Don't want to expel the old man on his birthday.

I suspect their bigger problem is not whether Stevens gets re-elected, but whether Norm Coleman does. After all, he is in the same boat - charges of accepting gifts of an appartment, clothes and money from political allies, and not reporting them. The only difference is that Coleman has not been indicted yet. As far as I can tell, however, he hasn't gotten around to denying them either.

Two weeks after the election and they still haven't counted the votes. If there is a recount, will it be completed by the end of the term?

Stevens has probably lost, might as well toss is sorry ass overboard now.

It's interesting that there seems to be more support for dumping one of their own within the minority party, if even for the lame duck session, but the Dems still can't find the spines and/or balls to strip Lieberman. Fucking pathetic.

So far, it appears Repubs win the day: the elephants are poised to boot their criminal senator, if necessary, while the dems seem poised to cower in the face of AIPAC and the Israeli security lobby and let Traitor Joe keep his plumb spot, from which he will no doubt rediscover his willingness to investigate presidential wrongdoing.
To recap: today,
Republican Senate = principled.
Democrat Senators = idiots.

I for one am sick and tired of Alaska. As we all know American states have seceded from this country, but can is the U.S. capable of kicking a state out of the union? I think this something we should look into.
And yes I am being sarcastic. I don't believe a state can be expelled in reality.

I just received a breathlessly earnest email from Wes Clark's PAC asking for money to fight the mean ol' Republican Saxby Chambliss. In other words, I'm supposed to contribute some of my hard-earned money to fight Republicans on the very same day that the Senate Democrats welcome back Joe Lieberman with open arms after he spent three months campaigning for Republicans and attacking Democrats. They obviously think we're as stupid as the GOP base is. Jesus Fricking Christ.

My favorite aspect of the whole Alaskan Adventure was when someone actually called Palin on the whole "socialist" thing (David Schuster maybe?).

Isn't Alaska socialist when it pays out checks directly to every man, woman and child?

No, La Palin responds, that's different. (One of my favorite Republican't buzz phrases.) You see, when Alaska came into "the Union" the people already owned the natural resources, so they were just doing what they always did.

Schuster may have given her a little grief for that answer, and he moved on. But I think he must have seen how contradictory that response was.

People owning the resources -- isn't that actually communism rather than socialism?

Anywho -- let's all become Alaskans! For every dollar taken from federal lands, pay each of us a royalty DIRECTLY. What's good for Alaska is good for the U.S.A.

If Stevens loses his election, the Republicans think they can save face (Stevens' and their own) by doing nothing.

On the other hand, this is an opportunity for the Senate Republicans to show the nation where they stand on corruption. Doing nothing will allow them to take a consistent position.

What a day. The dems make the absolutely wrong ethical choice, and the GOP (after putting it off) will make the right one. Truly, post November 4th, the political landscape has turned upside down.

Oh, and on the question of whether or not a state can be expelled from the Union, Lincoln at least was of the opinion that it could be. To paraphrase, his said that the south couldn't secede since their admission to the Union was an act of the rest of the country. I.E., a state can only be added if the people vote to add it. Therefore, only the Union could decide whether or not a state was, or was not, a part of the Union. He never recognized that the Confederacy was a separate country. To follow that logic, all we should need is to follow the same process for adding a state to remove one. I nominate Alaska and Texas.

The good news is Stevens will still receive his government pension, even if he goes to prison.

Either way, Stevens has no future. Either he loses in Alaska -- where Stevens currently trails by 1,022 votes -- or he loses in the Senate.

Ugh. It would appear the senate Republicans are more principled than the senate Democrats. (This comment being posted after the Democrats capitulated to Lieberman.)

"The good news for Stevens is that vote has been postponed. ..... But the vote was delayed because everyone believes Stevens is going to lose his re-election bid anyway, making the vote pointless."

Eh, is this really the reason why the vote was delayed? My prediction: as soon as it becomes clearer that Stevens will lose the election, he will be expelled (since that comes at no cost to the party). Or if he wins, maybe they'll pull a Lieberman on him instead.

I believe by not voting him out, they preserve his pension and other goodies he gets once he resigns. If they voted him out, he possibly might have had to forfeit them.
Another way that the bushies keep on giving, I guess.

I'm baffled why Stevens wasn't ejected from the race after becoming a convicted felon. What's more surprising is that he still has quite a large following. I guess what he's done for Alaskans over takes his conviction. I'm anxious to see him loose so there's no opportunity for Palin to be appointed. Also, I think we need some serious reform to take care of congressmen who commit crimes. It's too bad that voters re-elect some of these jerks. Marion Barry in DC is a good example.

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