So, here we go again. Another Senator is being investigated on bribery charges. This time it is the Senate’s senior Republican (oh, another republican!), Ted Stevens of Alaska.
He has been implicated by Bill Allen, the founder of VECO, Corp, an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company. His company has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts. Gee, do you think it is possible that some of this money he ‘reaped’ from Washington might have been redirected into Stevens pockets?
Stevens has been under federal investigation for a 2000 renovation project that more than doubled the size of his home in Girdwood, Alaska. And guess who ‘oversaw’ the project, Bill Allen. Mr. Allen has already pled guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators. Now, we are seeing the other part of the bribery scheme. We have the person who wants the money, Bill Allen, the person who can provide the money, Senator Ted Stevens, and the means to make it all ‘look legitimate’, a construction project. It’s a classic as far as schemes go.
You can bet this is not the first “project” these two have put their scheming heads together on.
And lets not forget the ‘vital’ link in getting these two greedy thieves together. The ‘pimps’ of Washington’s game of ‘funds misdirection’. The lobbyists. There is always a lobbyist involved. This time it is Anchorage lobbyist William Bobrick who already pled guilty to federal corruption charges.
There are also three current and former state legislators who face bribery and conspiracy charges as a result of this probe.
A little history on Ted Stevens shows that in 2005 he backed legislation to build a $223 million dollar bridge that would have allowed the residents of Alaska’s Gravina Island, all 50 of them, to drive to the mainland instead of having to take the ferry. What a great guy this Ted Stevens is that he would direct that kind of money towards 50 people. Of course, this was more than likely a ‘cover’ for him and his buddies in the construction ‘services’ field to collect some additional monies for themselves. Luckily someone in Congress was able to get this piece of ‘pork’ rescinded and that money was not wasted on this project. Although, it was probably wasted on something else.
Stevens had, at one time, been the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he no doubt ‘learned’ how to dole out large sums of money and began to see how easy it would be to send some in his direction. A person in that position collects a lot of ‘friends’ and ‘opportunities’ to ‘use’ the money available to him. After all, it isn’t any good if you don’t spend it.
We as taxpayers are paying way too much in taxes as indicated by the amount of money that can be wasted on things like ‘bridges to nowhere’ and renovating Senators homes and ‘beautification projects’ in neighborhoods that already have more than enough money to pay for it themselves.
Ted Stevens has represented Alaska since 1968. He was probably a good man with good intentions when he was first voted into office. But after holding this position for this long a person starts to get so comfortable that he begins thinking he is invulnerable and beyond reproach. This leads to the belief that he can ‘get away with’ what ever he wants to. And this, of course, feeds the greed.
The fact that it took him this long to get caught is a tribute to how well he has played the game of politics. Apparently he did not ‘execute’ his plan well enough, because he got caught. Maybe he spent the money too blatantly, too quickly and it caught someone’s attention. Maybe he involved too many people and the word got out. Whatever it was that got him noticed, other thieves in Washington will heed these lessons and therefore become a little more difficult to catch.
While we are discussing this, latest in a long list of crooked senators, there are others sitting back smugly smiling to themselves because they have not yet been caught. And I am sure they are convinced they won’t be. Hopefully, that situation will change, soon.
Hmmm, I wonder how ‘close’ to Bush this Stevens guy is. Well, we will know soon enough if Bush stands behind him no matter what.
Now lets see how long justice can be dragged out before punishing these characters.
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