I’m a conservative. So’s Sen. Ted Stevens (R, Alaska). I believe in drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. So does Ted. I believe that conservatives principles should guide our government. Ted agrees. So why do I want to see Ted Stevens resign from office?
Here’s the deal: Corruption is corruption. It strikes Republicans and Democrats alike. No political party has the market cornered on kickbacks, under-the-table deals, favors-for-cash, and other financial hanky panky. For every Ted Stevens on the right, there’s a William Jefferson on the left. Don’t care. I want Congress cleaned up, and I want it done NOW.
If somebody gets in office, and then proceeds to use that office for personal gain, I want them gone. Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat, that kind of thing has no place in our government. Period. So when a guy is exposed as a crook, I don’t care if I agree with him politically – he needs to go, and go quickly.
Ted Stevens has been screwing this country for years. He’s probably best known for his place on the Top Ten list of Pork Producers – the Senators and Congressmen who have used their position to “bring home the bacon” in the form of projects that pad the Federal budget with pork. Remember, Ted is the guy who wanted to build a “bridge to nowhere,” a 230 million dollar boondoggle, that would have united the Alaskan town of Ketchikan (pop. 8,900) with their airport on the island of Gravina (pop. 50), via three (count ’em) earmarks in the highway bill. Currently, Ketchikanians have to take a ferry to the island, and pay a whopping $6 per car to take the 15 to 30 min. trip. (Wow. Lots of hardship there in the Great White North.)
Did the Ketchikanians need a bridge? Not at $230,000 they don’t. And evidently, that’s just the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended). Stevens is one of the biggest pork barrel pols in D.C. Apparenly, Ted saw nothing wrong in having that “get whatever you can” attitude for not just his constituents, but for himself.
Frankly, I’m not surprised. It’s that “power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely” thing. I maintain, we’d be far better off by adding term limits to Congress, to prevent politicians from turning what was supposed to be a few years of service to the country into a lifetime of amassing power. But nothing excuses a public offical from abusing the public trust – especially one who’s supposed to be on what I consider to be “my side” of the issues. So Ted – the sooner you’ve resigned, the happier I’ll be, even if that means that your greed ends up tippig the scales one vote further to the left. Thanks for nothing, Stevens.
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