Wow. The Hulk wins.
NPR has learned that the Justice Department will drop all charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).
"According to Justice Department officials, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to drop the case against Stevens rather than continue to defend the conviction in the face of persistent problems stemming from the actions of prosecutors."
By GottaLaff
In a new twist in a case that has seen no shortage of unusual events, a key prosecution witness in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens has written a letter to the judge saying that some of his testimony wasn't true and that he was coached in his answers by prosecutors.Details here.
David Anderson, a nephew and once-trusted employee of Veco chief executive Bill Allen, also said the government lied in a letter to Stevens' defense attorneys that described as false an affidavit signed by Anderson in March.
I guffawed when I read this-
In Case You Haven’t Noticed
by Michael D.
CNN is running a live feed from the Senate floor. Apparently, a convicted felon has seized control of a microphone and is giving a lengthy speech.
By GottaLaff
Music to our ears:
Is Uncle Ted "willing to help him prepare" for commission of multiple felonies? Will he coach him in Advanced Corruption 101? Maybe tutor him on the InterTubes? No? Then leave Begich alone.My family and I wish to thank the thousands of Alaskans who stood by us and who supported my re-election. It was a tough fight that would not have been possible without the help of so many Alaskans – people who I am honored to call my friends. I will always remember their thoughts, prayers, and encouragement.
I am proud of the campaign we ran and regret that the outcome was not what we had hoped for. I am deeply grateful to Alaskans for allowing me to serve them for 40 years in the U.S. Senate. It has been the greatest honor of my life to work with Alaskans of all political persuasions to make this state that we all love a better place.
I wish Mayor Begich and his family well. My staff and I stand willing to help him prepare for his new position.
Mark Begich's lead over Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has grown to 2,374 votes as the ballot counting continues in Alaska's U.S. Senate race.
Wouldn't it be nice to pull Chambliss' seat out from under him?
In Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes the first day of early voting for the run off between Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Jim Martin (D) began yesterday with elections officials "across the region reporting steady voting -- and, in some places, lines."
In Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports Al Franken (D) wants erroneously rejected absentee ballots to be counted in the state's official tally, which will be certified today. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) leads Franken by 215 votes. A manual recount is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
In Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News notes the vote count begins again with approximately 24,000 left. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) trails challenger Mark Begich (D) by 1022 votes.
Or as I like to think of it, Stevens loss widens.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) "is in grave danger of losing re-election after Mark Begich (D) widened his lead to 1,022 votes Friday," the Anchorage Daily News reports.
"More than 90 percent of the votes are now counted, and Friday's count of absentee and questioned ballots could have been Stevens' best chance to make a comeback. That's because it included all the ballots left from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, where Stevens has enjoyed his most unwavering support."
The election that never ends....
Mark Begich made a dramatic comeback Wednesday to overtake Ted Stevens for the lead in Alaska's U.S. Senate race.
Begich, who was losing after election night, now leads Stevens by 814 votes -- 132,196 to 131,382 -- with the state still to count roughly 35,000 more ballots over the next week.
The state Division of Elections tallied some 60,000 absentee, early and questioned ballots on Wednesday. The ballots broke heavily in the Democrat's favor, erasing the 3,000-vote lead Stevens held after election night Nov. 4.
How it looks right now, courtesy of Open Left-
Stevens: 106,594
Begich: 103,337
The good news for Begich is that those 210,000 votes only represent about 70 percent of the votes cast in the election. Another 90,500 votes remain to be counted and they break down this way (rounded):
61,000 absentee votes
20,000 questioned ballots
9,500 early votes
Now, the early votes probably skew to Begich. According to the Alaska Democratic Party he carried 59 percent of the early votes already counted. They say Democrats were encouraged to vote absentee as well. Republicans in Alaska say they had an advantage of 10,000 in voters requested absentee ballots.
By GottaLaff
Reid had a blunt prediction for Sen. Ted Stevens’ future. “All the Republicans, John Ensign, head of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, Republican Leader McConnell and a long list of people said that he’s going to be kicked out of the Senate,” Reid said. “Of course he is. He is not going to survive.”Is there a Senate seat in Wardrobe Barbie's future?
Other than hoping so for our country, I'd really like to win that IMac from Kos... Via Nate-
Uncounted Votes May Push Begich Past Stevens
Although Ted Stevens currently holds a lead of approximately 3,200 votes in ballots counted to date in Alaska's senate contest, there is good reason to believe that the ballots yet to be counted -- the vast majority of which are early and absentee ballots -- will allow Mark Begich to mitigate his disadvantage with Stevens and quite possibly pull ahead of him.
The reasoning behind this is simple: some early ballots have been processed, and among those ballots Begich substantially leads Stevens. A tally of Alaska's 40 house districts as taken from Alaska's Division of Elections webpage suggests that Begich has won about 61% of the early ballots counted so far, as compared with 48% of ballots cast on Election Day itself.
By GottaLaff
This would be the suh-weetest ever. Nate the Great:
Although Ted Stevens currently holds a lead of approximately 3,200 votes in ballots counted to date in Alaska's senate contest, there is good reason to believe that the ballots yet to be counted -- the vast majority of which are early and absentee ballots -- will allow Mark Begich to mitigate his disadvantage with Stevens and quite possibly pull ahead of him.Nate knows his stuff. Fingers crossed...
The reasoning behind this is simple: some early ballots have been processed, and among those ballots Begich substantially leads Stevens. A tally of Alaska's 40 house districts as taken from Alaska's Division of Elections webpage suggests that Begich has won about 61% of the early ballots counted so far, as compared with 48% of ballots cast on Election Day itself. [...]
There are currently at least 9,500 early votes remaining to be counted in Alaska. In addition, there are more than 50,000 absentee votes, which are essentially early votes conducted by mail. Lastly, there are at least 18,000 "question" or "questioned" ballots, which consist principally of voters who may have cast ballots away from their home precincts. [...]
Combining the already-counted votes with our allocation of early, absentee and questioned ballots produces a projected total of 142,174 votes for Mark Begich and 139,258 for Ted Stevens -- a win for the Democrat by approximately 3,000 ballots. [...]
Obviously, there is a lot of uncertainty in this estimate, particularly regarding the nature of absentee ballots. If absentee ballots behave like in-person early ballots, which gave a substantial advantage to Mark Begich, then Begich will defeat Stevens, perhaps by some decent margin. If they behave more like regular, election-day ballots, then Stevens will hold on to a narrow victory. If they are somewhere in between, as we have assumed, then Begich is the favorite to win, although the outcome will be close.
With so few early and absentee ballots counted to date, Ted Stevens' lead is not nearly so robust as it appears. Until we get better information about the nature of the absentee vote in Alaska, the race should probably be regarded as a toss-up.
By GottaLaff
Sen. Ted Stevens says he is not a convicted felon, at least until the appeal process is over.Not guilty by reason of losing all touch with reality."I've not been convicted yet," the Alaska Republican insisted Thursday in a meeting with the editorial board of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "There's not a black mark by my name yet, until the appeal is over and I am finally convicted, if that happens. If that happens, of course I'll do what's right for Alaska and for the Senate ... I don't anticipate it happening, and until it happens I do not have a black mark."
A federal court jury on Monday convicted Stevens on seven counts of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in gifts and renovations to his home from VECO Corp. founder Bill Allen.
By GottaLaff
A little too neat and tidy. Another unwanted "oy" moment, brought to you by IWRC.Then, it hit me -- if Stevens still got more votes than his Democratic opponent, Alaska would then have to appoint an interim Senator until a special election could be called. And who might Alaska name to an interim term?
You know. Say it.
Senator Sarah Palin.
And now Palin has called for Stevens to step down, as well, even though she had been quoted earlier as saying Stevens would have to decide for himself what was "right" for the State of Alaska and his family. (Given that Palin also was found to have violated some ethics laws recently, I'm surprised she didn't advise Stevens to just pretend that he was exonerated -- sort of like she did).
And you know she wants it. She's already been trying to throw McCain under the bus on the campaign trail, paving the way for a larger role on the national political stage for herself. She's already gained diva status according to the media.
So what would a diva do if she can't be number 2? A diva always takes matters into her own hands! Palin, as the Governor of Alaska, could appoint herself to the position since, if Stevens won as a Republican, Palin would be required by law to appoint a Republican to the interim seat!
Now THAT'S all neat and tidy and tied up with a shiny bow!
By GottaLaff
Late Monday afternoon I was standing in front of 200 or so congressional staff members when someone in the front row handed me a Blackberry with the news bulletin announcing Sen. Ted Stevens' seven-count felony conviction. As I read the news flash to the gasping Hill aides one thing jumped into mind: "Foley Friday," Sept. 29, 2006, when news broke of then-GOP Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate behavior toward a House page. At that point in 2006, Republicans had already been buffeted for a year or more by a then-worsening situation in Iraq and a wide array of scandals. Just as it seemed things could not possibly get worse, they did. Only the most partisan of Democrats or cold-hearted of people would fail to have some compassion or sympathy towards a party for which virtually everything has gone wrong. Someone recently likened it to watching a wounded dog kicked.I call it karma (despite the fact that I dislike that word), so I guess that makes me cold-hearted (although friends, family, and acquaintances would disagree). As for compassion and sympathy, I have very little for a party who supported an unprovoked, fraudulent invasion of a sovereign country, a tanking economy, my $20,000-a-year health care, annihilating the legal system, stacking the courts, endless corruption, dismantling our democracy, making a mockery of habeas corpus, demolishing our global standing, implementing torture, invading our privacy... ad nauseam.
By GottaLaff
From July 2, 2008, in Anchorage Alaska. Palin says she has "great respect for" Stevens and says her position on earmark reform is based on Obama and McCain's support for reform.
Ted Stevens: Guilty on all counts.
IWRC* Palin: Guilty of being unfit for office on all counts.
She can't give a definitive answer? Still? Really?
Sarah Palin said Monday Sen. Ted Stevens' guilty verdict "is a sad day for Alaska."
It's a sad day for IWRC, too, what with that whole guilt by association thing and all. You know what I mean: how she recently expressed her "great respect for" a convict and stuff (see video)? Yeah, that guilt by association.
"This is a sad day for Alaska and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family," she said on the tarmac at Richmond International Airport. "The verdict shines a light on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state. And that control was part of the culture of corruption that I was elected to fight, and that fight must always move forward regardless of party affiliation or seniority or even past service.
"As Governor of the State of Alaska, I will carefully now monitor the situation and I'll take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime, I ask the people of Alaska to join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system and I'm confident that Senator Stevens from this point on will do the right thing for the people of Alaska," she also said.
And by "respecting the workings of our judicial system", I'm sure she was referring to her own superduper cooperative efforts in the TrooperGate matter.
Palin did not respond when asked if she will vote for Sen. Stevens and promptly boarded the campaign plane.She has to think about this? Voting for him is still an option for her? Birds of a feather, I suppose.
Just now on MSNBC, more as I get it.
From ADN- A jury has found Sen. Ted Stevens guilty on all seven counts of lying on his financial disclosure forms.The Hill-
Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history and patriarch of Alaska politics, was found guilty of felony charges for making false statements.
The verdict could spell the end of a 40-year Senate career for a man who rose to be one of the most dominant figures in the upper chamber and who helped transform Alaska in its 50 years of statehood. The verdict was reached after the jury deliberated since Wednesday and found the 84-year-old senator guilty of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., and other friends.
The jury did not seem to buy the explanation from Stevens that Allen showered him with gifts he didn't want and was unaware of, and that he believed the $160,000 he gave to another contractor covered all costs for the home renovations.
So much for that "Palin Bounce". I of course, credit our friend Matt Browner-Hamlin.
According to a new poll by Research 2000, Mark Begich (D) now leads Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) by 6 points, 50% to 44% in the Alaska U.S. Senate race.
Begich has grown his lead since July, when he led 47% to 45% in the same poll.
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