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.

Kicking A Crooked Senator-- And Cash Cow-- When He's Down

Susan Collins giving up her share of the VECO loot

As we saw a couple days ago, most Republicans senators participated in a massive money laundering scheme with Ted Stevens in which he would get bribes from VECO and other special interest corporations and then spread that around in $5,000 and $10,000 chunks through his PAC. Then many of those senators would kick back a portion, as "donations," to Stevens. You won't hear about that on CNN or ABC or Fox, but it shows up in the boring, duty old FEC reports. What you did get from Fox.com today though was news that another recipient of tainted money from Stevens was getting rid of it. Joining the panicked rush to divest themselves of Steven's bribes, John McCain donated the most recent $5,000 he got from Stevens to charity.

In the last couple days, other Republican crooks shamed into giving up the dough have included Susan Collins (R-ME), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Liddy Dole (R-NC), an especially corrupt Gordon Smith (R-OR), Nebraska Senate candidate (and ex-cabinet secretary under Bush) Mike Johanns, Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). The really gargantuan laundered money that Stevens pumped into the NRSC (the GOP Senate caucus' criminal operation) isn't being returned and donated to charity, unless you consider shady Inside the Beltway operatives "charity." And John Barrasso (R-WY) says he won't give back the bribe money Stevens gave him. Although the corruption-prone and always disingenuous McCain was always happy to begin his stump speech with an attack on Steven's "Bridge to Nowhere" (and implying Stevens wasn't a Republican), McCain greedily and unquestioningly gobbled up his share of the VECO bribes and voted for VECO's special interests in return. Today he was quick to throw Stevens under the bus, reminding voters that he never liked the crusty old senator-- Stevens, like electricity, is even older than McCain-- and that they often clashed over Stevens' insatiable avarice.

I would exactly liken them to a bunch of Judases, after all the implication about Stevens would be 180 degrees at odds with the reality, but his Republican pals, in quickly divesting themselves of the tainted money he's been giving them, are indicating that... well, that they believe the money is tainted. In this morning's Washington Post Dana Milbank paints a portrait of senatorial sympathy. The participants in the Culture of Corruption-- and you could probably count the senators who aren't on your two hands and a foot-- feel terribly for their crooked old colleague brought low. It could have been almost any of them. The campaign finance system itself is so jiggered to favor rich special interests that it is almost impossible for a Senator not to become a criminal. Speaking of which, Stevens trial begins September 24-- and he wants it over before the election (and before he's charged with other criminal activities).

My friend Roland has been in Maine for the last 2 weeks and he called yesterday and told me that every time he turns on the TV or radio he hears Susan Collins ads bragging how "independent" and "moderate" she is. She's neither. Perhaps the $20,000 in bribe money she got from Stevens, which Tom Allen shamed her into getting rid of, will mean a few less ads. But Tom needs the help to compete with the hundreds of thousands of dollars Susan Collins accepted from other special interests whose agendas she was been pushing forward. Interested in honest government that represents ordinary American families, not rich corporate interests? We need to get rid of crooks like Ted Stevens and Susan Collins-- even if it was just the system that made 'em do it-- and replace them with men and women of high moral character who won't give in to these temptations. Please consider a contribution to the election campaign of Maine's honest congressman, Tom Allen on the Blue America ActBlue page.


UPDATE: SCOTT GARRETT WON'T GIVE UP THE DIRTY MONEY

Stevens mostly gave to fellow senators-- but every now and then he would run into a House remember with a big enough FOR SALE sign on his ass that he figured it would be worth the investment of some of VECO's dirty dollars. Stevens was a major supporter of the DRILL Act which would force oil companies to drill on leased federal lands or lose the leases. Stevens only paid off 14 members of the House-- and Garrett was one of them. Now Garrett, already considered one of the 6 least ethical members of the Congress not yet indicted, refuses to divest himself of the tainted money.

BREAKING NEWS: Republicrook Ted Stevens Finally Indicted

Happy anniversary, Ted! It was just one year ago that the FBI raided his house in Girdwood, a house that had a lot of work done on it by some companies the corrupt Alaska senator has been doing quite a few favors for-- at taxpayer expense. It has long been speculated that Stevens was at the pinnacle of the criminal organization that the Alaska GOP has become. Still, no one expected him to be indicted before his son Ben. But this morning an Alaska grand jury handed down 7 counts against Ted Stevens. Stevens' shenanigans with VECO, the oil services company, are likely to bring down much of the Alaska Republican Party and it is expected that Congressman Don Young will also be indicted. Stevens is the 8th Republican elected official indicted on corruption charges in Alaska this year.

Even before this indictment, the latest polling shows Anchorage's Democratic Mayor, Mark Begich, beating him by a significant 9 point margin. Alaskans have been grumbling that since the myriad investigations of their senior senator have begun, he's lost a tremendous amount of clout in Washington and can no longer be counted on to deliver pork for the state. He had already announced that he will not be attending the Republican Convention in St. Paul in September, although it is unlikely that he will be in prison that soon. McCain's standard stump speech attacks Stevens' (and Young's) Bridge To Nowhere in an attempt to mislead his audiences into thinking these two crooked Republicans could be Democrats. The Alaska website RetireTed.com has all the facts anyone needs to know who wants to bet on how many years he'll be spending in the federal penitentiary.

This morning Dan Froomkin penned a searing report for the Washington Post on the Culture of Corruption and how "the big fish keep swimming away." He was referring to the Justice Department investigation which may snare Monica Goodling but probably not Alberto Gonzalez, let alone the real perps, Karl Rove and George Bush. Froomkin is correct, of course, although Ted Stevens' indictment, conviction and incarceration will go a few steps towards making the point that the Culture of Corruption is not, and has never been, about a few bad apples.


UPDATE: THE COUNTS

Here's the .pdf file of the actual indictment. MSNBC has some of the specifics.

Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and a figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, has been indicted on seven counts of falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home.

Stevens, 84, has been dogged by a federal investigation into whether he pushed for fishing legislation that also benefited his son, an Alaska lobbyist.

From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said Stevens concealed "his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation."

The indictment released Tuesday said the items included: home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, electrical wiring; as well as car exchanges, a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools.

...Prosecutors said Stevens "took multiple steps to continue" receiving things from oil services company VECO Corp., and its founder, Bill Allen.

At the time, the indictment says, Allen and other VECO employees were soliciting Stevens for "multiple official actions...knowing that Stevens could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO during that same time period."

VECO's requests included funding and other aid for the oil services company's projects and partnerships in Pakistan and Russia.

Stevens is the ranking member on the bribery-prone Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. GOP rules dictate that now that he's been indicted he has to step down. The second ranking member-- one who never goes to any committee meetings-- is another Republican who has a history of taking a great deal of money from companies that have special interest concerns in front of his committees, John W. McCain.


UPDATE: STEVENS RESIGNS FROM BOTH HIS COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER POSITIONS BUT REFUSES TO LEAVE SENATE

According to this afternoon's Hill Stevens has stepped down from the ranking member positions on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. He's also on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee but he's not leaving any of the committees so that one-- which, under the chairmanship of Joe Lieberman, does nothing anyway-- he'll still be serving on. Thankfully, he's no loner on the Senate Ethics Committee. [WEDNESDAY UPDATE From CongressDaily: Republican Senate aides involved in committee discussions said Senate Appropriations ranking member Thad Cochran would fill Stevens' slot as ranking member on the Defense Appropriations panel and Hutchison is expected to become ranking member of the Commerce Committee. Hutchison will be appointed in a caretaker role she would relinquish if Stevens returns, but one of the aides said, "He's not coming back. He's toast."]

David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch, is aware that this is far from another bad apple, but a part of the political Culture of Corruption that pervades Washington.

"Washington breeds scandal like a swamp breeds mosquitoes. That's why today's long-awaited indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens is also an indictment of Washington's pay-to-play politics. It's time to drain the swamp by getting our elected officials and candidates off the fundraising treadmill – and with all the scandals surrounding Alaskan politicians, whoever the state's voters elect this November ought to lead the charge for real reform.

"With that said, there is a primary election around the corner in Alaska. Sen. Stevens owes it to the people of Alaska, who he's represented for 40 years, to either resign before the primary, or commit to running in November if he wins his party's nomination. He should not play politics with the voter's decision in late August by resigning shortly after a primary victory, like Tom DeLay did in Texas."

CORRUPTION RUNS WILD IN THE GREAT WHITE NORTH-- TED STEVENS MAY NEED A GERIATRIC PRISON CELL

Ben and Ted, Alaskans with crooked genes

I was in DC last week and some bloggers had a little get together. Turns out half the bloggers in DC live in this one giant building. It was cool. I was worried when people who were too drunk to walk straight said they were going home but then just got off the elevator at another floor instead of going to a car. But one guy who apparently didn't have too much to drink-- he sounded Australian but he's from Alaska-- told me this incredible story about corruption in Alaska. I wasn't sure what to make out of it. I mean, everbody knows that Don Young is one of the most corrupt sacks of sleaze in the whole Congress and that ex-Governor Frank Murkowski practically made Ernie Fletcher look almost honest, but this Australian Alaskan told me that virtually the whole GOP up there is drowning in bribery scams and graft. (He also turned me on to a wonderful book about Alaska... sort of, that I'm reading now: Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

So it shouldn't have surprised me one bit when today's Anchorage Daily News announced that the FBI is investigating that crazy old Senator Ted Stevens. And just like I was told, it runs in the family. The FBI is in the middle of a gigantic Alaska political corruption investigation that is believed could have almost half the elected Republicans in the state in prison! And in the center of the sleaze has been Senator Steven's son and once political heir, Ben, who accepted a quarter million dollar bribe from a GOP-connected oil industry company.

The wide-ranging federal inquiry surfaced in August when agents raided six legislative offices, including those of then-Senate President Ben Stevens, one of Ted Stevens' sons. The FBI said at the time that it also had executed a search warrant in Girdwood [Ted Steven's shady home extensively remodeled in return for political favors worth millions], among other places, although the location of that search has never been officially disclosed.

Veco, an oil-field service company that has long been a strong lobbying presence in Juneau, was one of the early targets of the agents, according to some of the search warrants that became public. On May 7, the company's longtime chief executive, Bill Allen, and a vice president, Rick Smith, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy, bribery and tax charges. They are now cooperating with authorities.

The investigation spread to the commercial fishing industry, including Ben Stevens' consulting clients and associates. Federal subpoenas served on fishing companies in Seattle last year sought records concerning both Ben and Ted Stevens.

Four current or former Alaska state lawmakers have been indicted and are awaiting trial on corruption charges, and an Anchorage lobbyist has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.

And just for the record it isn't just Stevens and his family that are taking massive bribes from VECO executives. Needless to say, Don Young has his snout in the pot, as does Lisa Murkowski (another scion, like Ben Stevens, where the Republicrookery runs in the family). And outside of Alaska it turns out VECO has been spreading around the lard to corrupt senators like John Ensign (R-NV), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Richard Burr (R-NC), David Vitter (R-LA), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Jim DeMint (R-SC), John Sununu (R-NH), John Thune (R-SD) and ex-Senator and major criminal still at large, Conrad Burns (R-MT). Oh, and Republican hopeful Mike McGavick.

It is widely thought that Stevens, the longest serving Republican in US Senate history, and suffering from an advanced stage of dimentia is unlikely to spend any time in prison no matter if he's found guilty or not. Or has he just been making believe he's more senile than John McCain and Pete Domenici combined? But even the Bush Regime-- sure to turn out to have been the most corrupt in American history-- claims that Stevens is so filthy that they can't allow him to get involved with picking the next U.S. Attorney for Alaska. He'll never notice-- as long as they let him build some more bridges.