Stevens was trailing Begich by 2,374 votes!
Stevens falls further behind in Senate race
Fellow Republicans put off decision on convicted senator's expulsion
updated 56 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - As the prolonged vote count in Alaska's Senate race neared its end Tuesday, convicted Sen. Ted Stevens trailed his Democratic opponent Mark Begich by more than 2,000 votes.
But the embattled senator clung to the hope that the final count would buttress his argument to remain in Congress, and fellow Republicans accommodated him by putting off a decision on his expulsion.
It was just another in a series of topsy-turvy days for the 84-year-old, six-term senator who has been straddling coast-to-coast challenges to his power. Notwithstanding all that turmoil, Stevens revealed that he will not ask President Bush to give him a pardon for his seven felony convictions.
Stevens initially awaited judgment by his colleagues Tuesday on whether he could continue in the Senate GOP caucus, but that didn't come to pass so he attended to business as usual.
His murky future was painfully obvious at a time when newly elected members of both the House and Senate members were on the Hill for heady receptions, picture-takings sessions and orientation. Stevens, for his part, had no idea what his life would be like in January, when the 111th Congress convenes.
"I wouldn't wish what I'm going through on anyone, my worst enemy," he lamented to reporters at one point. "I haven't had a night's sleep for almost four months, all right."
Absentee, contested votes counted
It was possible he'd know a lot more about the electoral fight back home in Alaska before the day was done. Election officials there on Tuesday had resumed counting some 24,000 absentee and contested votes.
Stevens was trailing Begich by 2,374 votes; ballots counted so far show the Democrat with 47.4 percent of the vote to Stevens' 47 percent. The remaining uncounted votes come mostly from Anchorage and the surrounding area, where Begich is leading, and from the state's southeastern panhandle, where he was doing even better. Overseas ballots had to be sent in to election officials by Wednesday.
Stevens, who has served in the Senate since 1968, is renowned for bringing federal funding home to Alaska — as well as for wearing his Incredible Hulk tie when the going gets rough in Congress.
But last month he was convicted by a federal jury in Washington, D.C., of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil field services company.
Possible Thursday vote
One of his leading critics in the Senate GOP caucus, South Carolina's Jim DeMint, announced Tuesday that he will hold off on a move to expel Stevens from the party conference and strip him of plum committee assignments. He said some of his colleagues want to see whether he wins another term before voting to sanction him.
DeMint said he'll press for a vote on Thursday — if the tide somehow turns in Stevens' favor and he is re-elected.
"After talking with many of my colleagues, it's clear there are sufficient votes to pass the resolution regarding Senator Stevens," DeMint said in a statement. "The question now is timing. Some who support the resolution believe we should address this after the results of his election are confirmed in Alaska."
Many of Stevens GOP colleagues have called on him to resign, but Stevens plans to appeal his convictions.
Senators can only be expelled after the Ethics Committee investigates and recommends it. It takes a two-thirds tally, but most senators facing expulsion resign before a vote.
Removing Stevens from the GOP conference is a far lesser penalty than expelling him from the Senate. Stevens would still have full floor rights but would lose his slots on the Appropriations and Commerce committees next year, if re-elected.
Stevens already has been removed as top Republican on the Commerce panel and his ranking position on the powerful subcommittee responsible for the defense budget.
His own worst witness
Meanwhile, jurors at his trial said Stevens was his own worst witness.
Two jurors — one of whom posted a Web log of her jury duty experience — say the senator undermined his own defense by verbally jousting with Justice Department prosecutors and denying that just because he was given something didn't make it a gift.
"It was kind of weird," said Colleen Walsh, one of the jurors who found Stevens guilty on seven felony counts. "Throughout the case, he was kinda quiet and you know, kinda grandfatherly, but when he was up on stage, he was like a lion, and he was kind of demeaning to the lawyer, so it didn't help his case that much," she told The Associated Press in an interview.
Walsh, 32, and Brian Kirst, 25, an alternate who sat through the trial but did not join the deliberations, said Stevens' combative performance hurt him with the jury.
Kirst described the Justice Department's evidence as "hard-core," difficult to refute. Stevens' stories "just didn't add up," Kirst told the AP.
"The whole thing was just a mess. It was like, 'You're not helping, so why are you up here?'" Kirst said. "It was kinda interesting to see him shoot himself in the foot."
The jury deliberations were filled with controversy from the start. Jurors complained of stress and violent outbursts from one of their members during deliberations. They asked for her to be replaced, but the judge refused. |
