Challenging Republicans everywhere is what the 50-State Strategy is all about. We never know when a seemingly invulnerable Republican will find his home or his wife’s office raided by the FBI. We never know when they might be exposed as targeting underage boys or beating the wives and mistresses. Today we learn that the venerable Alaska Senator, Ted Stevens is under FBI investigation.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) jacked his house off the ground, inserted a new first story and placed the old first floor on top, thanks to the help of a top executive at local oil company Veco Corp. who hired at least one key contractor to complete the feat of a job.
Veco is entwined in a broad federal investigation that has led to the indictment of four current and former Alaska politicians and ensnared former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens, son of Ted Stevens. Local press concluded that Stevens was state “Senator B,” listed in the charging documents of two former Veco Corp. executives who pled guilty to federal bribery and conspiracy charges, saying they gave the younger Stevens $242,000 in illegitimate consulting fees.
Veco Corp.,according to their officers’ plea bargains, was not in the business of remodeling homes.
How the Girdwood home fits in with the broader investigation, or what possible crimes are being investigated, is not clear. There was a brief, unexplained reference to residential remodeling in the government’s statement of facts that accompanied Allen’s and Smith’s guilty pleas. The sentence, preceded by a listing of a dozen Veco-related enterprises around the world, said: “Veco was not in the business of residential construction or remodeling.”
We need Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich to get in the race. Begich may have been waiting to see if Stevens would retire, but the chances are decent that Stevens will either be indicted or so compromised that he can be taken out a la Conrad Burns.
It’s as important to clean our congress of corruption as it is to clean it of warmongering imperialists.
