Ted Stevens may face ouster from GOP Senate caucus

[Omaha Steve]

Source: USA Today

By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Already battling a felony conviction, Alaska's legendary Republican Sen. Ted Stevens faces a tough week that places his 40-year Senate career in more immediate jeopardy.

Alaska elections officials on Tuesday plan to be finished counting the votes in Stevens' bid for re-election to an eighth term. The latest tally shows Stevens trailing Democrat Mark Begich by 814 votes, and nearly 40,000 more absentee, early and provisional ballots are still to be counted. Stevens held a lead of more than 3,200 votes after an initial count of votes cast on Election Day.

While Stevens' lead disappeared, Republican Rep. Don Young captured enough votes to be declared the winner Thursday morning by the Associated Press in his re-election battle. Young also had been vulnerable because he is under investigation in the same corruption probe that led to Stevens' conviction.


Photos by Al Grillo, AP
Mark Begich, right, hopes to be the first Democrat to win an Alaskan senate race since the mid-1970s with his challenge of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens, currently embroiled in a corruption scandal.

Also next week, Stevens' GOP colleagues in the Senate may consider whether to kick the Senate's longest-serving Republican out of their caucus. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., will demand the vote on Tuesday even if the Alaska race remains undecided or headed for a recount, spokesman Wesley Denton said Thursday.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008...

[opihimoimoi]

1. He has brought Great Shame upon the Republican Party....he must be removed."

[hangman86]

3. You mean the party actually had dignity to begin with?

Who knew?

Let's hope the Alaskan people don't even give him the chance to be expelled from the Senate.

[opihimoimoi]

4. their Dignity Level was abysmal...whale shil zone...

[barbtries]

9. that cracks me up

excuse me for being too lazy to follow the link - but this statement coming out of a republican's mouth is just a howler. the shame is getting caught - he was a fine upstanding pillar of the senate before he got caught and convicted. the republican party IS a great shame.

[gratuitous]

2. Hulk smash!

Show 'em your tie, Ted. NO!

How anyone could bring shame on the Republican party as currently constituted boggles the mind. Stevens is going down the tubes (so to speak), and I think the last thing that the Senate GOP caucus needs to worry about is saving a seat for Ted.

[ladywnch]

5. I saw an earlier post that showed Begich was up by 1022 votes at the conclusion

of today's counting.

[GreenTea]

6. Mark Begich is up by almost eleven hundred votes and by most accounts

Begich will win and it's pretty much over for Stevens....

[Ian David]

7. Oh, this almost makes me hope for Ted Stevens to win!

Just so I could watch the Repukes kick him out of the party, and then Harry Reid kick him out of Congress.

And then we might get to watch Sarah Palin 5 days a week on C-SPAN!

[gristy]

8. Everything I have read is that he faces ouster from the Senate

let alone kicked out of the GOP caucus.

[AlinPA]

10. Stevens will appeal, and while under appeal he will be retained in office (if he wins the election).

The lead is 1022, not 814. If Begich wins, Stevens ends up on the trash heap.

[w4rma]

11. Only because it's looking like Stevens will be out of the Senate anyway. Rethugs want a little PR

out of it.

[sofa king]

12. Yeah, right. The GOP will kick him out for being a criminal.

As if that wasn't the one job requirement a Republican has to have to get a job in Washington.