Senate Republican Ted Stevens (R) Who is a Republican from Alaska is Indicted

A federal grand jury has indicted longtime Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, on charges of failing to disclose receiving gifts of services and construction work as part of a wide-ranging corruption inquiry involving public officials and corporations in his home state. (NY Times)

But Mr. Stevens’s constituents have a right to wonder why their revered senator, a Republican who has served them fiercely for four decades, ever agreed to have his home richly upgraded by someone so obviously hunting for the inside track to politicians. (NY Times Op)

Republican White House hopeful John McCain's campaign said on Wednesday the indictment of fellow Republican Sen. Ted Stevens was a "sad reminder" the next president will face a tough task rebuilding the public trust. (Reuters)

Eighty-four-year-old Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska, newly charged by the feds with corruption-related offenses, walked over to the desk of 90-year-old Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia yesterday morning. Byrd, in a wheelchair, clasped his friend's hands, then squinted up at him and shouted, "Say it ain't so!" (Washington Post)

Stevens is the Senate's longest-serving Republican and has been a dominant figure in congressional politics for a generation (AP)

The indictment of Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens strengthened forecasts that Democrats will gain Senate seats on Election Day. (WSJ)

Some observers think the reputation of the longest-serving Republican senator may weather this scandal. The former chairman and now ranking Republican on the influential U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Stevens is known as a master of pork barrel politics, with a record of channeling billions of federal dollars to his home state. (LA Times)

In case you missed it, Ted Stevens is a Republican.

Back in March of this year, I posted a few lines about Eliot Spitzer. It was on a whim and timely as I had a number of posts back then about government, common good, and integrity. I never mentioned his name but I did mention that he is a Democrat. Why did I do that?

First, let me say that blogging has given me an opportunity to practice those forms of speech I learned in 8th grade English class and honed in 10th grade speech class: satire, sarcasm, alliteration, onamonapea, irony, parallel sentence structure,…

Second, when the Spitzer story broke I was annoyed that I could not find a single article that listed his party affiliation. In fact, I had to search his bio on Wikipedia. So I deployed an ironic device and listed his party affiliation… which had nothing to do with the post and everything to do with the media’s inability to report this simple fact. So, I was “hiding what is actually reality in order to obtain a desired oratorical or artistic effect.”

Now for some more irony. It worked. The eight sentence Spitzer post is one of my most viewed and commented posts. I chuckled when I was gently reminded by an anonymous comment that Democrats don’t have the birthright to corruption. Indeed, that was half the point.

Corruption is truly a bipartisan issue. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.