Senator Ted Stevens
If the Democrats win 60 seats in the Senate next week, you can blame it partly on Senator Ted Stevens, or at least it sure looks that way to me as a result of his guilty verdict yesterday. Ted Stevens gambled by asking for a speedy trial, betting a high-powered defense team, some sterling character witnesses and his unblemished record as Alaska's political patriarch would get him a pre-election acquittal on corruption charges. It back-fired yesterday!
And Governor Sarah Plain was rather quiet and did not call for his stepping down, as most governors would in such a case.
Stevens, entered the Senate forty years ago- in 1968. He now faces Alaska's voters next week as a convicted felon - increasing the difficulty in a tough race against Democratic challenger Mark Begich. But the famously stubborn Stevens is not giving up, asking supporters in Alaska and the Senate to stand by him as he appeals his conviction. And it appears that Sarah Palin doesn't want to rock the Alaskan vote because a week from now she might be back as governor in a state where Stevens is very popular- or was.
A jury on Monday found Stevens guilty on seven counts of trying to hide more than $250,000 in free home renovations and other gifts from a wealthy oil contractor. That's a tough hill to climb and overcome in the next week with polls showing the racec dead-even- before the jury's decision.
Nevertheless, Stevens is a legendary figure in Alaska, where he has wielded political influence since before statehood. His knack for steering billions of dollars in federal money to his home state has drawn praise from his constituents and consternation from budget hawks.
Stevens proclaimed his innocence throughout the trial and pushed U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to bring the case before a jury within two months, extremely fast for a case of such magnitude. Hiring noted defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan and getting personalities such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii to testify for him, Stevens hoped to get a pre-Election Day verdict from the eight women and four men on the jury.
It didn't work and as a result the Democrats chances at a 60 vote Senate make-up was greatly enhanced.
Related Tags: democrat, sarah palin, colin powell, senator ted stevens, convicted felon, mark begich
As a spiritual-futurist, I interpret current events in light of possible macro-universal forces at play leading up to 2012, but not limited to it.
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