Read the full transcript of John McCain's campaign manager's interview with Chris Wallace.
WALLACE: Well, as a matter of personal privilege, I'm going to give you the opportunity to respond to David Axelrod, who said, you know, for all this talk about wait till we come in and shake the lobbyists, but the campaign team of McCain is filled with lobbyists or, in your case, former lobbyists. How do you respond?
DAVIS: Oh, I think that, you know, it's just more of the same from David Axelrod. I mean, they've been running against ghosts of the past all along. And I think it just shows that they don't really have anything to talk about.
If they want to run against Rick Davis or our campaign staff, let them. I think it's hilarious. I think it's a wonderful distraction from the real issues that we're trying to debate.
WALLACE: But aren't you vastly exaggerating her record as a reformer? Take a look. As mayor of Wasilla, she hired a Washington lobbyist and got $27 million in earmarks.
And in her less than two years as governor, Alaska has asked for $589 million in pork barrel projects. Her record as a reformer, particularly on the issue of earmarks, is far from clean.
DAVIS: Well, let's be clear about this. When she was mayor of Wasilla, there were already people in place who were getting those grants from the federal government. And small towns do a lot of that kind of activity because mayors...
WALLACE: She hired a Washington lobbyist who was supposed to...
DAVIS: ... mayors...
(CROSSTALK)
DAVIS: ... already involved in that, and so...
WALLACE: She hired a — she...
DAVIS: But let me also point out these...
WALLACE: ... she did hire a lobbyist.
DAVIS: ... these pork barrel projects that you talk about — these were not projects that she tried to get. These were projects that the Republican establishment in Alaska, who she campaigned against and beat many times over — were the ones picking those grants up.
Let me remind you, she vetoed more bills. She cut back on more pork barrel spending in the state legislature than any previous governor. She converted that legislature into reform because she passed ethics reforms and corruption reforms.
She railed against the establishment in Alaska and was able to accomplish great things like passing a significant energy bill that allowed them to create a natural gas pipeline.
These are all things that a true reformer is able to accomplish. So you know, I don't disagree with the fact that these — there were pork barrel projects coming to Alaska, but not from her. Within the state legislature, she beat back those efforts.
WALLACE: Wait a minute. First of all...
DAVIS: She's not a federal...
WALLACE: ... as governor, Alaska — during her 1.5 years, 2 years as governor, Alaska continued to get more federal money for pork barrel projects per capita than any state in the country.
DAVIS: Yeah.
WALLACE: And she was...
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: This works better...
DAVIS: Sure.
WALLACE: ... if I get to ask the question.
DAVIS: OK.
WALLACE: And she supported the "bridge to nowhere," and it was only after the federal government dropped it out and killed it, the Congress killed it, that she then opposed it. And in fact, she still got the money for the approach, the ramp, to the "bridge to nowhere."
DAVIS: Congress didn't beat back the "bridge to nowhere." That funding...
WALLACE: I know, but she accepted the money.
DAVIS: That funding was in the grant, and she said, "I'm not spending that money." And what they did — they took a $500 million bridge and she turned it into a $2 million ferry. And that's what she did on her own without any help from anybody else.
WALLACE: Well, actually, it was Congress that killed the money for the "bridge to nowhere."
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