Well…this sure isn’t going to help the godfather of the Corrupt Bastards Club win reelection.
Update: The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury, is for 7 felony counts of false statements (18 USC 1001). Sen. Stevens is accused of accepting gifts from VECO Corporation (whose executives were a big help to Mike! McGavick in his failed Senate race).
Essentially, VECO did extensive remodeling to Steven’s home. The house was raised and a new first floor was built. They finished the basement, added a first-floor deck, re-roofed the upper deck, rewired part of the house, added furniture and a new gas range, and even had some sort of “car exchange” to give Stevens a new vehicle. In total the gifts (or unpaid loans) were worth an estimated $250,000.
The problem for Stevens is that he did not disclose these as either gifts or as loans on his 1999-2006 Senate disclosure forms.
Bye, bye Ted.
I can see him sitting a jail cell one day thinking to himself, “This jail has the internet, right? Maybe I can escape through the tubes…”
“Nooooo!”
– Ted Stevens
Yeah!
Banner year for REPUBLICANS, eh wingnuts?
The Justice Department is about do a press conference. CSPAN 2 is supposed to carry it.
Heh. Well, Unka Ted has had a stranglehold on fisheries policy in the US for many many years – it will be good to see that behind us.
Up next: Congressman Don Young.
Oh, and Senator Stevens? No Ranking Member status for you!
Ted Stevens has been indicated? (or is that indicted?) It’s about time! Can we get him to come down here and campaign for Dino Rossi?
How long do you think he keeps his name on the airport?
“Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and a figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, has been indicted on seven counts of falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home.
Stevens, 84, has been dogged by a federal investigation into whether he pushed for fishing legislation that also benefited his son, an Alaska lobbyist.”
Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25916299
Another corrupt republican – finally indicted. The corrupt Bush “justice” department and the partisan hiring has prevented the true amount of republican corruption from being revealed.
Republican = corrupt
Starting with McCain and the S and L scandal and all the lobbyist advisors that McSame has and all the money he is now getting from the oil companies.
@9
Good question.
Now, who says God doesn’t care about American politics? Taking down a mean-assed SOB like Ted Stevens is even better than Larry Craig going down.
Too bad.
This gives the Alaska Republicans an opportunity to replace Stevens as their Senate candidate, in which case they might actually be able to hold the seat. Ditto in the House if Don Young is indicted.
Their main problem is that even the “good” Republican, Governor Sarah Palin, was recently shown to be more like a typical AK GOP sleazoid … she fired the state’s public safety commissioner as part of a personal vendetta. I’m not sure there’s anyone remaining in the Alaska Republican Party who doesn’t have a cloud over his/her head.
Proud Leftist,
“Taking down a mean-assed SOB like Ted Stevens is even better than Larry Craig going down.”
…so to speak.
How is it we’ve managed to get this far in the thread without the ass-licking right trying to deflect? Maybe even they have the good graces to be appropriately contrite about one of the biggest crooks in republican government.
By the way – can you imagine how big a crook this fuck must be to be indicted when a republican sits in the White House? Stevens must be REALLY dirty since usually the righties don’t EVER apply the rule of law to themselves.
Hope the fucker gets stuck in a cell with a big guy named Jamal!
Proud Leftist @ 12
Taking down a mean-assed SOB like Ted Stevens is even better than Larry Craig going down.
I guess that would depend upon one’s lifestyle and orientation, and whether Larry Craig is any good at it. Maybe Mark can let us know …
14 and 16
Gentlemen,
Please keep your minds out of the gutter. My phraseology did not involve any double entendre.
@14
Ewuuu…
Score one for Cantwell. Now can she take advantage of this to advance faster?
Incidentally, Patty Murray will become the senior Senator of the Northwest delegation (WA, OR, ID, AK) if Ted goes away. Of the western states, Senator Inouye (D-HI) has been in Congress for the entire existence of his state–the first three years in the House, and the Senate since 1962. His term is up in 2010.
As a republican, I can only say thank God. Get that man out of office (and his cohort, Rep. Don Young) as quickly as possible. Being a republican and having to account for these yahoos is like being Michael Corleone and having to account for Sonny and Fredo.
WOW!
Seems like even the lil’ trollski’s are embarassed by this one!
The real embarassment is to be republican in alaska – here is a state dominated by corrupt republican politicians. Maybe this coming election,Alaskans will try to elect people who don’t ooze corruption? Not electing any republicans may be the only way to accoplish that.
My prediction is that alaska will start to turn more blue, real soon.
Where, oh where, have our cute little trolls gone? I’m really missing their insightful musings on this topic. What time is the Rush Limbaugh show? Are they waiting to hear from Rush what their talking points are?
There are sooooooooo many errors in these posts I’m SHOCKED at the normally astute AMEN BLOGGERS and POSTERS!!!!!
Ted Stevens is NOT a Republican!!!
I repeat: Ted Stevens is NOT a Republican!!!
He’s in the GOP — just like Rossi.
I’m no fan of Stevens, but it seems to me he got infected with a bit of jealousy in his later years. Here he had worked as a “public servant” in the Senate for all those years, helping further the considerable financial interests of those who supported him. And what did he have to show for it? A Senate salary, a modest home, and a pension? Everybody was getting rich off of him, except for him!
So it seems to me he started thinking that he was going to need to get something for himself – he wasn’t going to be in the Senate forever, after all. He needed to find a way to milk his position for some long-term financial security, rather than just power. So in addition to making his family a political powerhouse in Alaska politics, he tries to make sure everybody gets some financial lift from his Senate position. His son gets a big push in his lobbying business. His daughter gets a bridge to property she bought cheap because it was inaccessable except by ferry (subsequently cancelled). And he gets a “new” house (his “remodel” resembed more of an “extreme home makeover”), for pennies on the dollar.
What gets me is that it’s the house that gets him caught. He’s done a lot more shady dealings, for a lot more money, than that.
26 The real irony is that now that he’s older than dirt, Ted isn’t likely to get much use out of his house anyway. If he hadn’t got his butt in legal trouble he’d probably be leaving the Senate pretty soon and moving to some retirement community in Arizona. As it is, he may wind up in some minimum-security detention facility because there’s no room in the wheelchair block at Leavenworth.
How this happened at this particular time is still rather curious. What with BushCo having siphoned so much of the FBI’s resources off into chasing “terr’ists” and laying traps for pedophiles on the Web, they’ve supposedly been laying off going after white-collar criminals like they used to. Someone in the in the administration must have wanted old Ted out of the way really, really badly.
HE HE the right wing ass wipes have avoided this thread like the plague. Cowards.
ArtFart @ 28: I think you can thank the attorney general scandal for that one. Right now the new attorney general is scared of interferring with a case which is already has so much public attention. He doesn’t want to get the Gonzales treatment.
Dino Rossi that infamous REPUBLICAN (who “prefers GOP Party”) seems hell-bent on Uncle Ted as a role model just like that other sycophant Mike! “Hiccup!” McGavick.
(Mike who you’re saying? Yeah I know. It’s hard to remember them all after a while.)
He crossed the line and forgot who he was working for.
I’m sure that he has MANY skeletons in his closet…..on both side…
The pusuit of these indictments will surely bring some interesting skeletons out.
He was a key player in getting AK statehood and probably should have retired long ago…
No different than Gregoire’s indian funds
33
There isn’t the slightest resemblance between the two subjects. Only the most partisan of dimwits would draw a connection. Stevens acted out of personal greed and then tried to hide his actions. Gregoire acted openly for the good of the people of the state of Washington. Go back to your hole.
@ 33:
Well, there is one teeny, tiny difference:
SHE HASN’T BEEN INDICTED OF A CRIME!!!!
Let alone 7 of them.
Yeahhhhhhhh, God is making the Cultre of Corruption crowd peak again right before the elections.
Yep, God loves America and he’s a LIBERAL.
Wow it took 32 posts before a right wing ass lick came here to lie and deflect and you know what – that criminal Stevens still stands indictment. Nice try fucktard.
Please. The difference here is this: When a Republican does something unethical or illegal, it’s made known and the person resigns.
When a Democrat does something, every attempt to equivocate and deflect is made. *cough* McDermott, Spitzer, Kilpatrick, William Jefferson, etc etc. *cough*
It’s only you partisan hacks that act like only Republicans abuse power. The reason you think that is because we held power for so long. It’s hard to be corrupt when you’re powerless…
@37 “Please. The difference here is this: When a Republican does something unethical or illegal, it’s made known and the person resigns.”
Ted resigned today? Larry Craig resigned??? Vitter, too? When did all this happen?
Yea, I seem to recall Craig offering to resign immediately, then saying he would resign if the court refused to vacate his guilty plea, then saying that he would resign… well… never.
Has Stevens resigned yet? I didn’t see that in the news reports. Usually they claim it’s all part of a campaign by their political enemies to ruin them, until they negotiate a favorable plea bargain. Problem is, these days the types of plea bargains federal prosecuters are giving is “you plead guilty and serve the time, and we won’t prosecute your family, also).
@29 We had to work you lame ass.
So Nazi at 37 please tell us when did Stevens resign? And as Steve said – when did Vitter and Craig resign? And if your post were anywhere near true (and we know it is not) wouldn’t Uncle Ted have come out and admitted he’s a crook?
And remember Monkeyface saying he’d fire anyone involved in outing CIA agent Plame? The traitor didn’t do it. You right wing hacks can deflect all you want – this is just ONE MORE “GOP” scandal in an administration full of scandals trying to sell a line of bullshit to the American people who are looking for change. Oops you looooooose.
I told Ted to just take it in cash and hide it
in his freezer because then it would be okay.
He just wouldn’t listen.
@40 Got anything to say about that crooked Republican, Senator Ted Stevens, being indicted?
Nazi @ 37
McDermott committed no crime–it was a civil wrong he was determined to have committed. There’s a difference. Spitzer did resign, almost immediately. I have no idea who Kilpatrick is. Jefferson should have resigned long ago. Facts fuck, don’t they, fuckhead?
@37 “The reason you think that is because we held power for so long.”
Your use of the past tense is quite appropriate.
Mark Begich Statement on Sen. Ted Stevens Indictment
July 29, 2008
U.S. Senate candidate Mark Begich today released the following statement regarding the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens:
“The indictment of Senator Ted Stevens is a sad day for Alaska and for the senator after his 40 years of service to our state. The people of Alaska are resilient and strong.
I have great faith in our state and our people, and we will continue to move forward.”
http://begich.com/content/mark.....ed-stevens
RP @ 46
Begich is being kind. As a native of Alaska, born there shortly after statehood, I would say the stranglehold that Stevens and his clan, and Murkowski and his clan, have had over Alaska has been most negative. It is not a “sad day” for Alaska, but a day of liberation. Stevens did not “serve” the state, but served his ego, as the indictment plainly reveals. Now, Alaska can move forward.
Let’s see, how much corruption is 250 thousand bucks? Mike McGavick wanted a minimum wage of $2.13 an hour. That means under the wage scale proposed by Sen. Stevens’ party, a waitress would have to work 126,350 hours (assuming she paid only FICA taxes) to earn enough money to pay for Stevens’ freebie remodel. Assuming a 40-hour work week, that would take 3,158.75 weeks (working straight through without vacation breaks) which comes to 60 years. So, if Stevens is convicted, I think he should be sentenced to 60 years of hard labor in a diner, and he doesn’t get any of the tips but he does get a whipping every time a customer complains about lousy service or cold coffee.
@47 I know it’ll be tough, but if Spain could recover from 40 years of Franco, Alaska has a chance to recover from 40 years of Stevens.
@37
Can you point us to anyone who actually defended Kwame Kilpatrick?
It’s almost like Ted’s career is going down a series of tubes…