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We Salute You, Ted Stevens!
Mark Wilson/Getty
Convicted felon toasted by grateful Senate.
A lot of observers were surprised when Sen. Joe Lieberman was allowed to keep his committee chairmanship after endorsing John McCain and speaking at the Republican Convention. But that act of magnanimity is nothing compared to the love fest going on right now for convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens, who was finally declared the loser in his re-election race. Stevens received a standing ovation in the Senate and then an hours-long tribute from grateful Democrats and Republicans alike.
"Ted Stevens personified a person with real guts," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). He referred to Stevens as "one of the greatest men I ever met. He never held a grudge against anybody, and he was always there to lend a helping hand and give good advice. Ted, I believe this cloud will be lifted from you and it should be."
Sen. Orrin Hatch referred to Stevens as "one of the greatest men I ever met."
Hatch's was one of the more pedestrian speeches in praise of Stevens, who was recently found guilty of covering up gifts from an Alaska oil company. Take, for instance, the honeyed words of Jim Bunning (R-KY).
"I have found Ted Stevens to be the most straightforward, honest senator that I have ever dealt with," Bunning said. "He has given me—just by association for the last 10 years—the basis on which I serve here in the U.S. Senate. He has given me the example. He has given me the principles and the things that each and every one of us here on the senate floor should demonstrate daily."
Bunning's speech was representative of the overriding theme during the love-fest for the longest serving GOP Senator in history: “If only you knew the Ted Stevens like I knew…”
"I don't know who sang the song 'You Don't Know Me’...but at any rate you don't know him. You really don't know him. This is a man with a very gruff exterior but he's a teddy bear when you really get to know him," said Pat Roberts (R-KS).
Another senator facing potential trouble, Norm Coleman (R-MN), expressed similar thoughts:
"He's got the veneer of a tough guy and Ted Stevens can be tough...Those of us who know him also see the love that's in his heart, reflected in love of country, love of family." Larry Craig, the outgoing senator from Idaho, also offered a toast that he himself is not likely to receive from his GOP colleagues.
Lest one think this was strictly a Republican affair, long-serving Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) jumped on the bandwagon with his own emotional tribute to Stevens' advocacy for indigenous peoples.
If there's one thing you can say about the senate it's that they don't dwell on the recent past. As Stevens himself put it today: "I don't have a rearview mirror. I look only forward. And I still see the day when I can remove the cloud that currently surrounds me."
Benjamin Sarlin covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com. He is a graduate of Vassar College.
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Don't let the door hit you on the butt on the way out, crook.
"One of the greatest men he's ever met"....by Orin Hatch, well he must know some really other shady characters then!!!!
This is the kind of person the Republicans revere, so it doesn't say much for their idea of honesty and integrity does it....and they wanted to lead this country again for another 4 years were they joking???
One of the greatest men he's ever met"....by Orin Hatch, well he must know some really other shady characters then!!!!
This is the kind of person the Republicans revere, so it doesn't say much for their idea of honesty and integrity does it....and they wanted to lead this country again for another 4 years were they joking???
NO! NO!... sorry I was just channeling my inner Stevens.
This senator is only the poster boy for the corruption in the congress. He's the one who got caught. They all cover their own backsides, that's why all the kind words are raining down.
Alaska is known as the welfare state. Not only does this state poach from the taxpayers coffers, but they even send checks to the citizens based on oil revenues. Can anyone say SOCIALISM. Stevens and Palin love to spread the wealth in Alaska.
The congress needs a purging. This is only the beginning. See U in 2010.
The internet is a series of tubes -- says it all.
Oh, puleez!! Another antisocial personality disordered political operative appearing to have remorse. On the internet, take a few minutes and read about antisocial personality disorder as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM IV), and you'll learn quite a lot about the whole crop of Bush era miscreants like Stone.
That's what the Senate is for. Let's keep them all in one place where we can keep an eye on them.
bleh, eeewww and ick! One cannot fully appreciate the creepiness of this lovefest without viewing it on video....especially when Larry Craig begins to heep praises filled with envy at the fact Stevens has an airport named after him..perhaps an airport he would like to make an unscheduled stop at on his way out the door...just a quick potty stop, mind you.
The standing ovation for a recently convicted felon who was convicted for trading on his senatorial position for personal wealth is proof that the US Senate is direly in need of reform: reform in its culture, reform in its rules, reform in its make up.
A voter in Wyoming has sixty nine (69) time the representation in the federal senate as does a voter in California. The Senate's rules (not the Constitution) empower committee chairmen to block needed reforms for decades--as was done on slavery for eighty years and for racial segregation and anti-lynching laws for another eighty; and for countless other policies choices the nation should face and place in the past.
The notion of "senatorial comity" is functionally a system of mutually beneficial corruption protected by personal mutual political defense pacts. That system is what the senators were brazenly applauding yesterday: self protective privilege.
A few years ago, the British reformed their upper House, leaving the American Senate the most anachronistic anti-democratic legislative body in the Western World. We should reform it, not to bring it up-to-date and into the 21st Century, but just to the 20th!
The faces of these clapping senators honoring one of their own so recently convicted for public corruption should be shown a hundred times a day in the days before their own next re-election votes. It is proof of the enthusiasm with which they embrace the "specialness" of belonging to "the most exclusive club in the world:" a world apart from the one you and I live in.
None of them is fit for public office. They've passed into a a different world than the rest of us live in: an abscess on honest and healthy democracy that we ought to drain, fix and insist it never again become so other-worldly again.
cajola
A little known fact is that Orin Hatch's birth name was Oral Manlove. He had to change his name because it was thought that the birth name would not be appealing to Utah's Mormon voters. Just thought you'd like to know.
What a wonderful tribute from Oren Hatch the republican Senator from OZ!
Wow, talk about other wordly!
Jim Bunning who in his youth was an excellent major league pitcher has been anything but as a Senator.
The best thing one can say about Oren Hatch is that he's a good friend of Ted Kennedy.
And, Larry Craig making important note of the fact that Stevens has an airport named after him. All Craig has to look forward to is a bathroom stall at an airport. Lawdy!
A hearty compliment from Larry Craig?
watch your butt Stevens
and keep an eye on the Russians for us.
Wow. This is why I hate politicians so much. Standing ovations and backslapping praise for a 7 count convicted felon - I don't care if you're 85, you're still a convicted felon - is just disgusting to me. In the words of another (should be) convicted felon - go f*@% yourself...
Thank you.
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