Feds raid Senate Republican porker’s home
I said it a few weeks ago: Republicans can’t tell the Dems to clean their House, if they won’t come clean about the GOP’s own dirtbags. Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is one of the biggest and dirtiest. Now, the feds have raided one of his homes. Via the Anchorage Daily News:
Federal law enforcement agents raided U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens’ Alaska home in Girdwood on Monday, hauling off undisclosed items from inside and taking extensive pictures and video. Officials wouldn’t say what they were looking for or what they found.
“All I can say is that agents from the FBI and IRS are currently conducting a search at that residence,” Dave Heller, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Anchorage office, said Monday.
Neighbors said agents showed up between 11 a.m. and noon, and a commercial locksmith was called to open the front door. The agents were still there at 8:30 p.m. Stevens, 83, has long been the most powerful political figure in Alaska, and a major force in Congress. A swarm of federal agents serving a search warrant at his home is unprecedented in Alaska politics, and represents the latest chapter in the corruption investigation that burst into view last August when agents raided the offices of state legislators, the oil field services company Veco and others.
The FBI and IRS are apparently trying to determine whether Stevens has received a hidden benefit stemming from his position in Congress:
If Stevens received renovation work for which he did not pay, it could be deemed unreported income by the IRS. Receipt of unreported renovation work also could amount to an illegal gratuity. Or if it were performed in return for political favors, it could be considered a bribe. Two weeks ago, Stevens told reporters that money for the remodeling came out of his own pocket.
The wider probe has netted four former state lawmakers charged with bribery, along with a prison-industry lobbyist. According to the ADN, one of them, former Anchorage Rep. Tom Anderson, was convicted earlier this summer of bribery and other crimes for taking money from a lobbyist for a private prison company. The others are awaiting trial.
And it’s a family matter, too:
Last August, federal agents served more than 20 search warrants across the state, including at the offices of six state legislators, including Ted Stevens’ son, Ben Stevens, who at the time was president of the state Senate. Ben Stevens has not been charged, but Allen’s guilty plea in May described Veco paying him some $243,000 in phony “consulting” fees while he was in office.
After all this time, Ted Stevens’ infamous Bridge to Nowhere might finally lead somewhere–perhaps a jail cell next to fellow GOP corruptocrat Duke Cunningham.
***
Related On the ethics reform front, N.Z. Bear analyzes the watered-down bill from the Dems.
Same old, same old. Hey, at least we have “bipartisanship:” s bipartisan culture of corruption. Yippee.
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Trackbacks
- Don Surber » Blog Archive » Worst. Delegation. Ever.
- Captain's Quarters
- UrbanGrounds » Blog Archive » Throw Them All Out
- Are They Looking For Frozen Pork? at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source.
- Strangelove » Corruption and indifference
- BartBlog - The Blog of BartCop.com » Michelle Malkin Discovers Republican Graft and Corruption
- The Stout Republican » Blog Archive » GOP Crank On the Take - Allegedly
- FBI, IRS Search Home of Sen. Ted Stevens « Volunteer Opinion Journal
- Are We Lumberjacks?
- Gubatron
- Bill's Bites
- Stiffing Stevens, Guarding Gonzales? « Blue NoVA
- More on the Sen. Ted Stevens probe coming to the light « Volunteer Opinion Journal
- Michelle Malkin » Red on Red: GOP corruptocrat gets a conservative challenger
- Michelle Malkin » GOP corruptocrat alert: Stevens indicted
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So far, I have found it next to impossible to draw the line between campaign contributions and bribery. The Talmudic injunction, “Be not like a servant who serves his master expecting a reward, but be like a servant who serves his master without expecting a reward, and may the fear of heaven be upon you,” sounds hopelessly quaint in the practice of modern politics.
Maybe it’s time to clean em all out and start fresh?
The way all these stories are playing out it’s easy to see why Bill Jefferson felt so at home in the Congress.
OldGuy53: Amen, brother!
Thanks for this post, Michelle. I’m sure the people that call this a “hate site” won’t bother to notice that you’re just as hard on the GOP when they screw up. It doesn’t fit their purpose of trying to quiet you.
Darn, you gregorystephens. You stole my thunder.
Woo Hoo!
gregorystephens,
They’ll just ignore what Michelle and the commenters actually wrote, and claim that conservative bloggers are “defending” Stevens … kinda like the way they claimed that conservative bloggers were all “running away” from Matt Sanchez.
I think it’s called “projection,” when you make a career out of defending scumbags like Ted Kennedy and Gerry Studds then you have delusions that everyone defends scumbags.
It’s best to start at home. Let’s expand this in the spirit of ‘bi-partisanship’. How long has Chappaquiddick Ted been on capitol hill?
This thread should be locked after #4 (gregorystephens)! Nothing more can be said.
We have so many corrupt politicians of different flavors–it’s sad that it happens. I guess it’s the old adage: “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely”?
My hope is that through the daylight effects of the internet the voters will be able to better assess their Congress. Congress has manipulated the district apportionment so that once elected they have little to fear in elections. Senators better reflect the political leanings of the state but in most cases have little fear of voter objections because few have any idea of the conduct of their Senators.
Congress has adopted the imperial mantra to the point Denny Hastert felt umbrage that the FBI dare conduct a search warrant of the imperial offices. Didn’t the FBI realize they (Congress) were not ordinary citizens? Until the FBI conducts a thorough analysis of Congressional/K Street relationships our representatives will continue to believe they are the children of the candy store owner.
Throw the book at this guy and Congressman “$90,000 literally cold hard cash” Jefferson too, plus anybody else caught with his/her hand out. I don’t care what party they belong to, crooks & thieves belong in jail.
If you look back to the Lincoln era, it was warned that if the feds took on “internal improvement” and other public projects that we would have a culture of corruption. That has proven to be the case from Lincoln to this and beyond. Some how we need to reduce the federal government to a mear speck on the map and eliminate this overbearing monster. I recommend “The Forgotten Man” as a book on the depression to establish how much we lost in the last century.
The reason I even troll on this site is because MM will often send her vitriol to members on both sides of the aisle.
That being said, MikeOK…Ted Kennedy, fine. But leave Gerry Studds alone! He was a great Congressman who represented the most Republican part of Massachusetts. He was the first Dem to represent the 10th District in 50 years. It wasn’t just Democrats who forgave him for his censure.
Thank god it’s not children or gay stuff again.
Kick out all the scum, Dems RINOs and KleptoCons.
Left, right, middle and all the fringes – throw the book at any corruption found on the Hill. Cleaning the closet will probably empty most of the buildings in D.C.
Perhaps a disconnected extension of a border wall to circle Washington is in order. Keep illegals out, and keep the politicians enclosed.
When is the DOJ and the IRS going to investigate Murtha? Why is it that only Republicans get investigated, outed, prosecuted while all the corrupt Democrats in Congress slide under the radar? Just asking.
Kalifornia,
Because it’s a lot easier to be corrupt when your party is in the majority. Lots more influence to be bought by interested parties. If the Dems hold the House and Senate for a while, there will be more Dem corruption. That’s one of the reasons the GOP burst into power in 1994. It’s all cyclical.
If the IRS or DOJ has a case against Murtha, it will be taken care of. I highly doubt there is some conspiracy here.
There he goes. Republitard hoist on his own petard. And now the internetz tubes is all clogged up talking bouts his case.
Hi everyone. No way around it, I must commend MM on taking on Republican corruption.
Silly me for believing the Democrats when they stated they were going to pass real reform on this issue when they took office.
The scariest 2 words in the Congressional vocabulary are “Reform Bill” … no matter what the subject being “reformed” …
Let’s get ‘em all! Whether the scum is Democrat, RINO, Republican or (perish the thought) Conservative, it is still scum and we will be better off without it.
We’ll wait and see if MikeB is as jubilant when she calls the lefties on their corruption.
I believe that Bridge to Nowhere actually leads to a land deal in Nevada. Or was that to Military contracts in California? Or consulting fees to family members in California? Jefferson’s fridge? Murtha’s fat grubby fingers?
I have no idea about the bribery BUT the so called Bridge to Nowhere is to replace the ferry from the town of Ketchikan Alaska to the Airport. The Ketchikan airport is not a “one horse” airport but is a airport that serves a number of jet plane landings each day.
They have all been there too long. Its time for term limits and house cleaning in every state. They get away with this because they remain in office for so long. It is not what the framers envisioned…its really gotten to be a comedy of baffons….
Two words: Term Limits!
I don’t know if I agree with the term limits thing. In a lot of developing nations all term limits mean is that politicians are even more corrupt, knowing that they have to get as much as possible before they’re forced out. In the past I wouldn’t have made the comparison betweem our Congress and those in Africa of South America, but these days…
Arrogant, corrupt….scum…these bloated “public servants” have been given too much power without accountability. While this time it’s a republican…there is very little difference in either party. It’s business as usual…maybe we need another revolution….they don’t represent the best for the country..the represent the best for their wallet. Severe reform is needed in Congress…term limits would help with some of the problems, but PRISON would be even better. The problem is, they can do just about anything while in office with fear of reprisals (for the most part)….
ooops…make that WITHOUT fear of reprisals…
Maybe someone should send Stevens an “internet” (his word for email), which is (according to him) “a series of tubes” on this.
Tangled-up tubes, indeed.
Too bad the Dems refuse to hold themselves accountable as well.
THREE WORDS: COLD CASH JEFFERSON
Yes, MikeB, computing professionals refer to them as pipes or pipelines; tubes is clearly the wrong word to use.
All the F.B.I. would have to do is read “Outrage” and they would have enough people to arrest that they would have to put on a 2nd shift.
I’m curious what’s been going on with the Vitter fiasco, as well as this one. We need to be working on getting the corrupt, the liars, and the pervs out of our own side of the aisle at the same time we’re going after those on the left.
It’s a problem with the whole system, not either party. Of course, the only way to really get rid of this sort of thing is to clamp down on earmarks and lobbying money.
Umm, yeah, how bout we at least wait to see if the FBI and the IRS find anything illegal has happened before passing judgement. He hasn’t even been charged with anything yet.