THE ALASKA REPORT: NEITHER DON YOUNG NOR TED STEVENS HAS BEEN INDICTED... YET

2 budding crooks with Pres. Ford in 1975: Young on left, Stevens on right

Alaska's senior Senator, Ted Stevens, may be off his rocker and, as I reported a few days ago, is up to his elbows chin in sleaze, bribes and corruption, but he is still running around on the loose. This morning's Washington Post is reporting that the FBI has asked him to "preserve" his records. It's part of what the Post politely calls "a widening investigation into Alaskan political corruption that has touched his son and ensnared one of his closest political confidants and financial backers."

Investigators have used secret recording equipment, seized documents and cooperating witnesses to secure the indictments of four current and former state lawmakers, including the former state House speaker, shaking the core of Alaska's Republican Party.

Two executives of a prominent energy company have pleaded guilty to bribery and extortion charges and are cooperating with the inquiry, which is being run by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section and includes two federal prosecutors and FBI agents based in Anchorage.

"They put me on notice to preserve some records," Stevens said in a brief interview about his legal team's discussions with the FBI. He declined to say what kinds of records were involved but confirmed that he had hired lawyers and that his son, former state Senate president Ben Stevens, "is also under investigation."

Interestingly Alaska's one member of Congress, the equally corrupt Don Allen, has been guzzling from the same trough as the Stevens family-- Veco. And, coincidentally, Rep. Young is prominently featured in a NY Times story about... campaign contributions and corruption. When the worst of the Republican sleaze, like Young, use earmarks to steer taxpayer funds into pet projects they often claim they are just helping their districts. And indeed, Young is known as the worst of thse-- especially because of the Bridge to Nowhere he and Stevens have been foisting on the public for what seems like forever. But today's Times piece has nothing to do with Alaska but with the millions and millions of dollars Young sent to Florida to help out a Republican real estate developer who was bribing him. The developer, Daniel Aronoff, "helped raise $40,000 for Mr. Young at the nearby Hyatt Coconut Point hotel days before he (Young) introduced the measure. Mr. Aronoff owns as much as 4,000 acres along Coconut Road. The $10 million in federal money would pay for the first steps to connect the road to Interstate 75, multiplying the value of Mr. Aronoff’s land."

The County refused to accept the money and they were threatened by Young and another sleazebag Republican congressman, Connie Mack, who represents the district, that unless they used the money to build the road they would have trouble gwtting other federal monies in the future. Does this sound like an episode of The Sporanos? Now you've met Congressman Don Young.


UPDATE: ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS FINDS STEVENS AND YOUNG BOTH VULNERABLE

The corruption that has been the hallmark of the careers of both Stevens and Young may finally be their cause of both their downfalls. Even way up in Alaska people are starting to notice that by any ethical standards, Alaska's congressional delegation looks pretty sad and pretty venal. "People don't understand; if you don't establish yourself as the biggest dog in the yard, you're going to be chased out," Young said. "No one has been able to do that to me." Not yet.