Indy Native and Alaskan Senator, Ted Stevens Guilty on Corruption Charges
Broad Ripple High School graduate and one the of the Senates primary benefactors of pork legislation, Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, has been convicted of seven counts of corruptions charges.
Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that threatened to end the 40-year career of Alaska’s political patriarch in disgrace. The verdict, coming barely a week before Election Day, increased Stevens’ difficulty in winning what already was a difficult race against Democratic challenger Mark Begich. Democrats hope to seize the once reliably Republican seat as part of their bid for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
Stevens, 84, was convicted of all the felony charges he faced of lying about free home renovations and other gifts from a wealthy oil contractor. Jurors began deliberating last week.
For Republicans, this couldn’t come at a worse time as they are holding on by a slim thread, as the above paragrahs mentioned, of preventing a filibuster proof Democrat controlled Senate. At the same time, Stevens has been one of major opponents to earmark reform in the Senate even after his pet project, affectionately nicknamed the “Bridge to Nowhere”, became the symbol of horrendous congressional pork barrel spending.
Honestly, I’m not sorry to see him go even if it means a Democrat gets his seat for six years. And I’m not alone in thinking that either.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Wow. I had no idea he had Ripple connections.
Good riddance to bad rubbish regardless of where he came from or what party he belonged to. (I actually surprised my lefty wife last night when I said he was crookeder than a dog’s hind leg and deserved to be tarred, feathered, and run out of the Senate on a rail. She said, “Oh, is he a Democrat?” I said, “No, he’s a Republican…and try to find a Democrat who would say the same thing about their own crooks in Congress.”)
October 28th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I would like to think there is a write-in movement going on in Alaska right now.