Tom Palin subpoenaed in 'Troopergate' investigation

From the Reuters news wire:

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin defended her record as governor of Alaska on Friday in the face of fierce Democratic attacks, while a state ethics panel subpoenaed her husband.

In the last installment of an exclusive interview with ABC News, Palin rejected her critics’ insistence that she had initially been in favor of building an Alaska bridge project held up as a symbol of wasteful government spending.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has denounced Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere” as a place where government fat needed to be cut. The $398 million bridge would have been built to a small island with only about 50 residents, and has since been shut down.

Palin insists she helped kill the project but Democrats emphasize that she was in favor of the bridge when she was a candidate for governor. It is an assault on her attempts to present herself as a reformer.

Palin, who was mayor of tiny Wasilla before becoming governor less than two years ago, told ABC News she did seek money for infrastructure in the state,” saying it was “not inappropriate for a mayor or a governor” to seek such funding.

But ultimately, she said, “I said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks. We’re not going to spend it on the bridge.’”

She also defended, as Wasilla’s mayor, seeking and obtaining $27 million in federal funding in the form of individual spending items that U.S. lawmakers called “earmarks.” McCain has made cutting “earmark” projects a pillar of his campaign.

“We have drastically, drastically reduced our earmark request since I came into office,” she said.