The LA Times has a
blockbuster investigative report of how Ted Stevens has abused his office to make money - real money.
Not content with a combined annual income of $230,000 between him and his wife and surrounded by millionaires in the Senate, Stevens has leveraged his position of power not for the benefit of his consituents, but for his own. That what he has done is not illegal is itself criminal. Of course the only way to rid our government of such venality is for voters to dump crooks like Stevens from office - Congress will never reform itself.
Some highlights from the article:
Added together, Stevens' new partnerships and investments provide a step-by-step guide to building a personal fortune -- if you happen to be one of the country's most influential senators.
They also illustrate how lax ethics rules allow members of Congress and their families to profit from personal business dealings with special interests.
Among the ways that Stevens became wealthy:
- Armed with the power his committee posts give him over the Pentagon, Stevens helped save a $450-million military housing contract for an Anchorage businessman. The same businessman made Stevens a partner in a series of real estate investments that turned the senator's $50,000 stake into at least $750,000 in six years.
- An Alaska Native company that Stevens helped create got millions of dollars in defense contracts through preferences he wrote into law. Now the company pays $6 million a year to lease an office building owned by the senator and his business partners. Stevens continues to push legislation that benefits the company.
- An Alaskan communications company benefited from the senator's activities on the Commerce Committee. His wife, Catherine, earned tens of thousands of dollars from an inside deal involving the company's stock.
....
Stevens' relationship with Bittner fits an increasingly widespread pattern in Washington: Senior senators do favors for special interests that pay hundreds of thousand of dollars in lobbying and consulting fees to the senators' children, spouses and other relatives.
Of note, however, is that Stevens has inextricably linked his benefits to those of his constituents. In many ways, Alaska IS Ted Stevens:
In Alaska, Stevens exerts unparalleled influence. No state is so dependent on federal dollars and decisions. The federal government still owns 60% of all its land, generates one-third of all jobs, and holds the keys to economic growth through regulation of its major industries -- oil and gas, fishing, timber and tourism.
Federal spending in Alaska, known locally as "Stevens money," runs as much as 70% above the national average on a per capita basis.
Since his first day in the Senate in 1968, Stevens has delivered for Alaska.
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But this is becoming decreasingly true:
But during the period Stevens has grown wealthy, some longtime supporters say, the senator has become less willing to hear their views.
"I've been here a long time, and always had a great deal of respect for Sen. Stevens' enormous power and the good he's done for Alaska," Terry Haines, a veteran commercial fisherman from Kodiak Island, said recently. "But lately he's become extremely rigid and doesn't seem to be listening to his constituents much."
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Stevens appears to have a stake in every Alaska project he wants funded, from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to a seabed survey for fiber-optic cable connections. The senator can hide his huge money windfalls behind claims that he is working in Alaska's interests.
The LA Times must be commended for blowing open this scandal, if only to point to how members of Congress not only serve moneyed corporate interests, but their own and instead of their constituents'. But this story is much bigger than that. It is a striking example of why people are right to be disgusted by their goverment, politics and elections. Increasingly, our government has become disconnected from those it is meant to serve. Bush is a superb, but shocking and despicable, reflection of this.
It will take a huge effort to fix this. The primary steps include an improved media and an informed and reinvigorated electorate - a populace reminded that ordinary people indeed have a critical stake in how their government functions. Perhaps even drastic measures like term limits, which I've never liked, may be required. Responsible voting should be sufficient, but if Congress is unwilling to be held accountable for its own actions (see the war authorization against Iraq), such measures may be the only solution.
I hope that more stories like this one about the abuses of Stevens come out so that people become increasingly angered (yup, angered) and motivated to change the way things are. If we don't fix our government, our country is doomed to plummet to second-tier status and the has-been superpower.