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.