Ted Stevens and Bill Allen

Ted Steven’s may be correct that he didn’t know about and didn’t want the gifts which Bill Allen, and others, bestowed on him. (See Dana Milbank in theWashington Post and Anchorage Daily News) But that’s the problem, Stevens has been in office so long, that it seems he feels immune to the rules. And he was friends with Bill Allen so long, that he seemingly could no longer separate Bill Allen’s interests from his own. They operated as a unit, a team. Bill Allen and his lackeys built a deck, hoisted an expensive barbeque onto it, dropped off furniture and expensive sculpture. And Bill and his friends felt free to use the house. It was all done in a “what’s yours is mine” style that Stevens would have us believe is “the Alaskan way." That Allen was a contractor and Stevens a powerful U.S. Senator probably came to be seen merely as convenient to this long standing friendship. That, I repeat, is the gist of the problem. That Stevens failed to report the gifts, the added expense, is just the symptom of the problem. But that is how the typical prosecution for corruption goes. Rarely is the principal fingered for actual “corruption.” Instead, convictions come on ancillary charges: failing to report, or failing to pay taxes. In this case, the charge is not based on a quid pro quo: the prosecutors have alleged that Allen received favors, but they are not trying Stevens on these charges. But again I repeat, the problem was, is, that Stevens has no notion of separation between what is good for Bill Allen and Veco and what might be in the interest of the state.