O.K., there is nothing positive to say about Sarah Palin. And Alaska, are you re-electing Ted Stevens? What’s going on there? Did you actually believe him when he said that the court verdict was still up in the air? On the day after he was found guilty? By the way, if Stevens does win, it will be with about 106,000 votes. In total. There are more people than that in my immediate neighborhood! What kind of state is this, anyway?
But we’re in a good mood, so let’s forget Alaska ...
[Note: Stevens already has 106,351 before some estimated 40,000 to 55,000 absentee and early voter ballots are counted. According to Wikipedia, Alaska had a population of 683,478 in 2007. That's about 64% of Rhode Island's population. Rhode Island's size is, geographically, about .3% of Alaksa's.]
Sen. Stevens says, 'I am innocent' after corruption conviction CNN |  |
***
Reid to Stevens: No felon in Senate
by Frank James
I meant to get this one up earlier. Sen. Ted Stevens, who was recently convicted in federal court of failure to disclose gifts as required by federal law has his good friend, Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, vouching for him.
Inouye issued a statement saying that Stevens would get to stay in the Senate, a statement meant to neutralize assertions by Stevens' Democratic opponent for his Senate seat, Anchorage, Alaska Mayor Mark Begich, that Stevens would be ousted from the Senate because of his conviction.
This is from a press release issued by Stevens' office:
Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), a 42-year veteran of the Senate and a revered Democrat in Congress, today told Alaskans that Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) will retain his Senate seat while the legal process moves forward. Senator Inouye also echoed the sentiment of legal scholars across the United States saying that Senator Stevens will be vindicated through an appeal.
"As the Senate has done in every other instance in its long 220-year history, I am absolutely confident that Ted Stevens will be sworn into the Senate while he appeals this unjust verdict," said Senator Inouye. "I am certain that this decision in Washington, D.C., will be overturned on appeal."
Senator Inouye's statement directly contradicts Mark Begich's misleading advertisements which deceptively imply that Senator Stevens will be expelled from the Senate when he returns to Washington, D.C., after this election. Not a single Senator in either party has suggested that this will occur while Senator Stevens pursues his constitutional right to an appeal...
But Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, slapped down Stevens fairly sharply.
Here's most of Reid's statement:
While I understand that Senator Stevens is fighting for his political career, you don't have to go any further than the comments of:
§ Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell who said there would be zero tolerance for a convicted felon in the United States Senate
§ NRSC Chairman Senator John Ensign who said Senator Stevens'career has ended in disgrace;
§ Or Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain who said it is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and should now step down.
While I respect the opinion of Senator Daniel Inoyue, 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.
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.
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/11/reid_to_stevens_no_felons_in_s.html
 /  | “Given today’s verdict, it’s a sad day indeed for Sen. Stevens and his family as well as for Alaska,” [Senator Lisa] Murkowski said. “Ted Stevens is an honorable, hard-working Alaskan who has served our state well for as long as we have been a state. It was clear that the prosecution blundered in several instances. Given these gaffes, which raised the ire of U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan on several occasions, Sen. Stevens has announced that he will appeal the verdict. I look forward to having justice served.” “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.” CBS |
OCTOBER 30, 2008, 12:12 A.M. ET
Stevens Vows to Appeal Convictions
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A defiant Sen. Ted Stevens returned to his home state Wednesday a convicted felon, telling cheering supporters at an airport that bears his name that he's innocent and vowing he will be vindicated.
It was the 84-year-old lawmaker's first stop in Alaska since a federal court jury in Washington convicted him Monday of seven counts of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a wealthy businessman. He will be sentenced early next year.
![[Ted Stevens]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/HC-GE272_Steven_20070105175639.gif)
Sen. Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, has brushed aside calls from GOP leaders to resign. He is seeking his seventh full term in next Tuesday's election, facing Democrat Mark Begich.
"I'm running for re-election because I love this land and its people," he told a standing-room only crowd at a hangar at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Sen. Stevens was greeted by hundreds of cheering supporters who chanted, "We need Ted!" and "We love you, Ted!"
He told them: "I will appeal Monday's verdict, and we will win that appeal."
Sen. Stevens blamed his legal problems on his former friend Bill Allen, the founder and former chairman of VECO Corp., an oil field services company. Mr. Allen was the government's star witness.
"I naively trusted someone who I thought was a trusted friend, who was neither honest nor a friend," Sen. Stevens said.
Even though a convicted felon, Sen. Stevens remains popular in home state, where he was named "Alaskan of the Century."
The feisty rhetoric resonated with supporter Phil Isley, 53, an Anchorage airplane mechanic.
Mr. Isley said he appreciates Sen. Stevens for the money and jobs that he has brought to this state, and what occurred in the Washington courtroom should be a lesson for every American.
"If you take one of the most powerful men in America and he can't get a fair trial, how can the rest of us expect a fair trial?"
Earlier Wednesday, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, joined a growing list of Republicans urging Sen. Stevens to step down.
"Sen. Stevens should do the right thing and resign," he told MSNBC.
Among other Republicans calling for Sen. Stevens' resignation are GOP presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Copyright © 2008 Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/washington/31stevens.html
Washington
ANCHORAGE — Two days after he was convicted on seven felony counts in Washington, Senator Ted Stevens returned to Alaska on Wednesday night to begin a six-day campaign sprint, telling several hundred supporters at a rally here that he would be vindicated on appeal and asking them to elect him to a seventh term.
“I will represent Alaska in the senate while my lawyers pursue the appeals to clear my name,” Mr. Stevens said.
Mr. Stevens faces a strong re-election challenge from Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, a Democrat. Even as top Republican leaders have called on Mr. Stevens to resign and many political experts believe his chances of re-election are slim, some people refuse to rule out the possibility of his winning, given his stature here.
The senator, a 40-year incumbent known for delivering billions of dollars of federal money and projects to Alaska, was met in an airplane hangar here on Wednesday night with chants of “We need Ted.”
Just two days earlier, he had been convicted of seven counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations he received from a wealthy former oil services industry executive, William J. Allen. And before the rally, Mr. Stevens encountered still more pressure to step down.
Several leading Republican senators joined calls for Mr. Stevens to resign. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, was quoted by a newspaper in his home state as saying that “there is a 100 percent certainty” that the senate would vote to expel Mr. Stevens should he win re-election and his appeals fail. Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, have also called on Mr. Stevens to resign.
Mr. Stevens made no reference to those demands on Wednesday, but he spent half of his eight-minute speech criticizing his conviction. He expressed regret but stopped short of apologizing, saying he had been guilty only of naïveté.
“Like most people, I’m not perfect,” Mr. Stevens said at one point, before referring to Mr. Allen. “I naïvely trusted someone who I thought was an honest friend, when he was neither honest nor a friend. That naïve trust, however, has put all Alaskans and my family through an ordeal that I deeply regret.”
He accused federal prosecutors of being “willing to do anything to win” and he implied that holding his trial in Washington added to its illegitimacy.
“If I had had a fair trial in Alaska, I would have been acquitted,” he said to cheers.
He added: “By providing for an appeals process, our founding fathers knew that mistakes could be made and innocent men could be wrongly convicted. This is one of those times.”
Supporters in the crowd suggested that the only verdict that matters is the one on Election Day. One person carried a sign saying “Alaska Decides, Not D.C.”
Mr. Stevens plans to campaign in Fairbanks during the day on Thursday but will return to Anchorage for a debate with Mr. Begich on Thursday night. It will be the first time Mr. Stevens has appeared in person for a debate with Mr. Begich. In some debates, he has submitted videotaped answers to questions provided in advance while Mr. Begich answered questions in person.
One other legal matter has been settled for Mr. Stevens since his conviction: After questions arose over whether Mr. Stevens could vote because he is now a convicted felon, the Alaska Department of Law on Wednesday concluded that he would retain his voting rights until he received a sentence. His sentencing has not been scheduled.
Ted Stevens Found Guilty: Should He Have Testified?
Just
in: Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty on seven counts of lying on
Senate financial documents. Stevens, 84, faced charges that he accepted
and failed to report more than $250,000 in gifts. Here’s the WSJ report.
To get some early perspective on the verdict, we spoke with McKee Nelson’s Michael Levy in D.C. Prior to joining McKee, where he runs the firm’s white collar practice, Levy (Yale, Harvard law) was an AUSA in the District of Columbia for four years.
“Stevens’ decision to testify was the turning point,” Levy told the Law Blog. “When the defendant testifies then that testimony becomes the focal point. Instead of the government having the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury inevitably starts thinking about the case in terms of whether they believed the defendant. So here, instead of going back to the jury room thinking about whether what [VECO founder] Bill Allen said was credible they went back and thought about whether Ted Stevens was credible. And apparently they decided he wasn’t.”
So should Williams & Connolly’s Brendan Sullivan have tried to keep Stevens off the stand? That would’ve been hard, Levy said.
“The decision to testify is the defendant’s decision,” he emphasized. “And whenever you’re representing a successful, high-profile individual — whether it’s a member of Congress, a high-ranking member of the executive branch or a corporate CEO — you’re talking about someone who often has strong beliefs, and has generally achieved success because they’ve been persuasive throughout a number of situations and through a number of years.” (Levy might know. As a young Skadden associate in the early 90’s, he helped defend Caspar Weinberger in the Iran-Contra scandal.) Levy continued: “Ted Stevens has won reelection throughout four decades. Trying to persuade him not to make the most important political appearance of his life was not the easiest thing to do, even assuming that was the strategy that Sullivan wanted to follow.”
A call to Brendan Sullivan was not immediately returned.
 |  |
OCTOBER 28, 2008
Sic Transit Ted
Of bribes and hubris.
Senator Ted Stevens, a legislative architect of the Bridge to Nowhere, was found guilty yesterday by a District of Columbia jury of taking illegal cash and gifts from an Alaskan oil executive. One would be hard put to identify anyone other than the senior Senator from Alaska -- perhaps Tom DeLay -- who did more to drive the Republican Party into the political wilderness waiting for it at the far end of that nowhere bridge.
![[Review & Outlook]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-CO619_oj_ted_DV_20081027190445.jpg)
APSenator Ted Stevens.
One of the Senate's most ardent and unapologetic spenders and earmarkers, Mr. Stevens helped cost the GOP control of Congress in 2006 after public exposure of Congress's increasingly absurdist pork-barrel projects. An irony of this conviction is that the media types who will be dumping shame on Senator Stevens's ethics are the same ones mocking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who has done as much or more than any official to fight the Stevens culture of public-sector fat cats. Perhaps that is her real offense.
Facing Alaska's voters only days after this conviction, Senator Stevens almost surely will now cost his party a Senate seat in a year when it desperately needs it to preserve the power to filibuster next year. Especially at age 84, he could have resigned his seat on indictment and let another Republican win it, but his politics has always been essentially about himself. He could mitigate this legacy by resigning now and letting Alaska's GOP Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell run as a write-in next Tuesday against the Democratic candidate, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
Senator Stevens has served in Washington for seven terms. That means his tenure extends back to the building of the Great Society political edifice of the 1960s. His career rose alongside a Washington that grew from a relatively modest capital city on the Potomac into what it has become -- a Beltway colossus of overlords and rent-seekers. Members of Congress, charged with dispensing the federal budget, sit at its apex. Senator Stevens is but the latest to have mistaken himself for one of the marble statues in the Capitol dome.
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122515003689874165.html
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