Washington Post Gives Ted Stevens the "Fair and Balanced" Treatment
By Susie Madrak Thursday Apr 02, 2009 11:30amHere's a perfect example of the Washington Post's schizophrenic coverage. They have one article talking about Ted Steven's "vindication":
Now, Stevens's friends and former colleagues say, the last word will be one of vindication -- albeit bittersweet -- over an unjust prosecution that ended his tenure as the longest-serving Republican in Senate history.
"We're delighted that it's been demonstrated that Ted was telling us the truth all along. Obviously, we're a little disappointed that this didn't come out before the election," said Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah), who served for years with Stevens on the powerful Appropriations Committee.
Bennett paraphrased former Labor secretary Raymond J. Donovan, who beat back an indictment in the mid-1980s: "I think he can get his reputation back. I don't know where he goes to get his legal fees back," Bennett said.
[...] Since then, he and his wife, Catherine, have spent half their time in their home here and the rest at their self-described "chalet" near Anchorage. Friends said Stevens left Washington late last week to return to Alaska, where he finished up repairs to his deck.
That's the same wrap-around deck that was built for Stevens by workers from Veco, the now-defunct oil services company whose former chief executive testified that he plied Stevens with more than $250,000 in gifts including home remodeling.
[...] After the news broke that the charges would be dropped, Stevens "sounded elated," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). "Here's a guy who gave 60 years of service to this country, and he was screwed [by federal prosecutors]. . . . How does he get his reputation back?"
And then they have this editorial in today's exact same paper:
Yet this extraordinary reversal cannot erase or forgive the ugly behavior that gave rise to the indictment in the first place. Trial records and testimony painted a picture of a man so consumed with his own sense of entitlement that he did not think twice about accepting such expensive freebies as a Viking gas grill, a vibrating Shiatsu massage lounger and a five-foot sculpture of migrating salmon -- not to mention extensive plumbing, electrical and carpentry work on his "chalet" in Girdwood, Alaska. All told, the government calculated that Mr. Stevens took gifts worth in excess of $250,000.
Where does this paragon go to get his reputation back? Hmm. Well, he could start by selling off his ill-gotten gains and donating the money to charity. I'm sure Ted (who's now working for a D.C. lobbying firm) could learn to love a more ascetic lifestyle!
Gross breaches of law and fairness by prosecutors are the reason that Mr. Stevens will walk free. The Justice Department admitted that the lawyers from the Public Integrity Section who put Mr. Stevens on trial failed to turn over to defense lawyers information about contradictory statements by a key prosecution witness. An agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who worked on the case also recently alleged that prosecutors had been willfully withholding pertinent evidence from the defense team.
I can't stress it enough: These are abuses of the law. Far too often, prosecutors do illegal things in their eagerness to get a conviction, and I'm always happy to see them get knocked down for doing it - even when it means a sleaze like Stevens gets off.
But that doesn't make our "intertubes" hero any less guilty, except in the legal sense -even if his conviction will be reversed. Remember that.
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I'm sure BushCo arranged this little "problem" so that they could just let Stevens go.
Will they re-try him? They should. But Obama's DOJ will probably just "let the past be the past." Some justice,huh?
it's just the privileged helping one another out.
They wanted Stevens out of the Senate..BOTH parties...so they accomplished that...and then pulled his ass out of the fire to allow him to avoid jail.
If it was you...you'd be someone's jail bitch now.
Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that both parties conspired to have him charged with a crime to remove him from the senate and then again conspired to have the charges dropped because the prosecutors did not handle themselves according to the law?
The Senate is an "old boys club".
Disagreements in policy have nothing to do with maintaining one another's power.
Stevens was tainted and his problems, not just the sex issues...but the whole graft...bridge to nowhere thing...was a public relations nightmare for the entire Senate. He was tainting the institution. He had to go.
So...the charges are brought...he loses the election...prosecution dropped on "technicalities".
If you don't see a deal there....well....
why wasn't Vitter ousted.
I'll tell you why...small fish...small problem. None of it resonated with the public.
C'mon...you don't think the Congress does what's RIGHT do you. You don't believe in integrity and the law now...do you??
...as Obama not wanting criminal prosecution of the Bush cabal.
...to be able to reach like that.
...until the investigation of Bushco begins. I'm just not all that hopeful.
Sorry L&P, I just can't bring myself to be that cynical.
It's politics. Everyone's purpose was served.
Stevens was an albatross to the GOP. They needed him GONE. The Dems score political points.
No prosecution. No jail. No fines, for Stevens. AND Stevens keeps his Senate pension...the man was retirement age anyway.
Everybody wins.
now you know why Justice wears a blindfold! LOL!
TRUE!
..its very easy to be that cynical. Tell me what has the current administration done about any of the illegal activities of the last administration? When you can, my cynicism will certainly start to ebb.
Every time you baselessly put Democrats in the same unflushed for eight years toilet that the Republicans are in, you do their dirty work.
...the rest of us aren't L&L? I'm not seeing much in the way of investigations about Bush's crimes, but I admit, I don't watch news on the TEEVEE machine. Seems like Justice Department is doing all they can to not encourage looking into this.
Are you aware of something?
between Obama(and please explain the upside for the President being acquiescent) and Bush adminstrations.
Are you aware of something?
...I'd point out that refusing to allow Stevens' conviction to stand after all the prosecutorial misconduct is doing something about at least one of the illegalities committed by the Bush Administration.
It may not seem like much, but it's a beginning. I think letting Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the thugs and crooks off is a huge mistake, but your theory of this case isn't cynical, it's silly. It's always depressing to read comments (or posts) on a lefty site that make me feel like I'm reading RedState, where they always put two and two together and come up with twenty-two.
Like it or not, the justice department is doing the right thing to let Stevens off. He's entitled to a fair trial; he didn't get one and after all the publicity and the conviction, I doubt if he could get a fair trial on these charges. That's why prosecutors should be fired and jailed for serious, intentional prosecutorial misconduct. I don't care who the defendant is, what the accusations are, or how much I dislike or even despise a defendant, I don't want anyone to be convicted in a trial where the prosecution is lying and cheating.
I'm disappointed that things have turned out this way, but it is the right thing to do. Personally, I don't think the Obama justice department is the best entity to try Bush. I think that should be done on the international level. I would approve of the current justice department cooperating fully with the International Criminal Court in holding Bush, Cheney, et al. accountable for war crimes. Short of that, I would love to see arrest warrants issued around the world for Bush, Cheney, et al., so they would never be able to leave this country again.
I'm totally that cynical. They're all bossom buddies behind closed doors. They must keep the Senate "honourable and revered" for public consumption. They all drink martinis together and laugh about the billions (now trillions) they have the power to shift around. They're in the stratosphere, and see the commoners as muck. They don't say the "great unwashed" for no reason.
I don't believe he can be tried twice for the same crime, even if he was found guilty the first time. This case was thrown out because the prosecutors messed up and losing the conviction is the price that must be paid when the attorneys screw the dog.
...being us.
The old codger will kick off soon enough. They had to let him go with "honour". Ha ha ha. What a f##kin' sham!!!!!
... so they can't.
...about what happened to Don Siegleman, who was actually innocent.
Stevens ruined his reputation when he stood on the Senate floor and threw a fu*king tantrum because he couldn't get enough votes for his desire to drill the hell out of ANWR. He can't take back that moment from my memory.
Hell no, oh wait, what reputation are we talking about? the only reputation I know him by is a sleazy money grubbing ass clown, so as far as i'm concerned he has'nt lost his reputation.
to find anyone in Congress, that doesn't have a pile of crap in their closets, some of it illegal. Hell, lobbying should be illegal, but it isn't.
How many of these politicians get their election backs scratched in return for favours? All of them.
I used to wear wraparound sunglasses.
http://www.viewpoints.com/images/review/2007/...
Gee who was it they wre piling onto just last fall that got off on a technicality. Wait..wait, it was the terrorist guy that was pals with Obama. Oh yeah, Bill Ayers.
Great Observation!
it's been a long time since I "got off" on a technicality.
My campaign slogan
Sexbots for all!
Great post. This lying criminal Stevens is simply a lucky mother fucker. Every day criminals get off due to stupid legal technicalities or in some cases criminal negligence...somebody in the DOJ hooked this asshole up. O.J. Simpson, who won his trial in 1995 mainly because of prosecutoral fuck ups, declared his post trial innocence too.
It is about the incompetence or corruption of the DOJ under Gonzalez. PERIOD.
Sorry, I don't recall.
;>)
Sorry, I don't recall.
;>)
President Reagan! They told me you were dead! Hey! Ya look good!
LOL!
..Bush DOJ lawyers prosecuted him. Who doesn't think that the over-turned conviction wasn't planned to keep Mr. Stevens out of jail or to be let off the hook. C'mon people, he did it but there was no way he was going to ultimately be held accountable; he's a Republican.
So much for my cynicism!
Can you say 'Senator Palin'?
I thought you could . . . . Heh!
Bachmann AND Palin on C-SPAN.
Media MAGIC!!
I wonder what Stevens paid the underlings on the prosecutorial side to botch this up, or perhaps it was a trade-off deal- "I'll let you convict me, but you gotta let me go."
This is what happens when you hire graduates of Bob Jones Law School - incompetence!
This just in:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Republican Party is calling for the resignation of U.S. Sen. Mark Begich after the Justice Department dropped charges against the incumbent he defeated last fall, Ted Stevens.
Party officials say Begich, a Democrat, should resign to allow for a special election so Alaskans can vote for a senator without the improper influence of the "corrupt" Justice Department.
Stevens was the longest-serving Republican in U.S. Senate history but lost in November by nearly 4,000 votes to Begich.
The state GOP party says the only reason Begich won is because a few thousand Alaskans thought that Stevens was guilty of seven felonies. Stevens was charged with failing to disclose gifts and home renovations.
Begich's office didn't immediately return a call.
Stevens has not been found innocent, he has just had his conviction tossed out because some attorneys screwed up the prosecution of the case. I doubt the Alaska republicans can get any traction on this.
...you can be sure the right wing media will get plenty of traction from it.
I doubt the public is in the mood right now to forget and forgive Stevens. They know all the special favors he received for his home and they aren't going to feel sorry for him, because a lot of them do not have their own homes any longer.
The right wing media can scream and cry all they want about this, I just don't think anyone will be listening.
they must be made of brass.
Can you say "fuck off thugs?" Because I can. Unless they can figure out how to do-over the last 10 years, when we were egregiously fucked out of the federal election regarding who our president should be.
Have a look at the Guardian's news on this travesty of justice:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifam...
Ted got away with it and if he can, then so can EVERYONE, even us serfs!
....is definitely what got him into trouble in the first place and if the prosecution hadn't withheld information, he's still be under that shadow of guilt. Holder never said he was "exonerating" Stevens, but that seems to be what the GOP insists on reading into the statement. Now, the Alaskan GOP is asking for Mark Begich to step down so they can have another election! How preposterous is that?
Getting back to the issue of "entitlement": Stevens certainly isn't alone, I'm sure that the others just haven't been caught - yet. The downfall for most of the congress men and women who have held their offices for too long, they - mistakenly - begin to think that the US just can't get along without their wisdom. Anything they choose to do is justified in their minds, because they feel they deserve it for their years of service to the little people. For those very reasons I believe members of Congress should serve limited terms; two at most. It'll probably never happen but I can hope, can't I?
They have a policy of not prosecuting Republicans. My take is they purposely screwed it up so Stevens would walk free.
The least the Post could do is use real words instead of euphemisms in their "crack reporting."
How about "bribes" instead of "gifts." I mean, we readers are under no illusion that these extravagant expenditures were given to Ted out of the kindness of their hearts, but for something in return.
It's called "bribery." If the press can't even call it that, how will Congress?
Our entire corrupt government is based on bribery (Oh, sorry, I meant to say freedom of speech contributions). Disgusting.
The Senate must be seen to be composed of "August and Sober elderstatesmen," not only for the American public, but in the eyes of the world. There are only 100 of them on the planet, and in the country that claims to "rule the world". It's a pretty exclusive club!! Unless someone is caught with a bloodied dagger, red-handed, standing over the body, and with several credible witnesses, and video footage...
That's why Stevens, Vitter, Larry Craig, etc., all get to stay and/or have "their good names" cleared (once out). They must be cannonized for posterity. The myth of the "brave, proud and strong," (yada yada yada-- repeat ad nauseum, wave flags) must go on, even if they are truly a bunch of low-life, greedy, cantankerous whack jobs.
It's not who you are, it's who THEY (that's us) THINK you are. Never forget!!!!!
Out of the 1461 of the first Obama turn?
While I understand the "Hurry up Hurry up!" that everyone feels, reality is that there are a ton of things to work on right now. Just because Obama doesn't have everything fixed in the first 1/146 of his first term doesn't mean it isn't being worked on.
..he just benefited from a repudiation of prosecutorial misbehavior. He's still a dishonest, irredeemably corrupt slimebag who is guilty of the crimes has was originally convicted of. He's never going to be able to rehabilitate the dishonest construct that was his erstwhile public persona.
Have you noticed that prosecutors never are held to account? Obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit same in this case. Disbarred? Never. Usually promoted. Ahhh, the rule of law.
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