Monday, April 06, 2009

Ted Stevens: Rested, and ready to be Alaska governor?

That's right, the headline is correct. It comes from Seattle P.I.'s own writer Joel Connelly.

Now I know why the Seattle P.I. went broke and does only an on-line bizzness. The name of the paper was its downfall. It sounds more like a detective T.V. series meshed with episodes of "Sleepless in Seattle."

And talk about being envious of the Seattle Times:

The Seattle Times' editorial page bats down all ideas for raising dollars that would mend our social safety net.


Joel, maybe they know something about economics that you and your paper didn't.

He goes on.

Instead, the jury convicts on all seven counts. Voters show Uncle Ted the door after 39 years in Congress' upper house. Some months later, newly installed Attorney General Eric Holder, a Democrat, steps in, determines that prosecutors committed misconduct, and decides to abandon prosecution of the former senator-for-life.

What lesson to glean?

The United States again has a competent, ethically run Justice Department. Holder is a former prosecutor and judge who virtually ran Justice during the last months of the Clinton administration.


Joel, news flash, you have the little fiasco in Richard Convertino

A U.S. Attorney is endangering the nation's only jury conviction of terrorists since 9/11. Tuesday, three men convicted in the first post-9/11 terror trial were supposed to be sentenced. Instead, these members of Detroit's "sleeper cell" may go free.

Their defense attorneys are getting help from an unlikely source - U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins, the Justice Department's top official in Detroit, who is leading the way to overturn these convictions.


Could it be that Collins had higher aspirations in politics by wanting to become the independent council for the City of Detroit? You know, the council that Conyers' wife sat on?

Well things didn't pan out for him on getting the job and the indictment against Convertino.

What about the Stevens trial?

Justice's behavior was so bizarre that it makes one wonder why the hastily-assembled case charging Senator Stevens only with lying on disclosure forms was brought so close to a pivotal election. As the Journal editorial page reported earlier this year, Mr. Welch, the prosecutor in the Stevens case, is a career Justice lawyer. He was appointed to his post by Alice Fisher, who had headed up a broader Justice probe of corruption in Alaska but who had left by the time the Stevens indictment was brought. In a profile last week in his hometown newspaper, the Springfield, Mass., Republican, Mr. Welch was described as a registered Democrat vying for a promotion to U.S. Attorney in Boston. The day this story appeared, he was found in contempt" by Judge Sullivan.


Joel's logic is not computing to what the reality is. Moreover, in 1998, it was the Clinton administration and the Justice Department who sought to indict the Al Qaeda and in the indictment, stated Iraq and the Al Qaeda had ties.

What do you think his thoughts on that would be.

But back to the original headline and Joel's comments.

A fellow Republican, Alaska's Congressman-for-life Don Young, came up with a capital idea for 85-year-old Uncle Ted.

"Personally I'd like to see him run for governor, and that's my personal feeling," said Young, who himself has been under investigation by two federal grand juries. Young and Stevens served in Congress together for 36 years.


And ??????

Never thought I'd say this, but maybe Don Young has a good idea.


Too bad that your newspaper went broke. It was because of bad ideas.

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