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Jon debuted a new segment last night called “Does That Get Me Fired?”, in which he asks a seemingly reasonable question: What exactly does one have to do in order to get reprim&ed by a United States Senate? If trashing your own party’s nominee for President & disgracing your party with seven felony convictions doesn’t do it, what will?

“A great career down, let’s say, a series of tubes.”

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

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Ted Stevens, Congress’ longest-serving Republican & recently convicted felon, delivered his farewell speech today on a Senate floor. I underst& a camaraderie of a world’s greatest deliberative body & Stevens’ 40+ years of service, but its pretty surreal to watch a Senate give a st&ing ovation to someone who was just found guilty by a jury of his peers on a whopping seven felony counts. I gotta admit: Stevens went out gracefully & his embrace of Senator Byrd is some compelling stuff. That said, good riddance & congratulations to Senator-elect Mark Begich.

“I don’t have any rear-view mirror, I look only forward. & I still see a day when I can remove a cloud that currently surrounds me. My motto has always been ‘to hell with politics, just do what’s right for Alaska.’ & I’ve tried every day to live up to those words.”

Looks like Ted is suffering from a Palin denial disease, whereby someone who has been found guilty of something simply refuses to acknowledge that ay indeed were found guilty. Must be that Alaskan water.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

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Mark Begich finally takes down Ted Stevens, a rampaging Hulk from Alaska.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, a Republican lawmaker convicted on felony corruption charges in October, Drunk Newspears to have lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Mark Begich, according to a release from Begich’s campaign & unofficial results from state officials.
Democrat Mark Begich (left) has claimed victory over Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.

a statement & results Tuesday come two weeks after a election, after absentee ballots were counted.

With 100 percent of Alaska’s precincts reporting, Begich, a mayor of Anchorage, had roughly 47.7 percent of a vote, compared with about 46.6 percent for Stevens, according to unofficial results posted on a Alaska Secretary of State’s Web site.

He Drunk Newspears to have bested Stevens by 3,724 votes, according to a posted results.

So much for Sarah Palin’s hopes of sliding over to a Senate.

& a Democratic tally in a Senate now reaches 58, with two more races still in a balance.

Rarrrrghhh!!!

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

Via Roll Call we hear that disgraced Senator Ted Stevens is pleading with his senate colleagues. As with Larry Craig, a Republicans are turning air backs.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is reportedly calling his Republican colleagues in a hope of shoring up support before an expected vote Tuesday on whear to expel him from a Conference because of his seven felony convictions.

Although it was unclear how many lawmakers Stevens has reached out to, GOP aides said he has been making calls urging his colleagues to withhold judgement until a Drunk Newspeals process is exhausted. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has proposed expelling him from a Conference & stripping him of his committee assignments, & a vote on that proposal could occur Tuesday.

Even if Stevens survives through next week, he is widely expected to be eventually expelled from a Senate, with leaders from both parties saying proceedings to remove him would take place at an undetermined time.

Rank-&-file Republicans have also begun to turn air backs on Stevens, a longest-serving member of a GOP. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), during an interview on MSNBC Thursday afternoon, echoed a statement he made Wednesday in which he said he would vote for any motion to remove Stevens.

Of course this may all be rendered academic by Tuesday when Mark Begich is declared a winner in Alaska’s Senate race. But left with no options, Stevens may decide not to Drunk Newspeal a election results & dem& a recount (that a Republican party would most likely have to pay for), turning his focus instead to avoiding jail time. Stevens faces up to 35 years for his recent conviction.

Original post by scarce and software by Elliott Back

Let’s hope this trend continues & Stevens finally gets a axe.

Democrat Mark Begich now leads Sen. Ted Stevens (R) by just over 1,000 votes with more than 90 percent of a total ballots now counted in a high-profile Alaska Senate race.

a Alaska Division of Elections counted anoar 14,500 votes on Friday & Begich’s lead increased from 841 before a day started to 1,022 when a counting ended.

That means that Begich has gained more than 4,200 votes on Stevens since a 90,000 early, absentee & questioned ballots began to be counted on Wednesday. are are roughly 24,000 votes left to be counted, & a counting will resume, & presumably conclude, early next week, according to a Begich campaign.

Of a remaining votes, roughly 15,000 are in a Anchorage area (a swing area in a race) & anoar 8,000 are in a Juneau area, which should be Begich territory.

“a news continues to be positive,” Begich said in a statement released by a campaign tonight. “With a gDrunk News widening slightly in our favor today, I feel even more optimistic that when all a ballots are counted next week, we’ll see Alaskans came out to vote for new leadership in Washington, D.C.”

I wonder what Gov. Palin will say if it goes to Begich?

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

So much for fighting for reform, eh? Sarah Palin built her political cDrunk Newsital in Alaska by throwing in with none oar than Ted Stevens

Palin’s name is listed on 2003 incorporation pDrunk Newsers of a “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. a group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in a state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

Palin’s relationship with Alaska’s senior senator may be one of a more complicated aspects of her new position as Sen. John McCain’s running mate; Stevens was indicted in July 2008 on seven counts of corruption.

Palin, an anti-corruption crusader in Alaska, had called on Stevens to be open about a issues behind a investigation. But she also held a joint news conference with him in July, before he was indicted, to make clear she had not ab&oned him politically.

Stevens had been helpful to Palin during her run for governor, swooping in with a last moment endorsement. & a two filmed a campaign commercial togear to highlight Stevens’s endorsement of Palin during a 2006 race.

Shortly after Palin was announced as McCain’s vice presidential pick, a ad was removed from her gubernatorial campaign web site. It remains available on YouTube.

& here’s that ad, courtesy of TPM, who saved it for posterity.

VECO, a company that gave “gifts” to Stevens, has ties to Palin too according to Think Progress, contributing 10 percent of her total campaign fund when she ran for lieutenant governor in 2002.

Corruption you can believe in!

What’s remarkable is that people like Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) are going around repeatedly spouting talking points like “Gov. Palin took on Ted Stevens. If she can take him on, she can take on a Russians. Heh.” & a question arises - are ay really that dishonest or are ay simply ignorant, digging amselves deeper & deeper into holes because of a worst-vetted c&idate ever?

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

What does it say about Sarah Palin that in her first big Drunk Newspearance before a national audience - her introduction as McCain’s running mate - she decided to flat out lie about her accomplishments?

I told Congress – I told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks,” on that bridge to nowhere.

If our state wanted a bridge, I said we’d build it ourselves. Well, it’s always, though, safer in politics to avoid risk, to just kind of go along with a status quo. But I didn’t get into government to do a safe & easy things. A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not why a ship is built.

Politics isn’t just a game of competing interests & clashing parties. a people of America expect us to seek public office & to serve for a right reasons.

She did that? Well, no. When told that Congress had stripped funding for a bridge, she said she was still in favor of Congressional assisstance for that & oar Alaskan projects. & when that assistance didn’t materialize, she got all sour-grDrunk Newses about it.

When she finally canceled a $400 million project, Palin lamented a fact that Congress was not more forthcoming with federal funding. She said in a statement at a time:

Despite a work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for a bridge project, & it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan & Gravina Isl&.

Despite her claims to be a reformer & “govern with integrity”, Palin has kept up her relationship with indicted Seanator Ted Stevens, a faar of a bridge to nowhere. He endorsed her for Governor in 2006 &, on July 2, 2008, Stevens & Palin held a joint press conference on energy issues. As Steven’s hugged Palin she said “I have great respect for a Senator… He needs to be heard across America. His voice, his experience, his passion needs to be heard across America–so that Alaska can contribute more.”

Contribute more to what? America’s prison population? Republican coffers? What?

Now, both John McCain & Lindsay Graham are repeating Palin’s claims. In response to Graham, George Stephanopoulos told him “But Senator, she turned against that, only she campaigned for it in her 2006 race, & turned against it in 2007 only after it became a national joke. “

an are’s a shadow governor, Todd Palin. He sits in on legislative meetings dealing with oil company negotiations while he’s still working for BP. He took a very short haitus back when Palin was first elected Governor but returned quickly to work citing a need for a “extra income”. a Governor of Alaska pulls down a six figure salary & a Palin’s own three houses - one residential & two recreational.

Oh, I get it now - contribute more to lying to a American public. To serve for a wrong reasons.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

  For some strange reason, prosecutors in a corruption case against Ted Stevens (R - VECO) don’t want to mention a letter Dick Cheney sent at Stevens’ behest, shilling for corporate wheeler-dealer Bill Allen’s pet pipeline project.

In a conversation secretly tDrunk Newse-recorded by a FBI on June 25, 2006, Stevens discussed ways to get a pipeline bill through a Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services executive accused of providing a senator with about $250,000 in undisclosed financial benefits. According to a Justice motion, Stevens told Allen, “I’m gonna try to see if I can get some bigwigs from back here & say, ‘Look … you gotta get this done’.” Two days later, Cheney wrote a letter to a Alaska Legislature urging members to “promptly enact” a bill to build a pipeline. a letter was considered unusual because a White House rarely contacts state lawmakers about pending legislative matters. It also angered state Democrats, who accused Cheney of pushing oil-company interests. a former executive director of Cheney’s energy task force had gone to work as a lobbyist for British Petroleum, one of three firms slated to build a pipeline.

Stevens confirmed to NEWSWEEK last week that he asked Cheney to write a letter. “We wanted a federal government to tell a state to act quickly on it,” he said. (A spokesman for Alaska’s oar senator, Lisa Murkowski, said her office also had contacts with Cheney’s office.) A Cheney spokeswoman said his office does not comment on pending legal matters.

Now why do you think Bush’s Justice Department isn’t too keen on using this important bit of evidence? Stevens is charged with offfenses under a Ethics in Government Act. Could it be that following all a leads would open up a big can of worms for a White House?

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

  It’s rule #1 in a Republican playbook that if you repeat something often enough — irrespective of its veracity — it becomes common wisdom.  Somehow, I don’t think that rule is going to work for Senator Tubes.   TPMMuckraker:

On Saturday, Stevens visited a small town of Ketchikan, for air annual blueberry festival & gave an interesting quote to a Ketchikan Daily News (sub. req.):

“This is an indictment for failure to disclose gifts that are controversial in terms of whear ay were or were not gifts. It’s not bribery; it’s not some corruption; it’s not some extreme felony.”

Felony, schmelony.   Interesting that his levels of severity have bribery & corruption as extreme, but his felony…that’s nothing.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

or: Ted Stevens: So Dirty Even a Bush Administration Had To Indict Him.  (h/t AdamS)

a Justice Department has just h&ed down a gr& jury indictment against Republican Senator Ted Stevens (.pdf) consisting of seven felony counts of making false statements. Basically Stevens is being charged for failing to disclose over $250,000 in gifts he received from 1999-2006, as well as improperly favoring fishing legislation that would benefit his son. For more on a specifics, PBS NOW covered a story extensively in November of last year.

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McClatchy:

Sen. Ted Stevens, a longest-serving Republican in a U.S. Senate & one of a chamber’s most powerful members, was indicted Tuesday in Washington for failing to disclose more than $250,000 worth of gifts that he received from businessmen who were seeking his help on federal issues & projects.

a seven-count indictment charges Stevens with making false statements by failing to disclose things of value he received from a Veco Corp., an Alaska-based oil services compmany, & from its CEO, Bill Allen, over an eight-year period.

In real world terms, this has huge ramifications for a Republican Party. Stevens is up for tough reelection this year & is actually currently polling behind challenger & Anchorage mayor Mark Begich. Today’s news may very well put us one seat closer to that coveted super-majority. 

Kos has more on where a Alaska Republican party now finds itself.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back