Principled Stand?

The more I think about the governor's capital budget vetoes, the less I think the ADN's editorial page is right:

BOTTOM LINE: Some of Gov. Palin's cuts are pretty painful, but they reflect solid principles.

My initial inclination was to agree with that but now I'm beginning to wonder. How, for instance, do you say your three goals are "education, transportation, and public safety" and then go and cut $4-million for a public safety building in Nome. Your goal is in the title of the project!

(Yes, I am being parochial. So is everyone else when it comes to the capital budget.)

Rather, I think what happened is that the governor wanted to show off her fiscal conservatism and started cutting projects, not at random but neither with the impartial, even-handed due process that seems to be attributed to her.

(Andrew Halcro is persistently critical but worth reading on this.)

Of course, perfect consistency is an impossible goal. If 60 lawmakers in 121 days can't produce a near-perfect capital budget (or even a moderately decent one), we shouldn't expect one governor to do so with only the power to subtract.

And yet I imagine the sniping will continue for some time. To the point of any veto overrides?