Sinking in the West

Ted Stevens’s last hurrah?

The charges against Stevens are serious. Bill Allen, an executive of the oil pipeline service firm VECO, pleaded guilty earlier this year to bribing Alaska state legislators. He and an associate may have paid for more than $100,000 of work on Stevens’s home. A paper trail indicates that one of Stevens’s aides, who is now cooperating with the government, acted as the senator’s private bookkeeper without reporting any compensation—in other words, she may have been working on the taxpayer’s dime. There is indisputable evidence that one of Stevens’s top aides received a sweetheart buyout on an asbestos- and lead-laden property in Seward, thanks to an earmark designated by his boss. Then there’s the deal made by two of Stevens’s business partners, who bought a piece of property and flipped it to the federal government one year later for twice as much—again, all possible because of a Stevens earmark.

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David Freddoso

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Ted Stevens’s last hurrah?

The charges against Stevens are serious. Bill Allen, an executive of the oil pipeline service firm VECO, pleaded guilty earlier this year to bribing Alaska state legislators. He and an associate may have paid for more than $100,000 of work on Stevens’s home. A paper trail indicates that one of Stevens’s aides, who is now cooperating with the government, acted as the senator’s private bookkeeper without reporting any compensation—in other words, she may have been working on the taxpayer’s dime. There is indisputable evidence that one of Stevens’s top aides received a sweetheart buyout on an asbestos- and lead-laden property in Seward, thanks to an earmark designated by his boss. Then there’s the deal made by two of Stevens’s business partners, who bought a piece of property and flipped it to the federal government one year later for twice as much—again, all possible because of a Stevens earmark.