTTOM LINE: Contrary to an Associated Press report, Alaska's bidding process for a gas line license was not flawed.