Quote :

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Ted Stevens from Alaska, the longest serving U.S. Republican senator ever, was indicted on seven counts related to his holding of public office, a federal law enforcement official said on Tuesday. The U.S. Justice Department has scheduled a news conference for 1:20 p.m. to make an announcement "regarding a significant criminal matter." The official said the news conference would announce the criminal charges against Stevens that have been returned by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C."

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSWBT00948220080729

7/29/2008 1:05:01 PM

I predict an entire thread of two sides screaming at each other over the internet. "Your party is inherently evil." "No, your party is inherently evil!" As such, the actual subject matter of the article will not be discussed, this will turn into another e-brawl, perhaps with pictures of male genitalia, and one or more people will be suspended.

7/29/2008 1:22:19 PM

Karma is a wonderful thing. His anti-environmentalism makes me hope they chuck his bitch ass out of the Senate.

7/29/2008 1:22:59 PM

haha

"federal laws are a series of tubes"

7/29/2008 1:25:02 PM

wow. I look for mccain to name him VP tommorrow.

7/29/2008 1:28:28 PM

I hear the indictment came in last week, but it took that long to travel in the series of tubes to the media and Ted Stevens.

7/29/2008 1:29:58 PM

Scooter Libby-style pardon in 3, 2, 1...

7/29/2008 1:30:00 PM

Weren't polls showing him like >6 point behind his opponent for 2008?

7/29/2008 1:39:45 PM

polls were showing him down by as much as 11 points against mark begich.

7/29/2008 1:48:54 PM

this is the bridge to nowhere guy right?

7/29/2008 1:54:39 PM

The bridge to nowhere guy

The "Internet is a series of tubes" guy

The DRILL ANWR NOW!!!1 guy

The most successful earmark guy in history


He's had quite a career. Hopefully he'll get sent the same place they sent Duke Cunningham. Speaking of which, when are they gonna convict Jefferson? Wasn't it like 2 years ago that they found $90,000 in his freezer?

7/29/2008 2:01:11 PM

yeah

he was bound to go down sooner or later...

^like a min security prison camp? cunningham is not doing "hard time"



[Edited on July 29, 2008 at 2:02 PM. Reason : .]

7/29/2008 2:01:33 PM

Not to mention the "Let's clearcut 2.4 million acres of old growth habitat" guy

Speaking for "Duke" Cunningham. . .
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/23/duke-bush-clemency/ I guess no crime goes unpunished when you are a Bush Regime toadie.

7/29/2008 2:49:13 PM

Quote :

"The DRILL ANWR NOW!!!1 guy"

ehhhhh most Alaskans want the drilling. brings more $$$ their way

7/29/2008 3:00:59 PM

you can't blame the guy for representing his constituency

7/29/2008 3:15:30 PM

Of course it does. Oil companies and the government give them checks so they have rape and pillage the last remaining US wilderness all while the residents are too busy looking the other way counting their money.

7/29/2008 3:16:07 PM

i didn't say i supported it, i just said it wasn't something to hold against Stevens personally.

like he said ^^

7/29/2008 3:18:37 PM

i saw him when i was walking to dirksen the other day, he was coming from the capitol down past russell, driven by a staffer...he looked sooooo worn down (even for his age, which is only slightly older than john mccain)

7/29/2008 3:38:37 PM

seems to me the longer the dems keep pushing off this domestic drilling, the more oil will be worth when we finally do drill

[Edited on July 29, 2008 at 3:49 PM. Reason : dolla dolla bills yall]

7/29/2008 3:48:41 PM

Did you guys know that Alaska is the only state where you can legally own a small amount of marijuana in your own house for personal use?

7/29/2008 4:19:47 PM

The man who gave us the Bridge to Nowhere has now crossed it.

7/29/2008 5:32:03 PM

Quote :

"If Ted Stevens has to perform community service, at least he already has experience working on a bridge to nowhere."

7/29/2008 5:32:54 PM

wheres marko when you need a Talking Heads video embedded?

7/29/2008 6:48:35 PM

Another political fall guy ... he's being indicted for making false statements. Seriously, I have trouble imagining an member of Congress making 100% true statements during a mostly political investigation ... (or on "disclosure forms" or whatever the mechanism du jour is)

[Edited on July 30, 2008 at 4:48 AM. Reason : foo]

7/30/2008 4:47:46 AM

Quote :

"Did you guys know that Alaska is the only state where you can legally own a small amount of marijuana in your own house for personal use?"

ParksNrec

I see you've pinpointed the real issue here.

7/30/2008 4:59:16 AM

I doubt that Senator Stevens has actually done anything. This is most likely an election year attack that is being perpetuated by the LIBERAL media in order to make the Republicans look bad. I expect him to be cleared of any wrong-doing sometime in the near future and I certainly hope so because America needs this man to help drill the domestic oil that lies in our grounds.

7/30/2008 6:36:51 AM

^ i hope you're kidding, really i do.

7 other people in the Alaska legislature have already been indicted surrounding similar things, including his son.... i think he's done some wrong-doing.

7/30/2008 8:48:22 AM

Maybe Stevens has done "something wrong," he is definitely a king of sleazy pork. But honestly, I think there's selection bias. Does anyone really think that if Nancy Pelosi were subjected to a months-long investigation by a major arm of government, that she'd come out clean? Or practically any member of Congress for that matter?

7/31/2008 12:03:39 AM

Quote :

"The bridge to nowhere guy The "Internet is a series of tubes" guy"

aha, damn I didn't realize they were the same person. What a maroon.

^ I think David Price would come out clean. But I also think he is the exception to the rule.

[Edited on July 31, 2008 at 12:18 AM. Reason : .]

7/31/2008 12:17:25 AM

"Uncle Ted" is the reason why I laugh in the face of conservatives who on one hand decry democrats for pork-barrel spending yet won't say a damn word about this clown because he has an -R beside his name. gg hypocrites.

7/31/2008 12:24:30 AM

The amount of pork created and spent by Stevens on wasteful big dollar gov't tax funded projects makes even the most spend happy liberals look like money misers.

7/31/2008 12:50:09 AM

Stevens is facing a 6-way primary challenge in one month.

the single Democratic opponent for the general election is the popular Mayor of Anchorage, and was up by 6 points *before* the indictment.

Steven's seat could be the key win for Democrats to gain a 60-member majority in the Senate.

7/31/2008 1:49:08 AM

Quote :

"Does anyone really think that if Nancy Pelosi were subjected to a months-long investigation by a major arm of government, that she'd come out clean? Or practically any member of Congress for that matter?"

1) does it matter? if he did something wrong, then he did something wrong. It doesn't excuse his actions even if other are or have gotten away with the same or worse (of course, they should be investigated as well)

2) Stevens has been in the Senate since 1968. Even if you make the argument that all Congressmen are more or less equally corrupt, he has been at it for 40 years. That's a lot of time to accumulate baggage and to make lots of shady connections

7/31/2008 8:20:28 AM

He's got his first court appearance today, it'll be interesting to see if he has any blow ups outside the courthouse.

7/31/2008 9:45:57 AM

no blowups, but he asked the judge to fast track the case to have it done before his primary.

i'd be really surprised if it ends up getting done that quickly...

7/31/2008 9:52:31 PM

^^^ yep. selection bias or not, and regardless of how long he's had to accumulate dirt, the bottom line is that if he had ran a clean operation, he wouldn't be in trouble. In other words, fuck him.

those considerations are viable if anyone tries to have a Dems vs GOP dick-measuring contest on which party is more corrupt, but regarding Sen. Stevens specifically, they're irrelevent. Is it too much to ask for a United States fucking Senator to be held to a higher standard? Hell, it would be a good start if we'd just hold them to the same standards as anyone else. The GOP should be leading the charge to bury him if it turns out he did anything wrong (and should've never tolerated his appetite for pork, although that's a wholly seperate issue).

7/31/2008 10:06:04 PM

Quote :

"1) does it matter? if he did something wrong, then he did something wrong. It doesn't excuse his actions even if other are or have gotten away with the same or worse (of course, they should be investigated as well)"

Well, arguably it doesn't matter if you believe that the selection of who to investigate and prosecute is a limitless moral crusade funded with infinite money and political capital.

My point being -- ultimately we spend finite money and resources investigating these people. Are we choosing the best targets for these investigations?

Quote :

"2) Stevens has been in the Senate since 1968. Even if you make the argument that all Congressmen are more or less equally corrupt, he has been at it for 40 years. That's a lot of time to accumulate baggage and to make lots of shady connections"

Well, I think that's my point --

After those 40 years of dirt and a lengthy investigation, he's being indicted for ... making false statements on some statements from 2001 to 2006?

This is the best they can do in going after the so-called King of Pork?

Also I am a firm believer that the False Statements Act itself is bad law, and that goes beyond political lines. It was used against Martha Stewart too. But of course that would require us to talk about substantive issues of law and not political party bias, and we can't do that -- this is TWW!

7/31/2008 10:44:00 PM

Quote :

"After those 40 years of dirt and a lengthy investigation, he's being indicted for ... making false statements on some statements from 2001 to 2006?"

I can guarantee that the Justice Department wanted to bring the first indictment on things that were provable with the materials that they have.

There are still two other pending investigations, this indictment was on just one of the three. This is far from over for Senator Stevens.

7/31/2008 10:48:09 PM

^

You can guarantee it or what ... my money back?

False statements indictments are the new black. They don't have much substance behind them because ultimately they don't actually prove much about the underlying 'crime' if it even exists. I'm not sure how these indictments set a great precedent for ongoing investigations. The message is "we don't know if he did anything wrong, but he lied about something" -- a politician that lies, gasp, stop the presses!

Not much to see here folks, move along ...

8/1/2008 3:13:45 AM

i want money back, too.

8/1/2008 12:03:43 PM

Quote :

"You can guarantee it or what ... my money back?"

it's common sense really that the justice department wouldn't bring an indictment against him unless they thought it was a pretty airtight case

8/1/2008 12:07:22 PM