I'll bet you braggin' rights that he's the only one.

I'm not sure DeMint's motives are entirely noble. How do we know he's not greasing the way for Princess Palin to nominate herself for Stevens's vacant seat, thereby giving her a national platform from which to attack Obama on a daily basis?

Guarantee that Stevens is allowed to stay in the GOP caucus. There is no way a majority would vote him out. These are the Republicans, remember?

some msnbc chatterbunny over the weekend intro'd a piece on the outstanding election results -- and referenced one including 'convicted felon ted stevens'... i almost spilled my coffee on that one.

lol.

"GOP leaders want to see what happens with Stevens' appeals"

This attitude explains, in part, why Republicans are in the minority. Stevens was convicted of multiple felonies for God's sake. If Republicans can't see that it's time to cut his ass loose, then they continue to deserve what they get at the polls.

This is clearly a way for the republicans to say "we've punished him" without losing a reliable republican vote in the lame duck session. It also allows them to block ejections saying they've already punished him.

In reality, it's a gift for stevens and the GOP, not a punishment.

-brendan

This is possibly not an act of honesty and the desire to clean house, but perhaps DeMint has had one too many run-ins with Sen Stevens. Stevens prides himself in his hard-knuckle politics to get what he wants, now DeMint is extracting pay-back from perceived past wrongs.

I want to know he's lost in the recount first. If he's expelled and/or loses on appeal but re-elected, guess who will be running for his seat?

Question: Why can't a Democrat Senator move to expell Stevens from the Senate? Does it have to be a Republican?

Stick this in you ear and suck on it

1) Ted is the all time pork king: More earmarks than anyone alive.

2) Sarah Palin ran on platform of reforming the horribleness of earmarks.
She was willing to lie with a grin to maintain that posture...

I know Barack is urging we all forgive Lieberman. Fine. Joe is politically spent. He is a dead-man snoring...
But I can not and will not forgive Stevens and Palin.
In other words: NO FUTURE EARMARKS FOR ALASKA.

I am tired of red states spending blue state money, and then having their leaders mock blue state values. Aren't you? Let your Senators know: NO EARMARKS FOR ALASKA! Let the Yukon socialists figure out a way to spread their own wealth around. They don't need my wealth and they don't need your wealth. After all, they are rugged right-wing individualists. Let's help them remember that. NO EARMARKS! Fuck Alaska. Fuck it hard in the ass...

If only the Democrats felt the same way about Lieberman. /sigh

Of course, if a Democrat was even indicted on a crime, s/he would be expected to resign immediately. But, IOKIYAR

A fair number of Alaskans are wearing the Ted Stevens election as a badge of honor. They feel it's a nice sign of disrespect to the Federal Government, and see it as a way to reestablish the distance from national politics Palin's clowning around helped destroy. They think it gives them the image of being hard.

http://www.dongshow-productions.com

Question: Why can't a Democrat Senator move to expell Stevens from the Senate? Does it have to be a Republican?

Of course not. This is just about expelling him from the Republican caucus.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.

Art. I Sect. 5

Sorry I got nasty in my previous post.
Suffice it to say:

The people of Alaska think so little of the US Senate that they are willing to send a convicted felon to sit in it...

That sort of insolence towards our national government needs to be slapped down. It is an insult. And I am pissed. You should be too...

NO EARMARKS!

If only the Democrats felt the same way about Lieberman. /sigh - sdh

Looks like the Dems are going to vote next week on whether to allow Joe the Bummer to keep his committee chair. Open Left's Chris Bowers speculates on who votes how. It doesn't look good for him.

Mr. Stevens is at the center of a Republican flush of the toilet. Be patient Grasshopper. It will come.

The people of Alaska think so little of the US Senate that they are willing to send a convicted felon to sit in it... Posted by: koreyel

It also shows how fucked-up Congress is in general. Because of it's low population and it's oil trust, Alaska doesn't need a penny of federal money. If they wanted the infamous bridge to nowhere, they could have built several of them and still been able to give everyone in the state their periodic oil trust handout.

Let them secede if that's what they really want. Wouldn't change circumstances in the lower 48, except we wouldn't be sending tax revenue back to them every year.

1) Alaskans should insist on an investigation into Alaskan voting irregularities.

2) Palin can run for the open seat. She can't name herself.

I'll bet you braggin' rights that he's the only one.

I bet he won't be. There are a few others in the caucus who will go along and support this. If no one else, I bet Tom Coburn will second DeMint's motion.

I'm not sure DeMint's motives are entirely noble.

I imagine they are, actually. There's not much I agree with DeMint about politically, but he strikes me as, overall, an honest guy who believes in his ideology. I think his dislike of what Stevens stands for is legit.

I want to know he's lost in the recount first. If he's expelled and/or loses on appeal but re-elected, guess who will be running for his seat?

And...so what?

The more national exposure she gets in the interim, the less viable of a candidate for national executive office she'll be (and, assuming other Republicans in office "pal around" with her, the worse the party as a whole will look), and, short of Stevens losing this election (which is still possible), its not like Alaska is going to send anyone decent to the Senate.

It will be interesting to see how (or even whether) the media cover this. It's pretty much impossible (I know I shouldn't say that) to spin a vote for retaining Stevens in the caucus as anything but a vote for corruption. Oh, and the democrats should make that clear.

I'm from SC. Please do not be reassured by anything Jim DeMint does or says. Jim DeMint's a tool, trust me. A Norquista all the way.

Nothing about being a Norquista gets in the way of disliking and disapproving of felonious Senators, at least not that I can see (although it would constitute a second independent reason to dislike a profligate porker like Stevens). I think jbryan may well be right about this one.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Still, at least he's making a show of acting on a principle most of us would agree with, whether or not it's masking some other motive.

I assume the Dems are merely waiting for the next session, as it's not worth the effort to expel him from the lame duck session. At least I hope so.

Koreyel & Jeff II, I don't expect that you will recognize what Alaska contributes to the Union. However, you may recall our President-Elect mentioning that we don't live in the Red States of America or the Blue States of America, but the United States of America. Just sayin'...

Not to burst a idealistic bubble here, but is it just possible DeMint is trying to grease the treads for a Palin senatorship?

I also suspect DeMint's motives. My question and concern are whether, if the Senate were to expel Stevens in the lame-duck session, whether that would have any effect on his election to the incoming 111th congress in January. I believe that an expulsion would be for the then-current term, not in perpituity.

If this is so, after expelling Stevens for the remaining few weeks, the Senate would have to do it all over again in January; or then the Republicans could argue that he has already been punished, that to expel him again would be sort of like a double-jeapordy violation, and would frustrate the will of the Alaskan voters that elected him knowing full well he is a convicted felon - and they keep him on.

In this way Stevens gets an expulsion that is in effect more like a month's suspension. Crazy and underhanded, but we are talking about Republicans here.