Wonder if they'll find any of the pork-barrel money he's siphoned from the taxpayers for years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070730/ap_ ... estigation

FBI, IRS search home of Sen. Ted Stevens

56 minutes ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service on Monday searched the home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, an official said.

Investigators arrived at the Republican senator's home in Girdwood shortly before 2:30 p.m. Alaska time, said Dave Heller, FBI assistant special agent.

Heller said he could not comment on the nature of the investigation.

The Justice Department has been looking into the seven-term senator's relationship with a wealthy contractor as part of a public corruption investigation.

This is so super awesome! Rep Don Young and Sen Lisa Murkowski are also under investigation. The entire Alaska Congressional delegation could be facing charges by year-end.

Why exactly does Alaska need Federal Pork when it already has millions in oil revenues to waste on a relatively small population?

Because they don't have to pay for it. That's the entire philosophy on which Congress operated.

I'm just saying its more obscene than other states doing it because they already have vast state revenues and a tiny population.

How's that billion-dollar bridge coming along?

does this mean now it's a bridge to somewhere?


This is great.

Good article from the Anchorage Daily News detailing the whole long story.

http://www.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/st ... 7204c.html

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003827.php

Stevens Vows To Block Ethics Bill
By Laura McGann - July 31, 2007, 6:47 PM

Just when we thought there was no more Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) news for the day, John Bresnahan hears that he's promising to block ethics legislation.

You couldn't make this up:

it's kind of laughable to me that democrats are now the ones going...ok, let's iron out some ethics here and rein in this rididulous spending a bit.... and the bridge to nowhere republicans are the ones crying about it.

Weren't the republicans the ones screaming "contract with America" in 1994 and we were going to be all fiscally responsible again???

Nice canidate the last 8 years GOP. George Bush.... very very nice. Fuck morals. Morals are better handled by individuals, make the damned government efficient and I don't care who does it.

It dosen't suprise me in the least the Republicans would do the same thing when they got in power the democrats did when they were there, it's just another reason I think seniority in political office is bollocks and I want to see more and constant turnover. You don't need political experience to make policy decisions you need life experience and a solid background in history as well as solid character and the latter declines the longer one is in political office.

Not since Ronald Reagan has there been a Republican president who was at least concerned about spending. There are only a few Republican congressmen out there who are interested in limiting spending, but they're borderline libertarians who don't really represent what the party is all about now. Back in the early 90s there was enough concern about the size of government among Republican voters that Ross Perot was able to damage Bush Sr's reelection campaign, but that segment has pretty much disappeared. The Bush Republicans have always been about big government... The whole "compassionate conservative" thing just mean "Republicans who want to spend your money."

So yeah, I don't think we'll ever see anyone successfully reign in the federal bureaucracy. Even in this district, we have one of the most responsible spenders in Jeff Flake, but recently people have wanted to replace him with a racist Russell Pearce whose platform is based entirely on deporting all illegal immigrants. Americans just simply don't care about fiscal (or any kind of) responsibility anymore, they just want someone to protect their little way of life at any expense.

You could even argue that you'd have to even go pre-Eisenhower to find a true fiscally conservative GOP. Where's Barry Goldwater when you need him?

Anyhoo, I just noticed that Stevens is up for re-election in 2008. Should be a fun one up there in Alaska.

But the entire conservative philosophy is that government is evil and inefficient and corrupt, and if they actually governed competently and responsibly, they would be proving that government actually CAN work to do good. There are some more conspiratorial minded people who believe that the Bush administration has governed disasterously on purpose in order to a) instill a belief in the incompetence of government in general in the population, and b) break things so badly that Democrats can never fix it to work properly again, thereby poisoning the well and reinforcing their philosophy (self-fulfulling prophecy).

I don't know that that is the entire conservative philosophy, or even that it is a major part of the conservative philosophy. If it were, the Bushes wouldn't have gotten elected. I know many conservatives who are very much in favor of government regulation, particularly in regards to providing a sense of security for their lifestyle. Conservatives (by which I mean Republicans) are very much in favor of regulating morals, speech, movement, trade, etc.



A couple of thoughts on that interesting graph:

a) Clearly the Bushes have been far more fiscally (and in other ways) irresponsible than anybody else.

b) Does Carter really merit a downward arrow? I don't think anyone could demonstrate that there is any trend over those four years.

c) I'm no economist, so in what way does/doesn't national debt correspond/relate to government spending, tax burden, fiscal responsibility, etc.? Couldn't two presidents theoretically be equally irresponsible, but one simply borrows instead of takes?

I thought the same thing. A straight line across would have been more honest.

Gerald Ford ... the only TRUE Republican.

There have been A LOT of stories about corruption in Alaska politics floating around the past few weeks. It's hard to keep track.

Here is an excellent summary:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ka05m.html

Not so good news for Uncle Ted...

http://www.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/st ... 7101c.html

Allen says Veco staff worked on Ted Stevens home remodel


By DAN JOLING
The Associated Press

(Published: September 14, 2007)

Ex-Veco Corp. CEO Bill Allen admitted in court Friday that he had company employees work several months on a remodeling project at the Girdwood home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

The former head of the oil field services company made the admission Friday while testifying in the federal corruption trial of a former state lawmaker.

Allen and former Veco vice president Rick Smith in May pleaded guilty to extortion, conspiracy and bribery of legislators.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney James Wendt, representing former state Rep. Pete Kott, Allen acknowledged that the more than $400,000 he admitted spending in the bribery charge was for other legislators - and for work done at the Girdwood home of Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate.

"I don't think there was a lot of materials," Allen said. "There was some labor."

The workers were Veco employees, probably one to four at a time, Allen said. He said the work on the home lasted for "probably a couple of months." Later, he said it might have been as much as six months.

The remodeling work in summer and fall 2000 more than doubled the size of the house, a four-bedroom structure that is Stevens' official residence in Alaska.

Stevens has said while the contracting bills were first sent to Veco for accuracy checks, he paid all bills on the home that he received.

Stevens' spokesman, Aaron Saunders, had no comment on Allen's testimony. He referred to an earlier statement, which said Stevens was not commenting because Stevens does not want to appear to be trying to influence the case.

Allen said he also gave Stevens some old, used furniture.

He would visit the remodeling every month or two, he said.

"Most of the time I was gone with Veco business," Allen said.

Prosecutors asked Allen whether he was aware that other contractors, non-Veco employees, worked on Stevens' house and were being paid by Veco.

Allen said he knew of at least two, a plumber and a carpenter.

The remodeling job at Stevens' home was fraught with problems at the start. He estimated it would cost about $85,000 and told city building officials he would be his own contractor.

The plan was to raise Stevens' single-level home and, beneath it, construct a new first floor with two bedrooms, a game room and sauna. Complete with a wraparound porch, the project would be twice the size of the original, modest house.

Building records don't indicate how things went wrong, but somehow the framing was botched and help was called in to fix it.

Allen also said the plea agreement he signed admitted payments to Stevens' son Ben, whom Allen had hired as a consultant after Ben Stevens left college in 1995. The consulting work continued after Ben Stevens was appointed to the Alaska state Senate in 2002.

"It was $4,000 per month," Allen said.

Wendt closely questioned Allen whether the amount to the younger Stevens exceeded $200,000. Allen said the amount he paid Stevens before he was a state senator should not be counted.

"I don't think you can count that," he said.

Allen stepped down from his job as Veco chairman after his plea agreement. The sale of the company to CH2M Hill was completed last week.

Veco was one of the state's largest oil field services companies, with more than 4,000 employees. The company operated around the world but more than half its work was in Alaska, supporting the oil industry with service and maintenance contracts, according to Allen.

Allen for more than two decades was a behind-the-scenes political force, supplying campaign money to lawmakers sympathetic to the petroleum industry.

Over the past six years, Veco executives and the company itself contributed more than $119,000 to Ted Stevens' political organizations, according to tracking by Political Money Line, an Internet database. Of that amount, Allen contributed $20,000. Stevens and Allen also are longtime friends and partners in a race horse investment.

Stevens served in the Army Air Corps in World War II in China from 1943 to 1946, according to his official congressional biography.

He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1950 and, as a young attorney later that decade, forged important political ties working on Alaska statehood. Stevens was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives and on Dec. 24, 1968, was appointed o the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of E.L. "Bob" Bartlett.

He was elected to the Senate in a special election on Nov. 3, 1970, to complete the unexpired term ending Jan. 3, 1973. He has not faced significant election opposition since.

Over the years, Stevens has held powerful positions on the Appropriations Committee. Stevens is revered in Alaska for the number of public works projects he has secured for the state. Anchorage's international airport is named for him.

Pete Kott, whose trial began Monday, is charged with doing the bidding of Veco in exchange for money, nearly $9,000, a political poll for his re-election bid and the promise of a job with Veco. Kott was a seven-term state representative from Eagle River. He is a former state House speaker.