Yes, The Bush Justice Department Was Corrupt & Venal, But That Doesn't Make Ted Stevens Any Less Guilty

This morning's NY Times featured an important analysis of what really went down in the Ted Stevens corruption case-- or, to be more precise-- the Bush Justice Department corruption case as pertains to Ted Stevens. All last week you saw the dead-ass mass media proclaiming Ted Steven's innocence. You even saw Neanderthals in Alaska and at the RNC demanding the Democrat who beat him, Mark Begich, resign. Don Young, likely to be indicted himself soon, actually suggested that Stevens run against Sarah Palin for governor. Stevens has actually opened a Senate re-election committee for 2014. And as the Times piece blares, it was Stevens' lawyers who "promulgated the story of an innocent man victimized by unscrupulous prosecutors... The dismissal of the charges, a victory for Mr. Stevens and his lawyers, raises the question of what it means to say that someone is innocent. Mr. Stevens is certainly innocent in the civics-book sense that everyone is innocent in the eyes of the law until and unless proved guilty. But lawyers point out that such a definition is part of the legal construct in which the burden of proving guilt falls on the government." His attorney insisted that “His name is cleared. He is innocent of the charges as if they had never been brought.”

The disclosures that prosecutors had withheld information from the defense did little to erase much of the evidence that Mr. Stevens, who had been a powerful and admired political figure in Alaska, regularly and willingly accepted valuable gifts from friends and favor-seekers that he did not report.

The reasons for the dismissal of the case do not, for example, have any bearing on undisputed testimony that a Stevens friend, Bob Persons, bought an expensive massage chair for the senator and had it delivered to his Washington home. When Mr. Stevens told Mr. Persons he could not accept the chair as a gift because of ethics restrictions, they both then agreed to deem the chair a loan.

...Prof. Joshua Dressler of the Ohio State University law school said, however, that the failure to be convicted in a criminal trial does not, by itself, confer innocence on someone.

“The decision by the judge to dismiss the case is certainly not a statement that the defendant is innocent,” Professor Dressler said, “but that the prosecutors didn’t play by the rules, and for that reason alone we have to use this strong remedy” to deter other prosecutors from similar misbehavior.

In fact, two jurors have said that the dismissal of the case because of the prosecutors’ actions did not make Mr. Stevens innocent in their view.

Indeed, Stevens' entire shameful career as a key player in pay for play and the Culture of Corruption leaves him-- despite the misconduct of the Bush Regime DoJ-- one of the most heinous political criminals in Alaska's history. Since 1989 Stevens has gobbled up nearly $13 million in campaign contributions, much of it from lobbyists (his second biggest source of legalized bribes), PACs, and businessmen hoping to enrich themselves at the public trough. Stevens, especially as head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was very obliging to the special interests that gave generously and frequently towards his political career. He benefited more from the War Industry than any other Republican in the Senate (about $27 more than similarly corrupt Alabama Senator Richard Shelby) and even more than McCain-- as a presidential candidate!

Colleen Walsh, one of the jurors who convicted Mr. Stevens, said on her personal blog of the trial’s collapse, “The only thing this proves is that the prosecution messed everything up.”

Ms. Walsh, a church secretary, wrote on the blog as if speaking to Mr. Stevens, saying: “You may be innocent on corruption charges which were never brought up. But you are still guilty of not disclosing some of your major gifts to the public.”

The Race To 60: Alaska, Minnesota, Georgia

Would Chambliss dare bring Bush back to Georgia for a campaign event?

By now, you surely know that Republican convicted felon and senator, Ted Stevens-- unlike sore losers GOP reps Marilyn Musgrave, Virgil Goode and Randy Kuhl-- has conceded defeat. Not sure when he'll be reporting for prison. Just kidding; he'll certainly be one of the Republicrooks Bush pardons. One assumes that Bush will refuse, as a matter of "principle," to read Russ Feingold's warning about the abuse of pardons, which in any case only addresses the really huge, heinous stuff the Bush Regime was involved in, not the bribery and corruption one expects from political hacks like Stevens.

Despite the conviction, Stevens keeps his pension, which the National Taxpayer's Union calculates at about $122,000 a year. Members of Congress can lose their pensions for being convicted of specified crimes, such as bribery and racketeering, but Stevens' offenses aren't on the list. Senators also have investment retirement accounts.

Anyway, that leaves the Democrats with 58 seats-- if you count Lieberman as a Democrat-- with 2 to go. As I mentioned the other day, I'm just a passive observer in the race to 60. But I figure readers want to know what's going on. So... let's start with Minnesota, where Paul Wellstone seems to be smiling down from Heaven. The recount started yesterday and it's all bad news for the bad guys.

By day's end, with about 18 percent of the vote recounted, Coleman continued to lead Franken -- but by only 174 votes, notably narrower than the unofficial gap of 215 votes at which the recount had begun. Franken's gain owed much to a swing of 23 votes in the Democratic stronghold of St. Louis County-- the result of faintly marked ballots and older optical scanners that failed to read the marks.

Nate Silver has a more comprehensive analysis of what happened yesterday than the Star Tribune, although the same ending, of course: a shrinking margin for Coleman (now 172 votes). The important thing to remember is that Democratic strongholds in Minneapolis and Duluth are yet to come in with their numbers, which are expected to overwhelmingly favor Franken.

Minnesota reports that it has thus far re-counted 15.49 percent of its ballots. If the first day's results are indicative of the pace that the candidates will maintain throughout the recount process, Franken would gain a net of 278 votes over Coleman, giving him a narrow victory. For any number of reasons, however, the results reported thus far may not be indicative of future trends.

Although Franken gained ground relative to Coleman, in actuality both candidates have fewer votes than they began the day with. This is because of the "challenge" process in which representatives of either candidate may challenge any ballot for any reason, which will subsequently be reviewed one at a time by Minnesota's canvassing board in December. Challenges can occur to ballots that had previously been deemed to be legal, in which case those votes will be deducted from the opponent's total. Coleman has thus far challenged 115 ballots and Franken 106. However, based on local reports, many or perhaps most of the challenges are frivolous, and are unlikely to be upheld upon review. Thus, the candidate who has challenged fewer ballots probably stands to gain ground once such challenges are adjudicated.

And that leaves Georgia's run-off. The good news for Jim Martin yesterday was an enthusiastic and very compelling endorsement from the state's biggest newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Jim Martin and Sen. Saxby Chambliss may be former fraternity brothers at the University of Georgia, but they look, act, think and speak in very different ways. The two candidates in the Dec. 2 Senate runoff offer Georgia voters a stark choice.

Martin, the Democrat, has been a fighter for the little guy throughout his life, and he’s proved effective in that role. He served his country in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and as a state legislator, lawyer and head of the state Department of Human Resources. Throughout his public life he has been known as a workhorse not a showhorse, someone whose first concern was getting the job done well rather than trying to get the credit.

In fact, Martin was so well-respected for his competence and ability to work across party lines that when Gov. Sonny Perdue became the state’s first Republican governor in a century, he asked Martin to remain as head of the state Department of Human Services.

In his six years in the U.S. Senate, Chambliss has set a very different course. He fought against stricter immigration policies not out of a sense of compassion, but because easy immigration and lax enforcement served the interests of industry. When he fought against reform of farm subsidies that cost taxpayers billions, it wasn’t out of concern for the small family farmer. The reforms championed by President Bush but opposed by Chambliss would have cut payments only to huge corporate farms.

Time and again, on issue after issue, Chambliss has taken the side of the powerful and influential over those of the taxpayer and general citizen. His performance this year at a Senate hearing, in which he took the side of corporate management by browbeating a safety whistle-blower at a Savannah sugar mill, has become the stuff of legend. (A few months earlier, an explosion at the plant had killed 14 workers.)

The less good news for Martin is that the polling data shows Chambliss slightly ahead, 50-46%. Polls are less relevant in special elections like this however because the entire game is turn-out, which is expected to be low. It comes down to this: will the Republican's hysterical fear-mongering about a Democratic ability to overcome reactionary filibusters of the Obama's agenda for change trump an effort-- if there is one, which I doubt-- by Obama to win the 60 seat filibuster proof majority and get on with the change he promised in the election campaign? Bill Clinton was in Georgia explaining the damage a filibuster will do. If Obama goes down there and does it, Martin will win. (And a radio spot is only a halfway effort and won't do the trick.) If he doesn't, Chambliss will be re-elected:

60 Seats? Who Cares?

Reactionary crook defeated in Alaska

I have nothing against the Democrats getting 60-- or 70-- votes in the Senate. In fact, every Republican defeated is a step, more or less, in the right direction. Last night when Blue America-endorsed Mark Begich was finally declared the winner in Alaska-- the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in that bizarre former Russian colony since Mike Gravel-- I would have opened a bottle of something for a toast if I was a drinking man. Instead, I thought, "Mark's a good man and all it cost Blue America was six grand; let's hope it was worth it."

The Senate is an intensely conservative body. It was meant to be. They call it the world's most exclusive club. In fact, just a few years ago arch-reactionary Zell Miller (GA), who was appointed to a seat opened up by the death of a Republican, proposed a constitutional amendment repealing the 17th, which gave voters the right to elect senators. Ole Zell believes that was way too progressive and that senators should be chosen by (easily-bribed) state legislatures, not by the unwashed masses (who he referred to as "special interests").

There was never any real chance the Senate was going to discipline Joe Lieberman. In the end only 13 members voted to do it-- far more than the small handful of unabashed reactionaries who actually campaigned for him in Connecticut against the Democratic Party candidate, Ned Lamont. They love Lieberman because he's one of them. Any of them could empathize with his predicament. They all like to think of themselves as independent (at least independent of anyone not giving them direct bribes). What a crappy job Harry Reid has, keeping all these assholes on the same page!

OK, so last night Stevens was defeated bringing the Democratic majority to at least 58. An intense recount procedure looms for Minnesota, where only 206 votes separates Al Franken and rubber stamp incumbent Norm Coleman. And early voting has already begun in the December 2nd Georgia run-off between Jim Martin and Saxby Chambliss.

Political insiders are all excited about all this stuff. Should the grassroots be? I'm not so certain. Sure, I think Norm Coleman and Saxby Chambliss are two of the absolute worst members of the U.S. Senate and each makes the place an even bigger disgrace than it would be without them. And both Franken and Martin seem like decent and conscientious guys. (Even Allen Buckley, the Libertarian candidate who threw the Georgia race into a run-off, thinks Martin is a better choice.) I'm rootin' for him and Franken. But no fund drives at Blue America. We've given enough this year. And what did we get in return? Joe Lieberman smirking on TV. If I lived in Georgia I'm sure I'd go vote for Martin. If the pitiful slobs in the Senate Democratic caucus want him to win... they're stinking rich and basically take as much in bribes from corporate America as the Republicans do-- if not more. This will be expensive but they don't need our money. We'll be saving it for primaries in 2010.

Brother, can you spare 40,280,000,000,000 dimes?

-by Woid


Fun with numbers dept.

You know that $700,000,000,000 our country seems to have mislaid somewhere? That's nothing.

In the past year, you and I have spent a total of $4.28 TRILLION on the "financial crisis"--more than the U.S. spent on all of World War II. 

Hey, 700 billion here, 700 billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

We went to the moon for $237 billion. The New Deal cost $500 billion. The entire War of Terror (as Borat calls it)-- including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq-- comes to less than $600 billion.

And just now we've allocated that $700 billion (a starter payment... this may turn out to be one of those balloon deals), gift-wrapped for those same wonderful people who wrecked the markets and the economy in the first place-- with no strings attached. I believe they're spending it on money clips.

It's easier to say "four trillion," but that's a hell of a rounding error. The 28 to the right of the decimal point is enough by itself to pay for putting a man on the moon in the 60s, or, if you prefer, the Louisiana Purchase. Or the Manhattan Project, maybe with a couple of Panama Canals thrown in.

All adjusted for inflation, of course.

How many universal health care programs, or alternative energy programs, or environmental repair programs, or poverty relief programs, would that kind of money pay for? I don't know, I'm asking.

Remember when the Bushies claimed that the outgoing Clinton staff took all the "W"s off the keyboards, and trashed the offices? That was a lie, by the way. 

Now look at what they're doing as they go out the door, on their way to be reunited with our money... now in the hands of their friends, along with those other profits from the wars, "defense," "homeland security," oil, and all of the many scams and boondoggles.

[Pulls out pockets — moths fly out.]


UPDATE: MORE NUMBERS

How's this for a stat? "New government figures show that almost 700,000 children went hungry in the United States at some point in 2007, up more than 50 percent from the year before to mark the highest point since 1998. And that's even before this year's sharp economic downtown, the Agriculture Department reported Monday. The department's annual report on food security showed that during 2007 the number of children who suffered a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat was more than double the 430,000 in 2006 and the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998." And that's here, not Mali.

And here's a numbers quote from a random page-- literally; it's the page (92) I was on when I sat down to dinner after formatting Woid's post-- from Barbara Ehrenreich's newest book, This Land Is Your Their Land:

... [T]he rich get rich and the poor get poorer. To quote the Associated Press: The top 10 percent of households saw their net worth rise by 6.1 percent to an average of $3.11 million while the bottom 25 percent suffered a decline from a net worth in which their assets equaled their liabilities in 2001 to owing $1,400 more than their total assets in 2004." ... Paul Krugman reported on a study showing that those in the top 10 percent of the income distribution have been seeing income gains of only about 1 percent a year, or a total of 34% between 1972 and 2001. In that same period, those in the top 1 percent of the income distribution saw a gain of 87 percent, and those in the top .01 percent registered a gain of 497 percent. That's right: four hundred and ninety-seven percent.

UPDATE: ONE MORE SET OF NUMBERS

Although Senate Republicans endorsed bribery by declining to toss Ted Stevens out of their sorry ass caucus today, that was quickly followed by some less wonderful news: more countin'.

Mark Begich- 146,286
Ted Stevens- 143,912

This widens Begich's lead to 2374.

Happy Birthday convicted felon Ted Stevens! AP coulda picked a sweeter day to call the election for Mark Begich, Alaska's new U.S. Senator, and announce that Ted Stevens has, quite literally gone down the tubes... to Nowhere.

Vote Counting Widens Eric Massa's Lead In A Big Way

Republicans consider counting every legal vote electoral fraud. I'm not joking; they really do. Here's what the rightist Wall Street Journal Editorial Page had to say about the efforts to count the votes in Minnesota:

You'd think Democrats would be content with last week's electoral rout. But judging from the odd doings in Minnesota, some in their party wouldn't mind adding to their jackpot by stealing a Senate seat for left-wing joker Al Franken.

"Stealing a Senate seat" means making sure every vote is counted. Norm Coleman is doing all he can to prevent that-- including running to the far right 8th Circuit Court, a Bush-appointed travesty of partisan hypocrisy. So far, though, all of Coleman's tricks to disenfranchise voters have failed... so far.

During our live blog session with Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) today, she let us know that John Boehner's creepy little handpicked choice for the congressional seat being vacated by another of his puppets, Deborah Pryce, went running to a stacked Republican court trying to shut down the vote count-- just like Bush did in 2000 in Florida and like Norm Coleman did in Minnesota last week. Mary Jo:

Thursday night the Republicans on behalf of Steve Stivers showed that they were scared that this election is over and filed suit over some provisional ballots with the Ohio Supreme Court, trying to skip lower courts to a 7-0 Republican controlled court.

...Well there is some good news to report. The lawyers moved the case to the U.S. District Court because of federal issues pertaining to the provisional ballots. They held a hearing this morning and we are waiting for the judge to rule. We could hear as early as Monday.

The Helping America Vote Act prohibits votes from being discarded based on poll worker error and many of the ballots that Republicans are contesting clearly fall in that category. This is nothing more than Republicans trying to disenfranchise voters.

Earlier today I got an e-mail from Congressman-elect Eric Massa. Sore loser and pitiful Bush hack Randy Kuhl has refused to concede defeat even though Eric was projected the winner with a 4,414 vote margin. Eric, like all Democrats, was perfectly happy to have every last vote counted and yesterday the Monroe County Board of Elections "concluded their count of the absentee and affidavit ballots, and [Eric's] lead grew tremendously. Additionally, the recanvass of Monroe and Chemung Counties also concluded. As of right now, the district-wide recanvass is complete and all that's left to do is count the remaining absentee/affidavit ballots in Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chemung, Ontario, Schuyler, Steuben and Yates counties." Here's a "by the numbers" run down of where the race in NY-29 now stands:

• 4,487 - Eric's lead prior to Friday, 11/14
• 299 - Votes he gained from the Chemung/Monroe Recanvass
• 954 - His lead over Randy Kuhl from the Monroe County absentees and affidavit ballots opened today
• 11,000 - Total estimated number of absentee/affidavit ballots
• 5,100 - Approximate number of absentee/affidavit ballots opened in Monroe County
• 5,900 - Approximate number of remaining absentee/affidavit ballots that have yet to be opened in the other seven counties
• 5,740 - Eric's total combined margin of victory

Short version: 5,900 absentee ballots and affidavits left to be counted compared to a 5,740 vote margin. If you see Eric, feel safe to address him as Congressman-elect.

As long as we're talking about vote counts, the one in Alaska is progressing well. The latest count shows Mark Begich with 138,959 votes to 137,937 for convicted GOP felon Ted Stevens. Sarah Palin's husband's secessionist Alaskan Independence Party candidate Bob Bird is in third place with 12,144 votes. Looks like they screwed it up for Stevens. Remaining to be counted are about 16,000 questioned and absentee ballots from Anchorage and around 8,000 absentee ballots from Southeast and the Kenai Peninsula.

And in California vote counting is proceeding and it is still too close to call between Charlie Brown and the far right extremist the GOP is trying to replace indicted crook John Doolittle with.

No Wonder Republicans Don't Want Those Votes Counted! Looks Like Even Alaskans Didn't Want To Re-elect Felon Ted Stevens

Ever since Bush and his coterie successfully sued to stop the vote count in a monumentally corrupt and ideological Supreme Court (2000), Republicans have been doing their best to systematically disenfranchise as many people as they can. It looks like slimy Norm Coleman is going to go to court over every single vote until he finally winds up in the Volksgerichtshof 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, the most partisan and neo-fascist court in America. And John Boehner's handpicked banking industry lobbyist, Steve Stivers, and California lunatic fringe extremist Tom McClintock also want to prevent votes from being counted in their close races in Columbus and northeast California.

This evening the Anchorage Daily News is reporting that, with over 10,000 ballots left to count today-- and around 35,000 total-- Mark Begich is now leading Ted Stevens, 125,019 to 125,016! Stevens was up by 3,000 votes before the "missing" ballots were found and the counting began.

Looks like Begich is going to pull this off after all, probably as much to the relief of Democrats as to embarrassed members of the Republican Senate caucus, where Jim DeMint has been screaming bloody murder about tossing Stevens out.


UPDATE: WEDNESDAY'S COUNTING IS OVER

All the most heavily Republican-leaning areas, like Fairbanks and the meth-cooking centers like Mat-Su Valley, are counted and, aside from statewide absentee ballots, the rest of the votes to be counted are from Democratic-leaning rural areas. The final end-of-the-day count:

Mark Begich 132196
Ted Stevens 131382

That puts Begich ahead by 814 votes, not a landslide but growing steadily.


UPDATE: STEVENS POLLSTER SAYS BEGICH WILL WIN

I'm sure David Dittman knows more about it than I do, and it's not certain since votes continue to be counted, but from a Ted Stevens pollster's look at the trends, Mark Begich will be replacing Ted Stevens in the U.S Senate.

"I don't think Stevens can come back," Dittman said, noting that he thinks the remaining trove of uncounted ballots will help Begich "increase his lead."

How Will The GOP Change Its Image-- More Extreme, Less Corrupt? Or Not?

A profoundly conservative and corrupt institution

The GOP is getting a lot of conflicting advise. The lunatic fringe of the congressional party-- like Mike Pence-- has declared that the key to rebuilding the shattered remains of the GOP is for it to become the anti-gay party and focus all the hatred and bigotry the Republicans thrive on in that direction. Perhaps they could start with a ritual excoriation of just re-elected GOP closet queens Mitch McConnell (R-KY), David Dreier (R-CA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), and Adrian Smith (R-NE). Meanwhile David Brady, deputy director of the conservative Hoover Institution has said that the GOP must abandon its "stringently right wing" positions on gay marriage, abortion and immigration or it could be banished to the political wilderness by the American people for decades. He says they've moved too far to the right while those elected officials who have been left behind in the reddest of red districts in the increasingly irrelevant South, say the way forward is more extremism. Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA), who we met earlier, is typical of this group. Republican thinkers, on the other hand, realize the GOP has ceded the center while chasing the extreme right base and that that goes absolutely nowhere-- except in Texas, rural Georgia and places with lots of ignorant Mormons.

"In order for the Republicans to win again they have to drop the anti-gay, anti-immigrant, strict pro-life, no-abortion social positions they have taken," said Brady. "They have to drop those things and move to the centre where the American voters are. Look at gay marriage-- support for gay marriage in America is going up; it's not going down. It's a similar situation if you're pro-life. The majority in America has been pro-choice for a while, and it's not moving anywhere... America used to be roughly divided along the lines of a third Republican, a third independent, and a third Democrat. Now it's 35 per cent Democrat, 28 per cent Republican and the rest independent.

"Let's go and talk about health-care reform. Let's go and … fund programs if they're necessary programs and not get stuck just on the fiscal responsibility... Sarah Palin is not a candidate who can win in a general election. At this point the frontrunners would be [Mitt] Romney, Palin, [Mike] Huckabee. But I think what might have to happen is a governor coming up out of the ranks in the same way that George [Bush] did in 2000."

Another prerequisite the GOP must fill before being taken seriously by mainstream-- if not Mormon-- voters is ridding itself of the endemic corruption that the congressional party has thrived on, especially under the auspices of Tom Delay, Denny Hastert, Rick Santorum, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, elected officials who serve the dual role of legislator and lobbyist. Next week, the notoriously corrupt Senate Republicans are going to take a stab at trying to clean house-- at least of their most high profile criminal-- convicted felon Ted Stevens. Whether Alaska's corrupt voting counting apparatus decides he won or lost his re-election bid, most-- though not all-- Senate Republicans want to toss the embarrassing old crook out of their caucus and out of the world's most exclusive club. Many Most of them are as crooked as Stevens and they don't appreciate the spotlight being focussed on their shadowy institution.

The Senate's most right-wing member, rabid neo-fascist Jim DeMint (R-SC) is demanding a vote on kicking Stevens out of the caucus, scheduled for November 18.

“The GOP leadership should be the first to act on this by expelling Stevens from the Republican conference and not assigning him any committee seats,” said DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton. “We should clean our own house.”

It was not immediately clear whether DeMint’s effort would garner support from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.-- who has called on Stevens to resign-- or other GOP leaders.

DeMint’s effort will fizzle unless he lines up another senator to second his ejection motion.

If the effort succeeds, Stevens, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican, would be stripped of his seats on the Appropriations and Commerce committees, both of which he once led.

...If the Republican conference chooses to boot Stevens, it would be acting in advance of any disciplinary action from the Senate Ethics Committee, which has been silent on the matter since July 29, the day Stevens was indicted.

Prior to the election, several Republicans, many of them in competitive races, called for Stevens to step down.

It will be interesting to watch the ones who have been re-elected, like Susan Collins and McConnell, each of whom has taken immense sums of tainted money (bribes) from Stevens, change their tunes now that they don't have to worry about being booted out of office for another 6 years.

Forget Kansas, What The Hell's Wrong With Alaska?

The case being made that the Senate and House election results in Alaska were tampered with looks really credible. Don Young, who hasn't been indicted or convicted yet, confounded every single poll and is about to be declared the winner of Alaska's at-large House seat. The Stevens-Begich race still hasn't been called yet but Stevens-- also confounded all the polls (like every single one)-- is out ahead. As of last night, with 60,000 more votes to count, Stevens was 3,257 votes ahead. Shannyn Moore is more than suspicious:

Four years ago, 313,592 out of 474,740 registered voters in Alaska participated in the election-a 66% turnout. Taking into account 49,000 outstanding ballots, on Tuesday 272,633 out of 495,731 registered Alaskans showed up at the polls; a turnout of 54.9%. That’s a decrease of more than 11% in voter turnout even though passions ran high for and against Barack Obama, as well as for and against Sarah Palin! This year, early voters set a new record. As of last Thursday, with 4 days left to vote early, 15,000 Alaskans showed up-shattering the old record set in 2004 by 28%! Consider the most popular governor in history-and now the most polarizing-was on the Republican ticket. Consider the historic nature of this race; the first African American presidential candidate EVER! The second woman to ever make a presidential ticket; and she’s one of our own. Despite that, we’re supposed to believe that overall participation DECREASED by 11%. Not only that, but this historic election both nationally and for Alaska HAD THE LOWEST ALASKA TURNOUT FOR A PRESIDENTIAL RACE EVER!!! That makes sense.

If Stevens defeats Begich, he will be the first convicted felon to be re-elected to the Senate, a new milestone for the institution. The furthest right member of the Senate, South Carolina's Jim DeMint, is demanding that the Miss McConnell expel Stevens from the Republican caucus... now. What will Dan Inouye say!




UPDATE: PALIN

How could we leave her out of a "What's The Matter With Alaska" post? Well... we're sick of her and her brood and the smarminess of all things Palin. So we'll leave it to David Letterman:

Top Ten New Revelations About Sarah Palin

10. Thinks Fox News may still declare her and John McCain the winner
9. At her wedding instead of "I do," said, "You betcha!"
8. She and Governor Schwarzenegger once exchanged swimsuit-competition posing tips
7. Prepared for campaign by watching Legally Blonde 2
6. Thinks "NAFTA" stands for "Need Another Fifty Thousand for Accessories"
5. Begins every day by reading a passage from the hilarious Late Show Fun Facts book available everywhere
4. She's a person of interest in five unsolved snow machine hit-and-runs
3. Abused position as Governor to get free appetizers at Anchorage Applebee's
2. Already has a new job as Briefcase Babe #12 on Deal Or No Deal
1. Her Secret Service code name was "Huh?"

Top Ten Extras

11. Secretly voted for Obama so she wouldn't have to learn all of that vice-president stuff
12. She's been hired to play Tammy the conniving librarian on Desperate Housewives
13. Saved 30% on her dogsled insurance by switching to Geico
14. Offered McCain the concession speech she gave after losing the Miss Alaska pageant
15. In high school yearbook, was voted "Most Likely to Bring Down a Presidential Campaign"
16. Wishes she'd said, "Thanks but no thanks" on that campaign to nowhere

And remember, it wasn't really about poor dull Sarah and her trashy beautiful family; it was always, always, always about the judgment of the man who thrust her into the national consciousness for his own perceived gain:

Harry Reid And Daniel Inouye Take Very Different Positions On Alaska Felon Ted Stevens

Birds of a feather...

A hallmark of Stevens' corruption, though one that will never be subject to any kind of investigation, is how he took massive sums of money from the most disreputable sources and, through Northern Lights, his crooked PAC, distributed-- or laundered-- the funds to his colleagues. All of the money went to Republicans-- except one single, solitary case: Stevens gave the maximum allowed by law, $10,000, to his close friend Hawaiian Democrat Daniel Inouye. Now isn't that bipartisan!

I wonder what poor Cam Cavasso, Inouye's Republican opponent, would say. We don't have to wonder what Inouye would say; he never shuts up in his defense of Stevens. Even when some of the most corrupt Republicans in the Senate-- like Norm Coleman, Gordon Smith, Susan Collins and even Mitch McConnell-- started sending Stevens back his tainted cash (or some of it), Inouye, who was a character witness for Stevens at the disastrous trial, insisted he wouldn't give back a dime. Instead he went on a series of hysterical rampages defending Stevens, even impugning the integrity of the jury of American citizens who unanimously found Stevens guilty of all seven felonies with which he was charged. Needless to say, Inouye is not supporting Democrat Mark Begich for the Alaska Senate seat that Stevens is likely to lose Tuesday.

"I am absolutely confident that Ted Stevens will be sworn into the Senate while he appeals this unjust verdict," said Inouye, D-Hawaii, a longtime friend of Stevens. "I am certain that this decision in Washington, D.C., will be overturned on appeal."

No one is asking Inouye whether or not he is aware that he was accepting bribes from VECO through Stevens' PAC and if that influenced his votes at all. And, needless to say, Harry Reid, who is struggling to replace Stevens with Begich-- helping the Democrats get to a position where they can fight off GOP obstructionism-- was incensed by Inouye's interference in the Alaska election.

In a bluntly worded release from his office, Reid warned that Stevens would not only face an ethics investigation but also expulsion proceedings regardless of his efforts to appeal the convictions.

Reid’s decision to jump into the Alaska Senate race with both feet marks the first time a leading national Democrat has explicitly warned that Stevens’ ouster from the Senate would be sought. GOP leaders including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) have already called for him to step down or face expulsion.

Reid also rebuffed comments made by Sen. Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), one of the chamber’s senior Democrats who had previously endorsed Stevens, and who has reaffirmed that sentiment since his conviction last month.

In a statement released by the Stevens campaign, Inouye argues that his longtime friend will be seated as a Member of the Senate next year if re-elected and that he believes the felony convictions will be overturned.

...“While I respect the opinion of Senator Daniel Inouye, the reality is that a convicted felon is not going to be able to serve in the United States Senate. And as precedent shows us, Senator Stevens will face an ethics committee investigation and expulsion, regardless of his appeals process,” Reid said.

“This is not a partisan issue and it is unfortunate that Senator Stevens has used his long time friendship with Senator Inouye for partisan political gain,” he added.

It is also unfortunate that Inouye, whose own probity and ethics need careful examination is being talked about as the new chair of the Senate Ethics Committee, a position which requires someone of impeccable character.

BREAKING NEWS: According To A High Placed DC Insider, Ted Stevens Was Not Convicted After All

Of course the high placed DC Insider is the most senior-- and one of the most senile-- Republican in the Senate, Ted Stevens himself. "I have not been convicted" the Alaska senator told supporters when he got home, perhaps assuming that the news hasn't reached that far north yet. Today's Anchorage Daily News did get the word though that Senator Ted had indeed been convicted, unanimously so on all 7 counts. Like any other criminal, he's entitled to appeal. But, like any other criminal, he's been convicted. And the biggest newspaper in the state just endorsed his opponent, Mark Begich.

We recognize that Sen. Stevens has done much to benefit our state, but, like many Alaskans, we are troubled by the arrogance, poor judgment and lack of personal integrity revealed during his trial. Since the verdict, the condemnation of his conduct has been bipartisan. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Gov. Sarah Palin and Senate colleagues of both parties have called upon Sen. Stevens to resign his office.

Mayor Begich offers Alaskans a fresh, effective start. A pragmatic Democrat, he has demonstrated a willingness to work with politicians of all political stripes, from a Republican governor and legislative leaders to his ideological opponents on the Anchorage Assembly. If elected to the Senate, he would be a member of the majority party, unlike incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski, which would give Alaskans a voice in both the majority and minority caucuses.

...BOTTOM LINE: Sen. Stevens' conduct has besmirched Alaska and crippled his effectiveness. Mayor Mark Begich is the best choice to represent Alaska.

And while Stevens is running around the state informing startled voters that he hasn't been convicted yet, across America-- despite McCain and his media allies' misleading statements-- Obama's lead in the polls is increasing. Even the neo-fascist editorial page of the Wall Street Journal forced itself to acknowledge, via Mavericky former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan, that Obama is the right man at the right time for America.

He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief. He climbed steep stairs, born off the continent with no father to guide, a dreamy, abandoning mother, mixed race, no connections. He rose with guts and gifts. He is steady, calm, and, in terms of the execution of his political ascent, still the primary and almost only area in which his executive abilities can be discerned, he shows good judgment in terms of whom to hire and consult, what steps to take and moves to make. We witnessed from him this year something unique in American politics: He took down a political machine without raising his voice.

...Something new is happening in America. It is the imminent arrival of a new liberal moment. History happens, it makes its turns, you hold on for dear life. Life moves.

A fitting end for a harem-scarem, rock-'em-sock-'em shakeup of a year--- one of tumbling inevitabilities, torn coalitions, striking new personalities.

Apparently nervous Jews have come around for Obama. What's left? Georgia? Arizona? Glad you asked. A poll over at Kos:

Likely voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines)
McCain (R) 48
Obama (D) 47

Early voters  (17 percent of sample)

McCain (R) 42
Obama (D) 54

I can't believe we may actually win Arizona. And I have a bonus treat for you guys:

If the 2010 election for U.S. Senate were held today for whom would you vote for if the choices were between Janet Napolitano the Democrat and John McCain the Republican?

McCain (R) 45
Napolitano (D) 53

You have to figure Obama's internal polling is showing pretty optimistic results if he's using campaign funds to run ads in Georgia, North Dakota and Arizona! Let's hope the Arizona ones turn out enough people to help Bob Lord's congressional race against the corrupt extremist incumbent loon in Phoenix, John Shadegg. Here's the 30 second spot:

Ted Stevens, Mitch McConnell And Susan Collins-- Trio Of Despair

A real axis of evil

Unless the rumors about Larry Craig becoming a lobbyist for HRC are true, it could be very lonely for Lindsey Graham come January. Lonely like in "Gee, this closet is so empty these days... I hope David Dreier, Patrick McHenry, or Adrian Smith runs for the Senate soon." That's right, after Larry Craig's little tragedy in the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport toilet with officer Karsnia, and the increasingly likely forced departure of Kentucky gay groper Mitch McConnell, poor Lindsey will be left all by his lonesome-- the only closet queen in the whole Senate! How fair is that, Mr. Slave?

Anyway, I'm not cheering as loudly as everyone I know over Miss McConnell's impending political obliteration-- primarily because of the horror Chuck Schumer has replacing him, the corrupt and reactionary (don't those two words always get shmooshed together these days?) Bruce Lunsford. Lunsford is likely to be an improvement over McConnell-- the way a D- is better than an F, although, in this case, the F was at least not inside the Democratic caucus inexorably dragging it further and further in the direction of even more corporate-oriented corruption and further and further away from the interests of working families the Democrats always regret stabbing in the back-- though only when they are absolutely forced to by deplorable monsters like Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh... and, of course, Bruce Lunsford.

Most Democrats would rather cut off a toe than vote for McConnell even if it does mean that a sleazy and treacherous slimebag like Lunsford winds up in the Senate. And i wouldn't urge anyone to cut off anything. On the other hand, McConnell, who is not just the single most corrupt member of the Senate, he is also spending millions of dollars of corruptly acquired corporate bribes to blanket the state with TV ads attacking Lunsford's own corruption! And just to be consistent, this morning McConnell called on the Senate's runner-up most corrupt member, Ted Stevens, to resign. Cozy, since the two of them have been blatantly money-laundering illicit campaign contributions to each other for years. Miss McConnell:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has joined the growing chorus of congressional Republicans calling for Sen. Ted Stevens to resign in the wake of his conviction earlier this week on seven corruption-related felonies.

McConnell, in Kentucky campaigning for his own re-election, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that Stevens should step aside, and that he should do it before Election Day, when the Alaska Republican is trying to win a seventh full term.

“I think he should resign immediately,” said McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, who is locked in a competitive race against businessman Bruce Lunsford. “If he did not do that ... there is a 100 percent certainty that he would be expelled from the Senate.”

Not all Republicans who have taken thousands and thousands of dollars of Big Oil bribes via Stevens are abandoning him in his time of need though. Susan Collins, Maine's rubber stamp Republican hack has taken immense sums of "contributions" from some of the most corrupt companies in America, funneled her way courtesy of Steven's generous PAC. And even though most Republicans are distancing themselves from the convicted felon-- including McCain and Palin-- Susan Collins is standing by her man (just like she always has with Bush). Maine's other Republican senator, Olympia Snowe, who isn't as crooked and sleazy as Collins is calling for Stevens to resign immediately. It is expected that Collins will buckle under the pressure and be denouncing Stevens by Monday.

"If Susan Collins really believes that convicted felons have a place in the Senate, she clearly does not represent the kind of change that people in Maine are hungry for in Washington," said Rebecca Pollard, communications director for the Maine Democratic Party. "Whether or not Alaska voters re-elect him a week after a jury of his peers found him guilty should not determine whether Susan Collins thinks he should remain in the Senate."
 
"She can't take a pass on this. As a sitting Senator and candidate for re-election to the Senate chamber, Collins doesn't get a pass on telling Maine people whether she thinks Stevens remains worthy of his Senate seat when he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work on his house from a big oil company and was convicted on seven felony counts," Pollard said.

As odious as McConnell is, I'd rather see the end of Collins. With him you pretty much know what you're going to get. She's deceptive and sneaky and if he goes, we're stuck with Lunsford. If Collins goes, the Senate gets one of the finest members of the House, Congressman Tom Allen, moving across Capitol Hill.

Has Anyone Considered Sellin' Alaska Back To The Russians?

Once McCain went on record demanding that convicted felon Ted Stevens step down as Alaska senator, Palin was bound to follow along-- which she did, if reluctantly, yesterday. The Alaska Republican Party, regardless of the urgings of their presidential candidate, vice presidential candidate and titular leader, is painting a different scenario. They're urging conservatives to vote for the felon with the hope of getting him to resign or something after the election.

But there's another possibility. First dude used to be a member of a bizarre fringe secessionist party, The Alaska Independence Party, which also enjoys warm relations with his wife Sarah. They have endorsed third party candidate Charles Baldwin for president (of the Constitution Party) but they are running their own candidate for Senate, Bob Bird, who, like Palin, is an anti-choice fanatic. Take a look:



And, of course, the Alaska Independence Part appealed to their pal, Sarah to help Bird now that Uncle Ted is circling the drain. This letter was sent out late last night:

October 28, 2008

Open Letter to Governor Palin:

We admire your ability to galvanize the conservative movement in America with such conviction, clarity, and grace. Your message of small government, social conservatism, and reform has endured the attacks of your detractors, re-energized a presidential campaign and, God willing, will soon bring you into the vice presidency.

You have taken a stand against corruption in Alaska, and your demand that Senator Stevens, regrettably now a convicted felon, step down from his position has shown you true to your convictions and that you can be relied upon to reform government at the highest levels.

However, Governor, you have many supporters in Alaska that wonder who you are supporting in the U.S. Senate election. Allow us to suggest a solution.

Bob Bird is the AIP candidate for U.S. Senate. He is a hockey coach and father of three who has introduced thousands of Alaska’s high school students to the truth of our nation’s Constitution in more than 30 years of service as a public educator in Alaska’s schools. He is an avid sportsman, a devout Christian, and former President of Alaska Right to Life. Bob was a lifelong Republican until faced with the same corruption which you recognized and now casts a shadow over our great state. In 1996, he left the party and joined more than 14,000 other Alaskans, including myself in the AIP-- not a radical group as painted by an unjust media, but Alaska’s most respected and established third party, a socially and fiscally conservative party. You remember that in 1990 Wally Hickel, former U.S. Interior Secretary under Ronald Reagan, was elected on the AIP ticket to the same gubernatorial position you now hold.

Senator Stevens’ betrayal of his constituents is unfortunate, but as a conservative coalition we cannot let it result in the election of another liberal democrat to Congress. Bob Bird is a conservative, and he will caucus with Republicans at a time America can’t afford to let Harry Reid get a 60-person majority in the Senate. Bob will join your movement to bring Constitutional conservatism, transparency, and simple Alaskan common sense to Washington.

Please, when asked by the next “gotcha” reporter who thinks they can stump you with a question about who you will support in the race for U.S. Senate in Alaska, simply respond, “Bob Bird, a fellow conservative and Washington outsider who I know will bring honor and integrity back to that seat in the U.S. Senate.”

Good luck, God bless you, and may God bless the America people in this most crucial of times.

Sincerely,

Lynette Clark, Chairman
Alaskan Independence Party

And Lynette Clark, Bob Bird and the secessionists aren't the only ones who acknowledge that they need Sarah Palin. No, I'm not talking about the late night comedy hosts. John McCain explains he he needs Palin too:



Palin says she plans to take over the GOP after McCain is defeated Tuesday. McCain staffers are "speechless."

The Republican Culture Of Corruption Is Back

Well... it never went away and it is certainly not confined to Republicans. It's the all pervasive, never-ending stench of Washington and the political class and the type of characters drawn to politics-- be it a Tom DeLay or a Rahm Emanuel. But to the general public, that Culture of Corruption has been an albatross around Republican necks, not Democratic necks and the conviction of the most senior Republican in the Senate, Ted Stevens, brings the whole ugly mess-- the Duke Cunninghams, the Tom Delays, the Bob Neys, the Jack Abramoffs, Jerry Lewis, Conrad Burns, Tom Feeney, Virgil Goode, Katherine Harris, John Doolittle, Dirty Dick Pombo, Denny Hastert, Gary Miller, Charlie Taylor, even Mark Foley (a different kind of corruption)-- back into play. Oh... and Don Young.

So while John McCain and the Republican Party are struggling to hold on in "sure-thing," "in-the-bag" red states like North Carolina, Virginia and, now, Montana, far off Alaska eases into the national focus. It isn't a story the Republican Party wants anyone looking at.

Alaska's senior GOP politicians, Ted Stevens and Don Young, are-- Inside the Beltway world-- prominent national figures, although each has long been a personification of pork, earmarks and corruption. Alaska's primary airport is currently named for Ted Stevens but the Bridge to Nowhere is what pops into most minds when either his or Young's name is brought up. But the two of them-- albeit on top of a systemic pyramid of corruption-- are just the garbage in plain sight. The entire, all-powerful Republican political establishment in Alaska is rotten to the core. Dozens of elected officials are either rotting in prison, awaiting sentencing or trial or under investigation. "Bipartisan" in Alaska refers to the few Democrats who were invited into the GOP schemes to enrich the political class. And then there's the reformer, maverick governor-- naive, religion-obsessed small town mayor Sarah Palin who liked the idea of "cleaning things up, although appears to have had substituting her own regime of small town corruption and nepotism for the Big Oil brand that had turned Alaska into one of the country's ethics cesspools.

Yesterday a spokesman for the Alaska Republican Party, McHugh Pierre urged Republicans to "continue to support Sen. Stevens. We need to vote for him because a vote for him is a vote for a conservative candidate, a Republican who best represents the interests and beliefs of Alaskans. ... We don't know what happens in the future. But if you don't want Mark Begich, you vote for Ted Stevens." The entire Republican political establishment, rotten to the core, is standing behind Stevens:

Senator Lisa Murkowski, herself in ethical hot water and the daughter of one of the few politicians in contemporary history considered as corrupt as Stevens himself: "Ted Stevens is an honorable, hardworking Alaskan who has served our state well for as long as we have been a state....Ted has asked for Alaskans and his Senate colleagues to stand with him as he pursues his legal rights. He stood with Alaskans for 40 years, and I plan to continue to stand with him."

Rep. Don Young, Stevens' longtime partner in crime, likely to lose his seat a week from today and likelier still to soon face trial, conviction and prison himself: "I'm deeply disappointed. It surprises me. I don't think he had a jury of his peers. That's the way it goes. I'm sure there will be an appeal. If you watched the conduct of the court with the one juror leaving and going out and, of course, the actions of the prosecutors themselves, there definitely will be an appeal, and it will go for a long period of time."

McCain's campaign wrote a cagier and slicker response for Palin to mouth:

"This is a sad day for Alaska and for Sen. Stevens and his family. The verdict shines a light on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company that was allowed to control too much of our state. ... As governor of the state of Alaska, I will carefully monitor this situation and take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime, I ask the people of Alaska to join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system. I'm confident Sen. Stevens will do what's right for the people of Alaska."

But although her "monitoring" may remind people of Bush's inability to take any remedial actions whatsoever, leading to his cataclysmic popularity crash, it is what the McCain wordsmiths left out of Palin's statement that is most glaring. Not a word from the maverick, religious reformer about the fact that a convicted felon is up for re-election in 7 days. She doesn't give a speech ever in which she doesn't invoke maverickness and her and her runningmate's "well known" battles against "our own party." That's an empty charade and her response to Stevens conviction just proves it was just another in a series of gimmicks that defines the tragic presidential campaign of John W. McCain.

Personally McCain and Stevens have long loathed each other and this morning McCain tried to further distance his sinking campaign from Stevens' corruption scandal.

"Yesterday, Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty of corruption. It is a sign of the health of our democracy that the people continue to hold their representatives to account for improper or illegal conduct, but this verdict is also a sign of the corruption and insider-dealing that has become so pervasive in our nation's capital.

"It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and that he should now step down. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will be spurred by these events to redouble their efforts to end this kind of corruption once and for all."

McCain staffers have taken to referring to Palin as a whack job but it isn't the lunacy and bizarre political extremism that are likely to damage the ticket most in the next seven days. It's her ties to the aforementioned Culture of Corruption.

This Ted Stevens fiasco is baggage of the McCain camp's own choosing. Before they added Sarah Palin to the ticket, Alaska was anything but Main Street America. Under the old rules, Steven's corruption scandal could well have blown over as a parochial scandal of the great, oily North.

But since picking Palin, McCain & Co. have staked out Alaska as the living, beating heart of American authenticity. And so, today, Ted Steven's felonious betrayal of the public trust is going to allow Democrats to campaign like it's 2006-- against the Republican "culture of corruption" that proved so electorally toxic to the GOP two years ago.

Let's remember that the McCain camp knew in late July that Stevens was under indictment and demanding a speedy trial that would put Alaska's frontier ethics front-and-center in the days before the election.

And yet, thanks to a vetting free Veepstakes, in August the campaign chose Palin, who not only owes her governorship to Stevens' throaty endorsement, but as recently as 2005 served as the director of "Ted
Stevens Excellence in Public Service" 527 group.

...So here's my question: If Sarah Palin was such an all-American maverick, what was she doing palling around with a suspected felon like Ted Stevens?

It may be a lot of people's question.

Republican Senior Senator From Alaska Ted Stevens-- Guilty On All Charges

Ted and Sarah Will Never Stop Fighting To Keep Alaska Free Of Ethics

A few days ago the GOP was saying that if Stevens was just convicted on a few of the 7 charges it would help his re-election bid. I'm sure they'll come up with some way to explain how being convicted on every one of the charges will also help his re-election bid. Polling says otherwise though and it looks like the red state of Alaska, home of Sarah Palin, will be throwing out convicted felon Ted Stevens and as yet unindicted Congressman Don Young.

This afternoon's Hill has all the sordid details. "The verdict was reached after the jury deliberated since Wednesday and found the 84-year-old senator guilty of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., and other friends."

Stevens appeared expressionless, holding his stomach while the verdict was read. The courtroom was silent as the powerful Republican's fate was read to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan deferred sentencing until after Feb. 23, when a hearing is scheduled on further motions. Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count.

The jury did not seem to buy the explanation from Stevens that Allen showered him with gifts he didn't want and was unaware of, and that he believed the $160,000 he gave to another contractor covered all costs for the home renovations.

Stevens could get-- if he weren't a rich, powerful white guy-- 35 years in prison. He's not likely to ever serve a day in jail. Although sentencing isn't until after Bush leaves the White House, it is unlikely that Bush won't pardon him before that. What's a little bribery and perjury between old comrades? My favorite part of this is that the corrupt and contemptible Senate won't even consider expelling him-- or doing anything to him-- now that he is officially a convicted felon.

Despite being a convicted felon, he is not required to drop out of the race or resign from the Senate. If he wins re-election, he can continue to hold his seat because there is no rule barring felons from serving in Congress. The Senate could vote to expel him on a two-thirds vote.

"Put this down: That will never happen-- ever, OK?" Stevens said in the weeks leading up to his trial. "I am not stepping down. I'm going to run through, and I'm going to win this election."

The Anchorage Daily News put the Stevens conviction into the context of an ongoing investigation into the criminal conspiracy of the entire Alaskan Republican Party. Among the crooked politicians already convicted are former Alaska House Speaker Pete Kott, the former chairman of the Special Committee on Oil and Gas, Vic Kohring, and former state Rep Tom Anderson. They will soon be joined by Congressman Don Young, who is probably even more guilty than Stevens, and Stevens crooked son Ben, as well as still-serving state Senator John Cowdery and ex-state Rep Bruce Weyhrauch.


UPDATE: EVEN FAR RIGHT GOP WEBSITES ARE ENDORSING BEGICH... AND BERKOWITZ!!

RedState usually provides a dependable look into what the Republican Party is up to. They're more a GOP propaganda outlet than an actual blog. Today, though, they broke with the Republican Party-- and with Sarah Palin, who is still supporting her pal/convicted felon Ted Stevens-- and has endorsed Mark Begich and Ethan Berkowitz, the Democratic opponent for Alaska's other most corrupt member of Congress, Rep. Don Young.

We stand at a perilous moment in American politics, with the real possibility that the Democrats could get to 60 votes in the Senate. This is no time for litmus tests of party loyalty, for abandoning our own. But we must make one exception: good conscience compels us to advise Alaskans to vote for Mark Begich, the Democrat mayor of Anchorage, for the U.S. Senate. And we also endorse Ethan Berkowitz for the at-large House seat in Alaska... Washington cannot too soon see the end of Stevens and Young.

Ted Stevens Trial Goes To The Jury Tomorrow

Two very rich, nasty, elderly crooks

Right wing propagandists aside, Obama continues to expand his polling lead against McCain-- or rather, McCain continues to sink in people's esteem. But not in Alaska. We've come to learn a lot about that state in the last few weeks and whether you're among the growing number of people who want to stop subsidizing a whole state of welfare bums or even drain all the oil and then sell the what ever's left back to the Russians, I think everyone can agree that most Alaskans are positively giddy at the prospect of trying to inflict the least competent person to ever run for federal office on the rest of us. In Alaska McCain-Palin is up over Obama-Biden by 18.5 points, a number beaten only by the half dozen most backward of the Lower 48: Alabama (24.3%), Idaho (33%), Nebraska (21.5%), Oklahoma (30.9%), Utah (35.7%), and Wyoming (25.6%).

Listening to McCain yammering on week after week, month after month about the Bridge to Nowhere, one might get the impression that he is running against the representatives of Nowhere, Senator Ted Stevens, Congressman Don Young and Governor Sarah Palin-- or that at least these 3 crooks were from the other party. But no... the latter is his running mate and the other two are stalwart Republicans in pre-penitentiary phases of their careers.

Yesterday's NY Times reported on the end of Stevens' ethics trial, making him sound something like a very old dog with distemper who should probably be put to sleep for its own good instead of just like a crooked old political hack facing 7 felony counts on bribery charges. People keep asking me what his defense could possibly be. Ultimately he expects to get off on some kind of a technicality the rich and the powerful are allowed to use to avoid the laws. But the pretense of a defense is that all that booty he took was either just on loan, or "tasteless" stuff that just showed up of its own accord, or was is being "stored" at one or the other of his homes. He also claims his own furniture was stolen and then replaced with the current stuff by the former head of VECO-- who financed Stevens' political career-- and who admits he had been bribing him.

Brenda Morris, the prosecutor, sought to take apart Mr. Stevens’s assertions that he was unaware that a variety of expensive goods and services he received were gifts from Mr. Allen, an Alaskan oil services tycoon, and other friends.

Ms. Morris confronted Mr. Stevens with several e-mail messages and notes he had written or received that praised Mr. Allen’s contributions to the renovation of the Stevens home. She concluded each reading with a variation of this question: “So, is it still your testimony to this jury that you did not know” that Mr. Allen and his company were showering you with gifts?

Mr. Stevens, 84, insisted each time that although he had known that many of the workers at his home were employees of Veco, he had not known that Veco played any role in the renovation. “Veco was not involved in renovating my house,” he said angrily. He thought the workers were employed by a different contractor who had been paid by his wife, he said.

Jurors will get instructions from the judge tomorrow morning. Almost every poll in the past several months show Mark Begich beating Stevens in the Senate race by an average of 1.9%. That very closeness cannot but be impacted by whatever the jury decides about Stevens' charges, which is somewhat odd, since everyone in Alaska knows Stevens is horribly corrupt.

Alaska Primary Results: Don Young Race Too Close To Call

Good riddance-- now or in November?

Yesterday was primary day in Alaska. The biggest surprise was the narrowness of the Republican race between soon-to-be-indicted incumbent Don Young, thought by many to be the single most corrupt member of the U.S. House, and Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. With 429 of 438 precincts reporting the Anchorage Daily News shows Young ahead by a handful of votes.

Don Young... 42,461 (45%)
Sean Parnell... 42,316 (45%)
Gabrielle Ledoux... 8,589 (9%)

Most of the precincts that hadn't reported election results as of midnight were from rural Alaska villages. Those are "typical Young strongholds," Anderson said. But Parnell wasn't convinced Young was going to clean up in the Bush, especially given many rural residents might choose to vote in Tuesday's Democratic primary instead of Republican contest.

There are also the 16,000 absentee ballots the division of elections mailed out. It has received back 7,600 of them and Gail Fenumiai, director of the state division of elections, said she didn't know how many of those have been counted. As long as the absentee ballots were postmarked Tuesday, the division will continue to count them for the next 10 days. Questioned ballots will be counted on Sept. 5.

...Parnell was helped by the fact that Young, Alaska's lone member of the U.S. House since 1973, spent more than a million dollars of his campaign contributions on legal fees. Young refuses to say exactly what his legal fees have been paying for, but the congressman is connected to several federal investigations. They include the wide-ranging federal probe into corruption in Alaska politics, which has focused on the fundraising practices of Veco Corp.

Although Parnell, supported by the far right extremist group, Club for Growth, would be a weak candidate in November, Democrats are hoping Young will win the primary because it would be impossible for him to win the general election in November because of the mounting corruption scandal. Independent voters play a huge role in Alaska electoral politics and Young is dead meat to them.

On the Democratic side, progressive Diane Benson was swamped by institutional and Establishment money that flooded in for Rahm Emanuel crony Ethan Berkowitz. He took 53% of the vote, having reported raising (as of June 30th) $628,605 to Benson's $194,327.

On the Senate side, indicted incumbent Ted Stevens won his race against David Cuddy with a whopping 63% of the vote, showing the world exactly what Alaska Republicans are. Stevens will face Blue America-endorsed Mark Begich in November, who took 84% in his primary. Democrats were celebrating Stevens' primary win, who will be facing the voters just a few weeks after his criminal trial.


UPDATE: ALASKA HOUSE RACE STILL TOO CLOSE TO CALL

Don Young's race still too close to call at 1pm, PT. The remaining precincts are in Native American-majority areas and they are both remote and traditionally pro-Young. Meanwhile watch Ted Stevens celebrate his primary win last night. Like McCain, he's an angry old man... a very angry old man.

Big Oil Provides The Glue Connecting Norm Coleman To Ted Stevens-- And Rampant Corruption

This morning John Ensign (R-NV), who has the unenviable task of holding November's expected Republican losses in the Senate down to 3 or 4, instead of the ten or eleven the Democrats are working towards, lashed out at his fellow GOP senators. According to today's Hill the NRSC chair admitted he wouldn't be able "to make good on a promise to match Democrats 'dollar for dollar' this year, blaming his GOP colleagues for not chipping in." The Democrats have $43 million on hand, almost entirely for winning Republican seats, and the GOP has less than $25 million, which will all go to defending vulnerable Republican incumbents.

“I recently challenged my colleagues to step up to the plate and help me provide the resources our candidates need to compete in races across the country-- to match the DSCC expenditures in targeted races,” Ensign said in a statement. “It has become clear that my call has gone largely unanswered. I have no control over the timing or content of [independent expenditure] ads, but I have had no choice but to decrease the total budget of our IE Unit. It is still my hope that my Republican colleagues will engage in this election and help match what the Democrats are doing. If they do, I will adjust our budget accordingly.”

But the GOP politicians, who believe so fervently in outsourcing-- they have put policies in place that encourage outsourcing of American jobs and have even outsourced, tragically, the responsibilities of the U.S. military-- are now outsourcing their own electoral prospects, counting almost entirely on GOP front operations, like Freedom's Watch, run by right-wing billionaires.

One of the most vulnerable of the Republican incumbents, Minnesota's rubber stamp Norm Coleman, has stepped up his fundraising and has managed to vacuum up an incredible $15,495,493, much of it from the corporate special interests he has served so unflinchingly for the past five years. Among the industries which have "donated" the most to Coleman, repaying him for services delivered are:

Real Estate... $877,280
Insurance... $531,260
Commercial Banks... $418,425
Big Pharma... $329,567
Lobbyists... $300,459
Gas & Oil... $247,900

Ah... yes, Gas & Oil... and lobbyists. And that brings us to Norm and his pal, Alaska's indicted senator Ted Stevens, who-- like Coleman-- has been taking huge bribes from Big Oil interests in return for billions of dollars in tax breaks and rubber stamping of policies that have allowed them to... well, in short, drive up the price of gasoline and heating oil. Stevens went a little further than Coleman-- going beyond the generous definitions the political Establishment uses to define bribery. But Stevens has shared those bribes with his Republican colleagues-- including Coleman. As Stevens prepares for his criminal trial, many of the Republican senators have returned the tainted money-- but not Coleman, who, oddly, gave back some and held on to some.

This doesn't exactly shock me. When I was in elementary school in Brooklyn I ran for secretary of my class. The result was a tie-- between me and an especially nasty little cheat named... Norm Coleman; yep the same one who has gone on the live in Minnesota and scoop up incredible amounts of special interests money while selling out the interests of his constituents. Today I noticed that the Minnesota race had tightened up and was, in effect, in a statistical dead heat-- 41% Al Franken, 40% Norm Coleman, 8% Independence candidate Dean Barkley. (Last week Rasmussen also showed a tie.) Coleman's 46% job approval rating predicts that he will lose in November, just like every other Republican incumbent with less than a 50% approval in the summer of 2006 lost his seat in November. I've got to think that if enough Minnesota voters see this video ad and think about it when they vote, Coleman's 46% job approval rating sure won't go up any.