NEWS: Ted Stevens Facing Ejection Vote

POLITICS: Ted Stevens Facing Ejection Vote

It looks likely that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) will have to face the music this Tuesday. That's when there will be a secret vote amongst Republican senators, led by Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), to decide if Stevens should be kicked out of the Republican caucus, effectively making him a man without a party while stripping him of all committee assignments and party votes.

Such a vote would also signal party willingness to eject Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history and patriarch of Alaska politics who was convicted last month on seven felony charges for making false statements, from the Senate altogether.

Stevens' only salvation from this humiliation would be to lose the race to his Democratic opponent, which would make those votes moot and thus less likely to happen. Stevens is currently losing by 1,022 votes but more remain to be counted.

We should know by the end of Tuesday. It looks increasingly likely that Stevens is done, one way or the other. If so, Begich would bring the number of Democratic senators to 58, very close to the magic number of 60 required to overturn Republican filibusters.

I was going to type an entry here where I stated that I felt a small bit bad for Stevens; what with being the longest serving Republican Senator, one of the dominant political faces in his state and so now being reduced to being kicked out of the party and so forth. But, you know what? I really don't feel bad for him at all; asshole brought this on himself. The very fact that he continued to run for re-election shows that he really sees what he did as no big deal. If he'd been smart, he would have bowed out of the race and decided to "spend more time with his family". Cocky asshole.

I thought the election was still undecided.

Final vote count is due by Tuesday night. The ejection hearing and vote is scheduled for Tuesday morning, but Stevens can always concede the race before the ejection vote is called.

According to the OP, you thought correctly. Or was that a veiled "how is this news?"

Honestly, since the 4th I haven't been F5'ing news sources obsessively, so it's actually nice to get an update here (where there be nekkid ladeez) on the vote tally. But the OP definitely had the vote tally and the information that the vote had yet to be finalized, pending more votes.

Guess I just overlooked that part of the post. My bad. No snark intended.

It's almost too bad that Begich is going to win because it would have been too much fun to see the GOP distance themselves from Uncle Ted.

How was he able to run? How was the race even close? He's a fucking felon!

A-L-A-S-K-A

Believe it or not, convicted felons are not precluded by law from being a Senator in the US legislature. The race was close because Stevens was well-connected and very powerful, brought huge amounts of federal pork money to Alaska for decades, and was a reliably conservative Republican in an overwhelmingly conservative Republican state.

come wednesday, Stevens won't be a senator. he'll be a series of fails!

Or he'll get pardoned by Bush when he says, "Fuck you, America, all shitheads of my party get off scott free!"

Probably, but he'll likely be out of his Senate seat before that happens.

I really hope he loses this race. As much fun as ejection would be, it could very well lead to Senator Palin upon his resignation

Good point. I'm not sure what the process for replacing a Senator is in Alaska. That differs from state to state.

Ah wait. It appears that Palin would appoint a temporary replacement, who would only stay in office until a special election is held.

Pardon my cynicism, but when does the special election have to be held?

Wow, Alaska sounds like a terrible place for a politically conscious person to be.

DeMint postpones the vote for a while.

Maybe he just didn't want to kick the guy on his 85th birthday.

Stevens isn't going to be ejected, he's failed to be reelected. According to fivethirtyeight.com, the are only a few remaining number of absentee ballots yet to be counted (but they will be by the end of today) and Begich's lead is virtually unsurmountable, it's over.

Stevens can pay for a recount if he so chooses (his building contractor is ready to foot the bill), but the margin of win is likely to be greater then .05%, so no automatic recount.

Congratulations Senator-elect Mark Begich!