Senator for Life?

It’s not every day that a sitting U.S. Senator goes on trial for corruption. So watching Ted Stevens get clobbered with eight counts of failure to report “gifts” is something to see. Some of us had speculated that the crappy job the Feds did in putting on the case would actually set the old man free, but it looks like the evidence was substantial enough that even prosecutorial bungling didn’t result in a hung jury. Maybe it was tape where Stevens and oil Company executives chatted about the revisions and the possible “worst case” outcome from the gifting. Not surprisingly, it was this.

Stevens, being by far the most cantankerous man in the Senate, responded in a predictable way, by claiming gross errors on the part of the prosecution, vowing to appeal, and noting that he was continuing to seek reelection to the Senate. You have to admire the chutzpa.

You would think that if a Senator running for reelection had been convicted of a crime involving a violation of the public trust, it would be a foregone conclusion that he’d be history. But Alaska lives almost entirely off the Federal teat. The State got $506.34 per capita in federal Earmarks last year, the highest in the nation according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. And you know who brought all the cash through the door? Raking member of the Senate Appropriations committee “Uncle” Ted Stevens. So unlike anywhere sane, Stevens still has a shot at winning.

What is perhaps most surprising is that if Uncle Ted does pull off the win, he’ll probably get to keep his Senate Seat. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution states that

“Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.”

By tradition, the Senate typically lets a member exhaust his or her appeals before deciding if they are going to swing the ax. Even then it takes the aforementioned two-thirds vote, constituting 66 members to put someone out. Under the most optimistic scenarios, the Democrats won’t have enough members in their caucus after this election to do it themselves, which means members of Steven’s own party are going to have to cross over to give him the boot.

So unless he loses the election, a guy who has been convicted of violating the public trust gets to keep his job. Now that’s job security!