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Breaking: Senator Ted Stevens guilty on all counts

by Jon Henke | October 27, 2008 at 3:18 PM
in

CNN is announcing that Sen. Ted Stevens has been found guilty on all counts. The Politico has the story.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was convicted today on seven counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in improper gifts he received from 1999 to 2006 ... Stevens, 84, now faces a question over whether he will resign, and if he dogood conscience compels us to advise Alaskans not to vote for Ted Stevens for Senate or Don Young for the at-large House seat in Alaska. We leave it to the individual voter whether to abstain or take the step of voting affirmatively for Mark Begich, the Democrat mayor of Anchorage, and candidate for the U.S. Senate, or for Ethan Berkowitz for the at-large House seat in Alaska.es not, whether he can win reelection Nov. 4 in an already tough race. ... Stevens could also be sentenced to as much as five years in federal prison, although considering his age and lack of previous convictions, is unlikely to receive anywhere near the maximum sentence.

Note that Alaska "state law prohibits parties from naming replacement candidates less than 48 days before the election."  Inexplicably, some Republicans have been arguing that Sen. Stevens could still win.  They should have been discussing how Republicans can be rid of him.   Republicans should not be relying on juries and courts to be the ethics enforcers.

UPDATE

Red State recommends Alaskans do not vote for Ted Stevens or Don Young, saying "Republicans need to clean our own house. Washington cannot too soon see the end of Stevens and Young"...

[G]ood conscience compels us to advise Alaskans not to vote for Ted Stevens for Senate or Don Young for the at-large House seat in Alaska. We leave it to the individual voter whether to abstain or take the step of voting affirmatively for Mark Begich, the Democrat mayor of Anchorage, and candidate for the U.S. Senate, or for Ethan Berkowitz for the at-large House seat in Alaska.

Good for them.

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Comments

That's right.

Submitted by steeplebob on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 16:41.

Not only Republicans, but Dems, Indies, and anybody inside or outside politics should not look to courts and juries as the first-line defense against corruption.

I knew it was you, Jon...

Submitted by Pogue_Mahone on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 16:43.

As soon as I logged on and read "Stevens guilty on all counts".

 

Because only Henke has nagging little thing in the back of his head called "priciple".  What are you trying to do here Henke?  Are you trying to get TheNextRIght faithful here to damn you a liberal just like they did over at QandO when you came out against Tom DeLay?  Or when you >shock< admitted to anthropogenic global climate change?

 

You should know by now what goes on when you don't tow the party line.

 

After all, just a few posts down, we have Matt Moon giving us the party first position.  I mean, who cares if Stevens is corrupt, the Dems may take power... Come on, man!

The interesting thing is that a lot Alaskans will

Submitted by Big Ben 4 liberty on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 18:01.

still vote for him.  He,like a lot entrenched incumbents, brought a lot of prok to the state.  He may even get re-elected along with William "Cold Hard Cash" Jefferson whose is just big a crook but not enough to make the people of New Orleans want to dump him.

All of this points to why term limits really is a good idea.  There are just too many scoundrels in both parties to be allowed to run for re-election indefinitely.

I do think he will try to get this overtruned on appeal.  I am not sure lawyer didn't try and move for a mistrial given the circumstances.

A Throw of the Dice with Stevens?

Submitted by gs on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 19:28.

I yield to no one in my loathing for the current GOP.  I'd be delighted to see them crushed next week, except that I don't want to see an Obama administration with a filibuster-proof Senate.

Suppose that, for the good of the country and party & in order to concentrate on the next phase of his defense, Stevens pledges to resign after being reelected.  Would Palin appoint his replacement?  Would that sway Alaska voters?  Could Stevens be...incentivized...to promise to resign and held to his commitment?

Sounds like a plan

Submitted by Freedoms Truth on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 22:46.

I would vote for Stevens and launch an agressive public campaign urging him to resign.Desperation of a possible Democrat super-majority that needs to be curtailed calls for it. Sen Sean Parnell?

If Missouri could vote for a dead guy in 2000 over Ashcroft, we could vote for a crook and make him leave office pronto and get replaced by someone decent and NOT SEn Reid's underling.

Dont think it would work UNLESS Stevens pre-announced resignation and voters thought it worthwhile. Obviously the place to fix this was in the primaries.

 

Hmmm....

Submitted by Jon Henke on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 21:54.

It would be very interesting to see him spend the last week running a "Vote for the bum.  He'll throw himself out" campaign.

Not as Promising as I Hoped

Submitted by gs on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 22:32.

If Stevens resigned, apparently Palin could appoint a temporary replacement, but a special election would be held in 60-90 days.

In effect, people would be voting whether to have another election in two or three months.  That's not the scenario I hoped for.  I thought maybe they'd be voting to let Palin appoint the Senator. 

Otoh, NJ voters were fine when Lautenberg replaced Torricelli...