Ted Stevens, U.S. Senator from Alaska, is running for re-election and won the Alaska Republican Senate primary last night. That's bad news for his Republican party and even worse news for the country. It's time for the 84-year-old Senator to call it a career and step aside.
Why?
- He's one of the most notorious pork-barrel spenders in the Senate, having long been a staunch defender of the Universal Service Fund regime that redistributes billions of dollars a year to rural areas in support of basic telephone service for rural Americans. That Universal Service Fund system has been in need of reform for over a decade, but Stevens, representing a state that receives massive subsidies from the fund, has repeatedly helped block attempts at reform. Even more notorious was Stevens' vociferous defense of the "Bridge to Nowhere," in which he even threatened to resign from the Senate if funding for the bridge was redirected to rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
- He's under indictment for receiving roughly $250,000 in gifts from Veco, an oil company. The case goes to trial next month and will almost certainly cripple his chances for reelection.
For a silly sample of the Senator's style, here's an excerpt from a recent speech by the Senator on 'Net Neutrality, in which he attempts to explain how the Internet can become congested, and describes the Internet as a "series of tubes":
Ryan Kane has a hilarious post on the Semi-Politico blog with a music remix of the Senator's speech.
Bottom line: it's past time for the Senator to step down.
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