... or fielded a successful primary challenger against him.

There's only one Alaska Republican who wouldn't had the guts to try. And it certainly would've changed a lot of history if she had.

We both know who I'm talking about.

... or fielded a successful primary challenger against him.

There's only one Alaska Republican who would've had the guts to try. And it certainly would've changed a lot of history if she had.

We both know who I'm talking about.

Oh, Dear God.... Senator Sarah? Oh. Dear. God.

Now darn it all, Grumpy, how am I supposed to get any sleep tonight with the thought of a "Senator Palin" running through my brain?

If Stevens wins despite the conviction, I suspect that Caribou Valley Girl will appoint herself to fill the seat. Purely for the good of the country, of course.

Country First, you betcha,
-Z

In the past, he has campaigned against colleagues who have angered him, and, in March 2006, he openly admitted to pulling a bill that would aid the Puget Sound shipping industry to spite Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, who had crossed him over anwr. As a result, no one wants to say no to The Hulk, lest they land atop his hit list." —Hilzoy

If Cantwell never does another thing of note in the Senate (and she may well never), she is forever in the hearts of sensible Washingtonians for standing up to the surly mother . . .

And Hilzoy, you didn't finish the story, because she was able to override him on a tanker safety measure for Puget Sound.

The TNR story, going as usual for human interest, appears to have neglected the fact that Sen. Stevens has been so influential in large part because power in the Senate (as also in the House) has shifted so dramatically away from the authorizing committees and toward the leadership of the two parties and the Appropriations Committee.

This was actually something John McCain, who has never sat on Senate Appropriations crusaded against before he became a Presidential candidate in 2000, and Stevens was one of the Senators he regularly fought with. Robert Byrd, who disrupted entire federal agencies in the course of mandating they move offices from the capital area to West Virginia, was another. Even if Stevens is on his way out, the concentration of legislative power in the Appropriations Committee will remain a significant element of the legislative processes' degradation.

Two years ago Stevens promised to stop in Seattle every week on his way to Alaska and campaign against Sen. Maria Cantwell. The Cantwell campaign made it clear it would be happy to run against "Uncle Ted". In any case, Ted never showed up. What an arrogant jerk, and a bit C-S to boot.

If Stevens had followed through on that threat (oops! "promise"), he would have been laughed out of Seattle in the second week. Seattle is one of the bluest cities in the country. There is only so much of a republican audience to go around. Even the Eastside Republicans I know would find him tiresome.

The TNR piece, titled "The Jerk" is at http://www.tnr.com/columnists/story.html?id=8e289eb3-7807-4e89-9245-00f5af05f919

Now that Stevens has been convicted, isn't it accurate to say that Palin has been palling around with a convicted felon? Was Ayers ever convicted of a crime or just charged? Did he serve time for his alleged crimes? I honestly don't know the answer. What is the difference between a convicted felon and a terrorist? Haven't they both harmed others with their crimes? Is a sitting Senator who has been convicted of a crime a black mark on the body in which he sits? G. Gordon Liddy, anyone?

peace,
st john

For Zorro at 10:48 --

Nope. Not without a special election, anyway. Alaskans changed the law to get rid of the appointment process after the last vacancy debacle.

See here: http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/12/al-sen_special.php

You know, you reap what you sow.

The internets have been down all day in this country, and Ted Stevens just got convicted.

Is this a coincidence? NO!

Without Ted Stevens to direct the Big Trucks, there are a Series of Clogs in Our Tubes! Free Ted Stevens, for the Inter-Tubes!

Anybody remember Rep. Bill Janklow, SD, who resigned after running a stop sign and killing a 55 year old motorcyclist. The same SD governor who wanted lights and a siren so he could speed legally. The same governor who had apparently been pulled over many times and never charged yet still managed 12 prior speeding tickets and 3 accidents. He got 100 days! and then appealed both the conviction and the sentence!! And got his law license back!

When Minnesota Public Radio covered his manslaughter conviction with a phone in, you should have heard the stories about his bullying and absolute self-righteousness. What an ass. Probably on archive there. But he served 2 8-year terms as governor.

Bullying is part of the vote gathering process, but there are ways to go about it and ways not too. Threats and grudges are short term fixes.

They sure do things differently up there in Alaska. (Is Alaska part of Real America?) But we should be grateful that some level of civility exists in the northern frontier - they could be doing this stuff by gunpoint.

st john @ 12:29,
Was Ayers ever convicted of a crime or just charged?

The charges against William Ayers were dropped because the government had engaged in illegal wiretapping. Another way of stating that is that he got off on a technicality. I don't think you want to go there.

Peace.

There is a politician in Africa who is similar to "Turd" Stevens, his name in Robert Mugabe. Both have been in power for Decades, both have mean dispositions, both are corrupt, both are arrogant enough to expect their subjects to vote for them even after they have been disgraced and both waste public funds in corrupt deals.

Did I mention that both are well into their eighties? Surely they should be a mandatory retirement age for politicians...

If a person has not achieved all he or she set out to do by the time they are 65 years old, what leads us to believe they can achieve these things if they remain in power in the next 15 to 20 years?

The irony in all of this is that Alaska is little more than a GOP dacha for the Central Committee member, Comrade Stevens---a spoiled-beyond-all-redemption brat within America's own rendition of the Communist Party and its KGB, wielding its "socialism for me, but not for thee" criminality. There's so little difference between Stevens and his soul-sister, Putin, that you could fit that difference in an upended thimble, and not cover the bottom of it.

And Palin is a shadow of it all, waiting in the wings to fill the gap when the old weasel finally cashes in his chips. The solution to her is to conduct federal investigations into her ties with TransCanada regarding that gas pipeline to nowhere.

Oh---and that irony thing? It's all about the GOP's use of the word "socialist" when, in fact, it is the GOP that imitates the methodologies and tactics of the Soviet Union....

So Palin can't appoint herself to the Senate. Fair enough. But she is, sadly enough, still fairly popular in Alaska; there's every chance that she could run in the special election.

Leaving the First Dude as new Governor?
-Z

I'd be surprised if Sarah Palin wants to take on even the minimal sacrifices involved in being a senator. She never really even moved from Wasilla to Juneau, and it's unlikely she would be willing to relocate as fully as necessary to DC. She has had maximum freedom, minimum accountability as governor and as vp candidate, and she does not seem to have the attention span or the discipline needed to collaborate (with Republican colleagues, much less with a Democratic majority).