Ted Stevens indicted on corruption charges!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

It's great that there are so many reasons to hate Ted Stevens; it helps bring us all together!

My hatred of Stevens started long before he was confusing the internet with plumbing. For me, it goes back to the 80s, when the Smithsonian mounted a show called "The West as America" which dared to suggest that the settlement of the Western US also had a teensy downside for some people. As a thesis, this struck absolutely no one as daring or provocative -- except Ted Stevens, who led the charge to yank all Smithsonian funding unless they fell into ideological line.

So long, Ted. Don't let the door hit you in the ass...

[Ramo]

Yu have obviously not been to Alaska.

Our other congress person is republican Lisa Murkowski... appointed via loophole by her father, governor Murkowski. When she finally came up for an actual election 2 years later, she still beat the democratic candidate by a large margin.

I might not have been to Alaska, but I'm pretty familiar with its politics. The other Senator is Murkowski; the third Congressperson is Don Young, in the House (who's also going to lose, either in the primary or general).

Lisa Murkowski beat Tony Knowles by 3%, hardly a "large margin." You may be thinking of the Governors race (Sarah Palin vs. Knowles) in 2006, which was a larger margin tan that.

And this is pretty much irrelevant to the current race. First of all, Bush beat Kerry in AK by a far larger margin than McCain's likely to beat Obama, so Mark Begich is going to have to swim against a much more manageable tide (Obama may even win the state). Second of all, Stevens was indicted for bribery; Murkowski got her job from her dad. Needless to say, these are somewhat different scenarios. Finally, the polling shows Stevens and his primary opponents totally screwed. The most recent poll from Rasmussen shows Stevens down by 13%, probably making him the most vulnerable incumbent. The most likely person to beat Stevens in the primary is some Florida businessman who moved to Alaska in February; he's down by 33% against Begich.

The only chance at all that the AK GOP had was if Stevens wins the primary, and then drops out almost immediately afterwards. In that situation, the AK GOP would have a chance to select a replacement on the ballot. Given the fact that Stevens' trial is scheduled after the deadline to do this, it ain't particularly likely.

[Ramo]

The New Republic has a great piece on Stevens' main primary challenger (the reason why he's the main challenger is that he's the only who has committed a significant amount of money to the race).

Hope of the GOP: "George Bush is the Worst President"

Senator Ted Stevens's inevitable indictment yesterday made one Alaska Republican deliriously happy: lawyer and economic historian Vic Vickers, who's mounting a very-generously-self-funded primary campaign against Stevens.

Not so happy: national GOPers. Or they won't be when they get a load of exactly what kind of Republican their electoral savior is.

The best hope the GOP has in Alaska is for a fresh face to knock off Stevens in the August 26 primary, allowing Republicans to approach the general election from higher ground. Well -- Vickers is nothing if not fresh. "As an American historian, I’ve studied every president," he told me over the phone today from Anchorage, "and I can say with authority that George Bush is the worst president in American history."

Oh, yes. Vic Vickers is a George-W.-Bush-hating, Exxon-despising, Iraq-War-loathing Republican who wants to "put an end to the stranglehold that Big Oil" has on Alaska and has an Iraq withdrawal plan -- if the Jordanians and Saudis don't start cutting big checks, you just pack everyone up and come right home -- that would make even Eli Pariser queasy.

It gets worse. Pressed to identify a Republican he admires in Alaska besides himself, Vickers could not come up with a single one. He is contributing $500 to Tim June, a Democrat running for the state Senate whom he describes as his "comrade in arms" in the cause of political reform. But he is a real Republican, Vickers insists -- just of an older vintage. "I'm running ... as a Bull Moose, a Teddy Roosevelt Republican," he explains. "The spirit of Alaska is embodied in the Bull Moose Party. [Roosevelt] was all about breaking with Standard Oil."

To establishment Alaska Republicans, Vickers might seem like a peculiarly bad headache, but he's really only part of a larger phenomenon this year: candidates signing up to run on the state or local GOP ticket who then publicly deride the party or pioneer their own esoteric political philosophies. Call them the weakened GOP's opportunistic infections: people like Montana's Bob Kelleher, whose campaign website intially stated he was a member of the Green Party, or North Carolina's Carl Mumpower, who put out a press release calling for Bush's impeachment and, shortly thereafter, put out another release informing the public that angry officials from his own party had kindly requested he "impeach himself."

There was one big-name Alaska Republican Vickers said he'd been excited about: Reform-minded Republican governor Sarah Palin. Unfortunately, her promise of new politics has gone the way of all flesh, a disappointment that contributed to Vickers's decision to challenge Stevens in the primary. "Palin has authorized the hunting of wolves by helicopter," he told me. "They’re gunning down wolves by helicopter, going over to the pups with a pistol and shooting the pups in the head. That is barbaric," he said urgently over the crackling phone line. Vickers may be an anti-spending Roosevelt Republican, but in that moment he sounded for all the world like a younger Robert Byrd. "Barbaric!"

--Eve Fairbanks

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/default.aspx

[Guynemer]

I like this Vickers dude.

[Ramo]

Yep

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
My hatred of Stevens started long before he was confusing the internet with plumbing.

Yeah, the people who rag on him for that really have no idea what a terrible Senator he is.