It’s official: the only person who doesn’t know that Senator Ted Stevens’ goose is cooked…is Ted Stevens.
For those who have not heard, Senator Stevens of Alaska was found guilt of seven felony counts of corruption relating to home renovations and gifts received from an oil contractor. Each count carries a possible sentence to five years, but Stevens is not expected to serve any time. Stevens’ has said that he plans to fight the verdict and that he will campaign to retain his Senate seat.
It should be noted that there is no “automatic felony expulsion” rule in the Senate…Stevens’ would typically have to ousted by two-thirds vote AFTER the Senate Ethics Committee has convened on the matter and provided its ruling.
Obama and the Democrats: He should resign immediately. “He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he did it anyway and lied to Alaskans about it.”
McCain: He should resign immediately. “It is clear that Sen. 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.”
Palin (YESTERDAY): It’s really sad and he should do the right thing. “It’s a sad day for Alaska, and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family. The verdict shines a light though on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state. And that control was part of the culture of corruption that I was elected to fight. As governor of the state of Alaska, I’ll carefully monitor now the situation and I’ll take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime I do ask that the people of Alaska join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system, and I’m confident that Senator Stevens, from this point on, will do the right thing for the state of Alaska.” Palin fell short of calling for Stevens to resign…and would not answer when asked if she would vote for him when he runs to keep his office.
Palin (TODAY): Oh yeah…he totally needs to resign. Palin, in her unique mavericks-make-sentences-however-they-damn-well-please style said, “A sad day for Alaska yesterday when he was found guilty of seven felonies. But — and now he needs to do the right thing, and the right thing is, as he’s proclaiming his innocence and proclaiming, too, that he will go through the appellate process, OK, then he needs to step aside and allow our state to elect someone who will be supportive of those ideals of America: the free enterprise, the missions that we’re on, to win the war, those things that have got to take place in order to progress this country.”
The reason this story is headlining, and I’ll suggest why Palin’s initial position was so soft, is the same:
1) Palin and Stevens have been political allies for some time, and have done much to help each other. A clip of Sarah and Ted from happier days:
2) Palin, already taking heat from the report that says she “abused the power of her office” in the Troopergate scandal…has another potential scandal on the horizon. As first reported in the Village Voice, it seems that the same contractors that worked on Stevens’ house for free…worked on the Wasilla Sportsplex…and there are some that suspect that they worked on the Palin house as well. Evidence at this point is clearly circumstantial, but if something more substantial were to come out, it would mean similar corruption charges could be leveled at the governor.
I guess if I were her…I’d tread lightly, too…it’s hard to seem like the “Maverick Queen of Corruption Fighters” when you’re palling around with unscrupulous and unrepentant felons…
Of course the one other thing that Senator Stevens is known for is for proclaiming that the internet is a “series of tubes.” Just for fun, here is Jon Stewart interviewing John McCain regarding Stevens’ statements about the internet: