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Stevens, Justice, and Corruption

by Paul Jacob

When Ted Stevens, former senator from Alaska, was convicted on seven felony counts of corruption, I stressed that what I knew about Stevens's corruption was not what was debated in court but what happened, quite openly, in the U.S. Senate.

Do you remember my verdict? Here's what I said: “[I]f as many as five or six — or even all seven — of the counts against him are not upheld, his name will still appear dirty in my book, dirty from all the porkbarelling. Senator Ted Stevens is a horrifying example of much that is wrong in government.”

Stevens has always been proud of his porkmeistering, his attempts to transform independent-minded Alaskans into our union's biggest pork recipients.

Further, Stevens insisted upon his innocence of illegal corruption all through his trial. And in his appeal his lawyers made much of a whistle blower's leaked information from the prosecution that the office did not fully disclose all the information from a chief witness. At that point, there was almost no possible recourse but to overturn the convictions.

According to Eric Holder, top banana at the Department of Justice, there will be no second prosecution.

I still have no certainty about the DOJ's case against Stevens. But I do have certainty about my case against Stevens's politics of pork.

One additional bit of certainty: Corruption is in plentiful supply among prosecutors, including in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by the Citizens in Charge Foundation. Their website can be visited at www.citizensincharge.org.

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Comments

I have to agree with you on this. The pork that Stevens got for Alaska simply lowered the amount of aid it would have gotten for other projects, based on the grant formula in the law. When a project is earmarked, the aid the state DOT would have gotten to spend at its discretion goes down by an equal amount. I know this because I interviewed for the position of program manager tracking these things and they explained it to me in the interview. Actually, I already knew this, so they merely confirmed what I already knew - pork does not increase spending. In fact, the state DOT likely coordinates on the earmark anyway.

When earmark reform was such an issue, I blogged on this. You can see it in Free For All. Ron Paul wrote about earmarks in much the same way, both in The Washington Post and in this space.

The problem occurs when private interests don't know the process and insist on giving gifts to pay for what they would get anyway - since that level of corruption is what you find in private industry. It is why sports areans have sky boxes and box seats up front - so that they can give them to other businesses. Sometimes it changes the result, but mostly its simply a spreadable perk. If anything, it is classist, since only a certain class of worker gets such benefits (unless the manager is an egalitarian and lets the secretary or janitor use the tickets occassionaly). It also prices some people out of really good seats - although front row seats are often not what they are cracked up to be. Seats on the boards are great for hockey but crappy for hoops, football or soccer. They really suck for opera (unless you wear a raincoat).

This is not the first time that the public corruption section of the Justice Department has not shown more corruption than it fought. It is why most justice activity should be more toward intervention and treatment than punishment. It should never be designed to change the results of an election.

Given the defection of Specter and the likely result in Minnesota, the prosecution of Stevens will likely lead to the virtual silencing of the Republican Party for the next two year - if not longer (or permanently).I doubt this was the Justice Department's intention, but it certainly is the result.

# posted at by Michael Bindner

You simply have no understanding of Alaskan issues. 50 years ago, at the time of Statehood, promises, a contract was made between Alaska and the US. To date, Alaska has fulfilled its promises, but the Federal Government has not.

HUGE populations of Alaskans still use 5 gallon buckets for toilets. The conditions are marginal or "developing" by international standards.

Ted Stevens' work that you call pork was vital resource development for a State that would have been hung out to dry without him.

Sad.

# posted at by AK Chris