Series of Tubes Saved?

The Ted Stevens trial hit a snag yesterday. Star witness Bill Allen has been pummeling Stevens' credibility by admitting that he gave Stevens thousands of dollars in gifts that were never paid for or disclosed. Allen's testimony really makes this a simple case. But prosecutors failed to turn over the FBI reports in a timely manner, angering the judge and leading the defense to call for a mistrial. They're claiming that the prosecution is withholding evidence.

The judge sent the jury home and is hearing arguments from both sides. I don't think the case will be dismissed, but there is that possibility, I suppose.

AK-Sen: Toobz Trial Day 1

Day 1 of the Ted Stevens trial, the first with a sitting member of the US Senate in a long time, yielded some surprises. First we learned that Stevens used his corporate benefactor as a "handyman" service:

WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Stevens used one of Alaska's biggest employers as his "own personal handyman service" and never paid Veco Corp. for hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of renovations to his home, a federal prosecutor charged Thursday as she outlined the government's case for finding the Alaska Republican guilty of lying on financial disclosure forms.

"You'll learn that the defendant never paid Veco a dime for the work on the chalet. Not a penny," the Justice Department's lead prosecutor, Brenda Morris, told jurors in the opening minutes of Stevens' trial [...]

But prosecutors said the jury will also hear from many of the people who did the work on Stevens' Girdwood home, Morris said, referring to the A-frame cabin as the "chalet," as the senator did. Morris said they will describe how even though Stevens paid subcontractors with whom he didn't have a personal relationship, he never paid Veco for its work, thanks to his close connections to the company's founder.

"If the defendant needed an electrician, he contacted Veco. If the defendant needed a plumber, he contacted Veco," she said. "We reach for the Yellow Pages, he reached for Veco."

Well, we all have a large energy company we use to do odd jobs around the house.

Here's the alibi:

Stevens' lawyers countered that he was not guilty and blamed Veco and its chief executive officer, Bill Allen, for allowing costs to escalate without telling Stevens what the expenses would be or even showing him all the bills. Allen also installed fancy add-ons - like a Viking gas grill and gaudy but pricey Christmas lights - that were unnecessary and unwanted, Stevens lawyer Brendan Sullivan said.

"When you see the evidence ... you'll see he had no intent to violate the law, no intent to conceal anything," his lawyer said. "He didn't want these things, he didn't ask for these things. He told some of them to take them back. He never once hid anything."

Hm. So Ted Stevens can't take the grill back himself? Veco just dropped these gifts on him and he had nothing he could do but say "take them back?" Doesn't pass the laugh test.

Neither does this:

(The Politico) Brendan Sullivan, defense attorney for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), made an admission today that probably isn't going to help his client's re-election changes - Ted Stevens doesn't really live in Alaska, the state he has represented in the Senate for the last 40 years.

Sullivan was discussing the role that Stevens and his wife, Catherine, took during the renovation of their home. That renovation lies at the heart of the criminal case against Stevens, who is charged with filing false financial disclosure reports from 1999 to 2006 in order to hide hundreds of thousands of improper gifts. Justice Department prosecutors allege that Stevens only paid a fraction of the true cost of the renovation, with the rest being picked up by Bill Allen, former CEO of oil services company VECO Corp.

"This is a renovation by a married couple that lives 3,300 from the renovation," Sullivan said. "They live here with us in the District of Columbia because he works up here on Capitol Hill."

Yeah, you know, maybe if he doesn't live in Alaska, he could go ahead and stop representing it.

Mark Begich, the ad is already written and awaiting your "I approve this message."

The LA Times has more.

The Law Catches Up To Fourthbranch?

This is intriguing (h/t Think Progress):

A two-year-old letter by Vice President Dick Cheney that pushed a controversial Alaska natural-gas pipeline bill is getting renewed scrutiny because of recently disclosed evidence in the Justice Department's corruption case against Sen. Ted Stevens. In a conversation secretly tape-recorded by the FBI on June 25, 2006, Stevens discussed ways to get a pipeline bill through the Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services executive accused of providing the senator with about $250,000 in undisclosed financial benefits. According to a Justice motion, Stevens told Allen, "I'm gonna try to see if I can get some bigwigs from back here and say, 'Look … you gotta get this done'." Two days later, Cheney wrote a letter to the Alaska Legislature urging members to "promptly enact" a bill to build the pipeline.

Fourthbranch should know his Nixon - the tape will get you every time. And was there any doubt that a corruption scandal involving pay for favors between government and the oil industry would involve him?

This should absolutely not be investigated any further. Like Scott McClellan said, it would be "divisive".

Oil Companies Prospect For Friendly Lawmakers

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Ted Stevens was indicted yesterday for his failure to disclose the gifts he received from an oil company, Veco Energy. And Stevens isn't their only project - they've donated legal contributions, and who knows how many illegal ones, to the campaign committees and PACs of a good portion of the Republican Party, plus Daniel Inouye (D-HI), the only Democratic Senator to be supportive of Stevens yesterday.

VECO contributions to active Washington politicians (1992-Present).
Don Young (R-AK) $190,530
Ted Stevens (R-AK) $102,500
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) $42,250
George W. Bush (R) $20,050
Daniel Inouye (D-HI) $13,000
Norm Coleman (R-MN) $7,000
Richard Burr (R-NC) $6,000
Tom Coburn (R-OK) $6,000
Jim DeMint (R-SC) $6,000
John Sununu (R-NH) $6,000
John Thune (R-SD) $6,000
David Vitter (R-LA) $6,000
Kit Bond (R-MO) $4,516
Arlen Specter (R-PA) $4,000
George Voinovich (R-OH) $3,750
John Ensign (R-NV) $2,000
Steve Pearce (R-NM) $1,000
Jon Porter (R-NV) $1,000
Dennis Rehberg (R-MT) $1,000
Barbara Cubin (R-WY) $500
Larry Craig (R-ID) $200

Between this and the large oil spill on the Mississippi River last week, there's plenty of ammo to go after the "Drill Now" crowd. And I actually believe that this whole thing is being played on the bully principle. Remember in 2006 when conservatives ran on immigration and said it would be a defining issue, and it, er, wasn't? I think "drill now" is this year's version of that. To their credit, both Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi aren't backing down to Bush's angry remonstrances, suggesting that they know this is a tempest in a teapot. I think their position is somewhat strong but of course it's so hard to get progressive messages out.

Maybe we can compromise. They just found oil on a moon of Saturn. I nominate McCain to be the first prospector. He can even be named President of Saturn. This works on a lot of levels.

And the Denounce and Reject Game Begins...

Good to see Democratic challengers jumping on this Ted Stevens thing today. He's been around 50 years and has distributed a lot of cash to his fellow Senators over that time. Now, by the rules of politics, that money is tainted. And so Jeff Merkley has begun by asking his opponent Gordon Smith to return that money or donate it to charity. In a pre-emptive strike, Elizabeth Dole has already dumped the money.

Campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley just told Election Central that the campaign has written a $10,000 check -- the amount Dole has received this cycle from Stevens' leadership PAC -- to the Society of St. Andrew.

Stevens' PAC has donated to every incumbent GOP Senator seeking re-election this year. That's one down. Will others follow?

It's one of those great little moves to put your opponent on the defensive. Go Democratic challengers!

...meanwhile, Stevens has resigned from his leadership positions on two committees.

...ooh, Norm Coleman took Veco money. Get on it, Al Franken!

...Mark Begich has released a statement.

"The indictment of Senator Ted Stevens is a sad day for Alaska and for the senator after his 40 years of service to our state. The people of Alaska are resilient and strong.

I have great faith in our state and our people, and we will continue to move forward."

...And now John Sununu has dumped Hulk-Smash's money.

...Andrew Rice is calling on James Inhofe to return Stevens' money, too.

It's Not An Indictment, It's A Series Of Tubes

Hulk angry!

Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate and one of the chamber's most powerful members, was indicted Tuesday in Washington, a result of a years-long investigation into corruption in Alaska politics.

The 7-count indictment comes nearly one year after federal agents raided Stevens' home in Girdwood, a resort town about 40 miles south of Anchorage. The Justice Department has scheduled a press conference for 1:30 p.m. to announce the indictment.

A broad federal investigation of public corruption has been under way in Alaska for more than four years, although it didn't become widely known until Aug. 31, 2006. That's when teams of federal agents executed search warrants at the offices of six state legislators, as well as others, in Anchorage, Juneau and elsewhere around the state.

The government has since brought indictments against five state legislators. Three have been convicted by juries and two are awaiting trial. Four others — two former top officials with Veco Corp., the former chief of staff of Gov. Frank Murkowski and a private-prison lobbyist - have entered guilty pleas and are cooperating with the government.

No word just yet on what the indictment is actually about. It could be lying to federal investigators and obstruction of justice, or they could have zeroed in on his steering contracts to Veco Oil in exchange for Veco remodeling his home in Girdwood. Plenty on that element of the case here. There are also questions about his ties to the fishing industry.

Of course there are political questions here. It's not impossible that Stevens continues on to contest to keep his job - actually I'd put the odds at around 50/50. He has challengers in an August 26 primary, however, including a couple self-funding millionaires. One of them, businessman Vic Vickers, put in a $400,000 ad buy just yesterday, with all the ads to specifically focus on Stevens' corruption.

Businessman Vic Vickers has placed TV and radio ad buys totaling $410,000, in which Vickers will spend the next month until the primary hammering Stevens over the corruption scandals that have endangered the senior Senator's political career. "I bought everything that was available," Vickers told Roll Call.

Don't feel bad if you haven't heard of Vickers, as he hasn't been a big name in politics until tonight. I called up his campaign earlier this evening, and was told that his campaign Web site just went live today.

I think it's worth asking whether or not this guy was tipped off by the Feds. We know that the Bush Justice Department is an arm of the RNC. If they don't think Stevens can win, the combination of an indictment and two months of attack ads would be a way to tighten the pressure on him to get out of the race. As for a replacement, a couple weeks ago you would be safe thinking that once-popular Gov. Sarah Palin could step in and easily lap the field, but she's had her own corruption problem recently.

Former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on Friday said that since Gov. Sarah Palin took office, members of her administration and family pressured him to fire a Palmer Alaska State Trooper to whom her sister was involved in a bitter child custody battle.

Monegan said phone calls and questions from the Palin administration and the governor's husband, Todd Palin, about trooper Mike Wooten started shortly after Monegan was hired and continued up to one or two months ago.

The governor herself also had a brief conversation with him about Wooten in February, Monegan said.

Monegan's replacement, Chuck Kopp, had to step down after questions relating to a 2005 sexual harrassment complaint.

I don't think there's a "squeaky clean" Republican left in Alaska. Democrat Mark Begich has a very clear path to the Senate now. And I hope he gets to go through Series of Tubes Stevens to do it.

UPDATE: The indictment is here. Looks to me at first read that it's about Stevens failing to disclose gifts from Bill Allen (CEO of Veco) and his company, including improvements to his home in Girdwood, and performing actions on behalf of Veco as part of his duties as a US Senator. Pretty damning stuff. You know what Veco did to the house, right?

From in or about June 2000 to in or about April 2001, multiple VECO employees and contractors participated in renovating the Girdwood Residence. That renovation work included jacking up and resting the house on stilts, building a new first floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom, renovating the existing residence, and adding a garage with workshop and a second-story wraparound deck. Among other tasks, VECO employees and contractors also installed electrical, plumbing, framing, heating, and flooring materials in the Girdwood Residence.

Allen also apparently gave Stevens a brand-new Land Rover in 1999 in exchange for some jalopy, basically an in-kind donation.

Campaign News I Noticed On TPM Election Central

• Another swing district Republican is calling it quits:

Congressman Jerry Weller (R-IL) will reportedly announce tomorrow that he is not seeking re-election.

President Bush carried his district with 53% in 2004, and Weller was re-elected with 55% in 2006. With those non-landslide margins in a district that simply was not targeted, we might just see the Democrats trying for a pick-up in a possible wave election next year.

As a side note, Weller is married to the daughter of the former dictator of Guatemala? Wow. We have a good shot to pick up this seat.

• The Republicans in the Senate finally bagged a decent candidate, but it's to replace a retiring member. Mike Johans, the current Secretary of Agriculture, resigned from the cabinet to run in Nebraska to replace Chuck Hagel. If Bob Kerrey runs on the Democratic side, this could set up a match between a former governor and a former Senator, and would become a top-tier race. But what's interesting is that Johanns is so personally ambitious that he would resign in the middle of negotiations on the farm bill, which only happens once every five years and is the most important bit of agricultural policy there is.

“For the secretary to walk away in the middle of a farm bill borders on irresponsible,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. His remarks were echoed by Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

I would imagine that farm policy is kind of important to Nebraskans too.

• There's a new poll out in North Carolina which shows Elizabeth Dole under 50% in a hypothetical matchup against state legislator Grier Martin - and then LOSING to Martin after some biographical information is put forth. I do think NC is trending blue. As long as we don't run two-time loser and terrible candidate Erskine Bowles, I think we can take out Liddy.

• Now here's something that's not from TPM. The Ted Stevens saga has hit WaPo:

A construction worker who oversaw renovation of Sen. Ted Stevens's home said his company also paid him to help run fundraisers for the Alaska Republican, a practice that appears to violate federal campaign finance laws.

Contractor Robert Williams is a key witness in a bribery investigation that stretches from Alaska to Capitol Hill and threatens legal and political headaches for the Senate's longest-serving Republican. The FBI is investigating whether Stevens received illegal gifts from Veco Corp., a once-powerful Alaska oil contractor.

Williams said he was in charge of "special projects" for Veco founder Bill Allen, and the renovation of Stevens's home was one such project. Others included working three or four fundraisers for Stevens while on the clock with Veco. Federal election laws prohibit candidates from accepting donations or free services from corporations.

Considering that Allen has admitted to bribing Stevens' son in open court, and that there are all of these other unseemly connections, Hulk Smash Ted is probably calling every lawyer in DC right now.

Stevens Mad! Stevens Smash!

This August recess couldn't end soon enough for Senator Stevens. This is from an interview with his local paper, the Anchorage Daily Star, the paper which has generally had the best coverage of Stevens' run-in with the FBI over hiring an oil company to remodel his house for pennies while they got favorable contracts from him at the same time:

Stevens: More people are repeating what you're writing in your paper than anything else in the country. This paper has caused me more difficulty, and I've told you that before, than anything else. You've created me as the senator-for-life. You've been hanging me weekly.

You read any paper, the information -- most of it is not true -- started right here. And your guys just yesterday, they taunt me. They taunt me with statements that really no respectable reporter would ask a senator. It was already said I'm not going to answer your questions. They say, don't you have any concerns for your own integrity? Don't you have any conscience? That's what your reporters do to me. ...

I've spent hours here with you here in the past, and I've never seen any result of it at all. ... This paper has done nothing but try to assassinate me.

This sounds like the old paranoid guy who eventually starts thinking that everyone is trying to kill him. Of course, he's not that stupid, because he and his fellow Alaska Congresscritters have been raiding the federal treasury for decades. Stevens is just pissed off that somebody figured the scheme out.

The FBI Is Not A Dump Truck

It's a series of investigators:

Federal law enforcement agents raided U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens’ Alaska home in Girdwood on Monday, hauling off undisclosed items from inside and taking extensive pictures and video. Officials wouldn’t say what they were looking for or what they found.

“All I can say is that agents from the FBI and IRS are currently conducting a search at that residence,” Dave Heller, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Anchorage office, said Monday.

Investigators have been looking at Stevens' house, which he remodeled (and doubled in size) in 2000 at little or no personal cost to him. Bill Allen, the CEO of Veco, oversaw the project, and a couple months go he pleaded guilty to bribing lawmakers in Alaska.

Stevens has been in the Senate since the 1950s. He's an institution in the state and he got there by bestowing billions in largesse and porkbarrel money. I'm not sure he really NEEDS to be bribed. So we'll see what's going on here. But the FBI doesn't do this without a darn good reason:

At least two dozen agents were involved. A half-dozen federal vehicles, including a white panel truck with a satellite dish on the roof, were parked in front of the house. At least 10 more federal vehicles were parked at the ski resort’s day lodge parking lot a couple of blocks away.

One agent could be seen carrying a full large black garbage bag out of the house and putting it in the white truck.

Plus, Bill Allen has already pleaded to bribing Stevens' son, a state Senator, to the tune of $243,000 in "consulting fees."

I wonder if jail is the right place for Stevens' Hulk tie.

UPDATE: Some of Stevens' earmarks are also being looked at.

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.