It's Not Corruption, It's A Series of Tubes!

Ted Stevens has earned his reputation as America's angriest Senator (tm) over his long career. Now he's starting a new tradition as America's most devilishly corrupt:

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.

That's inventive. I've never come across a house and thought "You know what, I want that floor to be the top floor now, we should squeeze another floor underneath. And people think Stevens knows nothing about technology!

Veco, the company that helped Stevens, is under investigation for a broad series of bribery and conspiracy crimes in Alaska, a scandal that includes the participation of Stevens' own son, who's the President of the State Senate. It's increasingly looking like Stevens, he who wears an Incredible Hulk tie for important votes in the Senate (really), may get caught up in this investigation as well, particularly because Veco doesn't do remodeling for a living. And you know he's vulnerable on this because he's screaming bloody murder:

Neither Ben nor Sen. Stevens have been charged. But actions by the federal government to keep the senator away from the investigation indicate that he may be involved. In Aug. 2006, the Bush administration took the unusual step of blocking the Sen. Stevens from having any say in choosing the new U.S. attorney for the state:

Stevens has been trying to get an Alaska lawyer appointed U.S. attorney here, but for one reason or another the people he recommended have been knocked out, a spokesman for the senator said Wednesday.

Instead, the Justice Department brought in a prosecutor from Pittsburgh. A Stevens aide told the Anchorage Daily News that the senator was “furious at the way the attorney general handled this.” In Sept. 2006, the Justice Department recused the entire U.S. attorney’s office in Alaska from the case, explaining that it would be run out of the department’s Public Integrity section.

Veco is also a frequent donor to Stevens' political campaigns.

I don't know if there's anyone more deserving of going down in this kind of scandal than the guy who's been raiding the federal treasury for porkbarrel projects in Alaska for close to 50 years. And just to see him pop a vein as he's frogmarched out of the Capitol would be choice.