Another Corrupt Republi-"con" Bites The Dust!

[Gimpy]

WASHINGTON (AP)— Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, a legendary political figure closely tied to the rough-and-tumble history of his home state, and who wields outsize influence over federal spending, was indicted on Tuesday on seven felony counts of failing to disclose gifts that he received from an oil services company.

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia charged Mr. Stevens, who is 84 and the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, with failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, including extensive renovations to his house in Alaska, a Land Rover and home furnishings on financial disclosure forms that he filed from 1999 to 2006.

The indictment said that Mr. Stevens “knowingly and willfully engaged in a scheme to conceal” the gifts he received from the VECO Corporation, once one of Alaska’s largest oil field contractors, and its former chief executive, William J. Allen, who last year pleaded guilty in the case. And it comes nearly a year to the day after F.B.I. agents raided the senator’s home as part of a long-running and expansive public corruption investigation in Alaska.

The indictment of a sitting Republican senator, particularly one of Mr. Stevens’s seniority and stature, reverberated swiftly and ominously through the Capitol, in no small part because of the political implications.

Democrats already had high hopes that they would win more seats in November. They now control the Senate by a razor-thin 51 to 49, thanks only to two independents who vote with them.

Some Democrats have started thinking aloud that they may be able to win nine more seats in November, bringing them a filibuster-proof majority of 60.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, boasted on Tuesday that Senate Democrats were mounting strong races against Republicans in 11 states.

“I, of course, have served with Senator Stevens my entire Congressional career,” said Mr. Reid, who was elected to the Senate in 1986. “It’s a sad day for him, us. But you know I believe in the American system of justice. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

Mr. Reid said that Senate Republicans would have to decide how to deal with Mr. Stevens, but suggested that they might move swiftly as they did after the news last summer that Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, for allegedly soliciting an undercover police officer in an airport bathroom in Minneapolis.

Mr. Craig was stripped of his leadership positions and announced that he would resign, but then sought unsuccessfully to retract his guilty plea. He ultimately decided to remain in the Senate to complete his current term at the end of this year.

An investigation of Mr. Stevens by the Senate Ethics Committee is inevitable, but the chairwoman of the committee, Senator Babara Boxer, Democrat of California, said it would defer to the criminal authorities to complete their investigation first.

One of only a few World War II veterans left in the Senate, Mr. Stevens grew up in Indiana and California and moved to Alaska in 1950, before it was a state, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

He first ran for the Senate in 1962, losing to Ernest Gruening, a Democrat. In 1968, Mr. Stevens was appointed by Gov. Walter Hickel to fill a vacant seat in the Senate, and has been re-elected six times since then.

He is by far the most prominent figure to be charged in a four-year-old political corruption investigation in Alaska, which has resulted in seven convictions(all Republicans....Gimp), among them three state lawmakers and the chief of staff of former Republican Gov. Frank H. Murkowski.

The case, which began as an inquiry into VECO’s relationship with Alaska lawmakers, is still under way and several well-known figures (all Republicans-----Gimp) in the state are said to remain under scrutiny, among them Representative Don Young, a Republican, and Mr. Stevens’s son, Ben, another Republican and former president of the State Senate.

The indictment was announced by Matthew Friedrich, the acting head of the Justice Department’s criminal division. He said at a news conference that politics played no role in the decision to bring the case or the timing of the charges.

The indictment was announced one day after a scathing inspector general’s report that said that senior Justice Department aides had improperly asked political questions to fill nonpolitical jobs under former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. (Why should we NOT be surprised-----Gimp)

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Just goes to show you how corrupt and greedy these Republicans are, who have been in power for a long time now! Talk about a "Culture of Corruption"!

One after another, after another, after another are going down the drain from criminal indictments and ethics charges!---------This bunch of misfits and professional con-artists who claim to be "public servants" under the leadership of GW Bush will go down in history as the most corrupt, radical, self-serving, money grubbing bunch of Republicans who were ever elected to public office!

And, what did I say about 8 years ago?????

I TOLD YOU SO----DIDN'T I.........?

Just a note .......................How in the name of hell ANYONE could still support any of these jerks is beyond explanation!

Gimp

[exlrrp]

Well, Gimp, its not surprising you haven't gotten any response to this from the "Party of Accountability." Accountability to them means pointing fingers at Democrats.

but here we go with one of the best corruption scandals of the Bush era, and there's been plenty of them.
This brings to light again, how much the repuglicans enjoy enriching themselves at public expense.
And boy does it show how endemic and pervasive the corruption runs in the repuglican party---I'm sure Sen Stevens is surprised by the outrage that he took 100's of thousands of $$$$$ worth of remodeling on his home from a company whose business he was acting on in the senate---a company that benefited hugely from the public money he gave them.
repuglican corruption is written all over Alaska and theyve already indicted 6 other Alaska repuglicans. heck, to a repuglican, taking money from people youre legislating about is "just business."

well, one thing they can't say is that this is a politically inspired attack from Democrats----this comes from Bush's very own Department of Political Favoritism, AKA "the Justice Department" (its a laugh to even write it)

Stay good, dude
James

[colmurph]

But no mention from you at all about the dozens of Democratic "Felons" from Western Pennsylvania who used government workers to do the dirty work of the DNC (and not a bit of work that fits the job desctiption of what they were hired for) on the taxpayers dime?

[Advisor]

The system is corrupt. The political elite (both parties) seem to think it's their divine right to do whatever the hell they want.

[exlrrp]

"...Republican Ted Stevens is the king of pork-barrel earmark spending. The senior senator from Alaska is also the architect of the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, a project to connect the town of Ketchikan (population 8,900) with its airport on the Island of Gravina (population 50) at a cost to federal taxpayers of $320 million.

Last month he was indicted on seven counts of falsifying his Senate disclosure forms. The federal charges allege that he hid $250,000 in gifts from an oil producing company to renovate his Anchorage area home. The inference is that the company got many favors in return from the senator's legislative juice as chairman or ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee.

But none of that stopped President Bush from embracing Stevens, at least verbally, when he stopped at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska last night to refuel on his trip to Asia. Stevens is popular in Alaska, known as "Uncle Ted" for his faithful record of steering federal funds to the 49th state over the years...."


Whats intersting is thhat there is an allegation here about the DNC/felons/western PA. if this is true, why don't you take it to Bush and Mukasey's " "Department of Injustice?" theyre well known for sticking it to Democrats while letting repuglicans slide. Don't worry if they look at you like youre a real nutcake, the Repuglican party is full of them.