Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Senator Stevens Indicted

Shameful.

WASHINGTON (CNN)—Sen. Ted Stevens declared his innocence Tuesday after his indictment on charges that he concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and services from a company in his home state.

[...]

The indictment, returned Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Washington, says the veteran lawmaker “schemed to conceal” the fact that Veco paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work on his home.

The indictment follows a wide-ranging investigation into ties between the company and lawmakers in Alaska.

The indictment does not accuse Stevens of accepting bribes, Matt Friedrich, the acting assistant attorney general, emphasized in a news conference announcing the charges.

“Bribery is not charged in this case,” he said, adding that such a charge “requires proof of a specific quid pro quo. This indictment does not allege that.”

Stevens should resign immediately.  If he is acquitted, he can run for election again.

(6) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1729 hrs
Law + Politics + Politics - General

  1. This day has been long coming for Senator “Bridge to Nowhere” or Senator “Tubes”.

    He should have resigned 3-4 terms ago.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 29, 2008 at 1913 hrs


  2. Cap. Ned is correct.

    This is not new news.  Only the legal aspect to it is new.  This sleazy activity has been known about, but too few cared to comment until now.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 29, 2008 at 2129 hrs


  3. Would a democrat resign?

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 29, 2008 at 2145 hrs


  4. Are you kidding Dave?  Not only will they not resign, they will have their ardent supporters.(Folkbum and 3rd Way come to mind)  After all, look at the sleaze that is already in the Senate and the House.
    Stevens is a crook and disgusting.  He did not care about the U.S., just Alaska and just his pet projects.  The only down side is that he is in his mid 80’s.  He probably won’t spend any time in jail.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 29, 2008 at 2345 hrs


  5. Stevens was down by 8 points before he was indicted. Begich will slaughter him now.

    It’ll be nice getting rid of both Stevens and Young this fall.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 30, 2008 at 0930 hrs


  6. The problem is the nature of those within the institution itself, who seem to believe it their sworn duty to keep their mouths shut when crooks run in their midst.  Whether it’s been James Traficant or Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham or William Jefferson, Bob Ney or Ted Stevens, it’s always a situation where people can smell that something’s wrong for years before investigators ever get to the point of filing charges.  Both in Washington and in Madison, there has long been an unfortunate and bipartisan culture of tolerance regarding this kind of trash.

    Stevens would’ve lost in November anyway.  This just seals the deal.

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on July 30, 2008 at 1820 hrs


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