Now the Alaska Republican Party wants to use the fact that the Obama Department of Justice dropped charges against former Senator Ted Stevens to rationalize overturning the results of a legitimately conducted and counted election.
From AP -
The state GOP party says the only reason Begich won is because a few thousand Alaskans thought that Stevens was guilty of seven felonies. Stevens was charged with failing to disclose gifts and home renovations.
Ummm..."a few thousand"???
In 2002, Stevens won reelection with 78.17% of the vote.
In 2008, Stevens lost with 46.52% of the vote.
That's a change of 31.62%.
There were 147,814 votes cast in the 2008 Alaska senatorial race. That makes for a difference of 46,739 votes.
Not just "a few thousand."
And just to reiterate - the DOJ's dropping of the charges doesn't mean that Stevens isn't corrupt, just that the prosecutors of his case stepped over the line of propriety.
...On the other hand, the outpouring of sympathy for the "innocent" (OK, not-so-innocent) Stevens isn't confined to the desolate tundra of Alaska - the Beltway insiders and member of the chattering class is falling over themselves in their rush to proclaim the "innocence" of one of their own. (TPMMuckraker, and thanks to Tedski for the heads-up)
5 comments:
Yes he should resign. The use of government power was used to get him in. This is why crooks love government:
http://digg.com/d1nozs
Say what?
Sour grapes, pure and simple (in my opinion).
Stevens was prosecuted by the Bush Justice Department.
So sorry, it isn't a political hit job. If you want to make the case that the Bush justice department was infested with prosecutors who played fast and loose with the rules then you can make that case but it has nothing to do with Democrats.
And it's ironic that Republicans anywhere would make a suggestion like this when it was that very same Bush justice department that unprofessionally interevened in at least a half dozen corruption investigations in early 2007 attempting to derail them (including an intervention here in Arizona when they tried to pull Paul Charlton off of Rick Renzi.)
I guess I should have been more specific before I tossed my sour grapes. I meant that the election was held, somebody won and if Mr. Stevens failed to get re-elected then that is just too darn bad.
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