Another Fine, Upstanding Family Values Republican

Yes, it’s Ted Stevens.  the long-time Alaska senator who is indicted on charges he accepted a quarter of  million dollars in gifts from oil contractors.  Stevens also happens to be one of the more vocal advocates of drilling in protected areas. 

The Justice Department on Tuesday accused Stevens of accepting expensive work on his home in Girdwood, Alaska, a ski resort town outside Anchorage, from VECO and its executives. VECO normally builds oil processing equipment and pipelines, but its employees helped do the work on Stevens’ home.

Prosecutors said that work included a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing and electrical wiring. He also is accused of accepting from VECO a gas grill, furniture and tools, and of failing to report swapping an old Ford for a new Land Rover for his daughter Lily.

From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said, the senator concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.”

Stevens says he is innocent and vows to fight these charges.  And Steve Benen mentions that Stevens is also under investigation because of a series of earmarks he pushed through Congress.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.