John Nichols: Ted Stevens -- and Senate GOP -- In Trouble

[marmar]

From The Nation:


BLOG | Posted 07/30/2007 @ 11:41pm
Ted Stevens -- and Senate GOP -- In Trouble
John Nichols


Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is in big trouble.

And when Stevens is in trouble, so are Senate Republicans.

In a high-profile raid on the senator's home, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service agents raided the home of 83-year-old senatorial schemer Monday, as part of an investigation into his relationship with an oil field services contractor jailed in a public corruption investigation.

Bill Allen, the contractor who is suspected of providing expensive favors such as a massive home renovation to Stevens, has already pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators.

Allen's VECO Corp., an oil field services and engineering company, has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts during the years when Stevens chaired the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and a fellow Alaska Republican, Congressman Don Young, chaired the Resources Committee and then the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House.

Young is reportedly the subject of a federal investigation relating to Allen's campaign fund-raising on behalf of Alaska Republicans.

Young is the third most senior Republican in the House, which Stevens is the senior Republican in the Senate.

Both Young and Stevens face reelection in 2008.

If Young is beat, it will just be another case of a Republican seat falling to the House Democrats, who are unlikely to lose the relatively comfortable majority they secured in 2006.

If Stevens is beat, it is a different story. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=218868