Justice or Karma
Ted Stevens, the crazy, former US Senator from Alaska was convicted of seven felony counts of ethics violations last year. Based largely on this trial, he narrowly lost his re-election bid last November. Today, the US Justice Department is dropping all charges because they “discovered a new instance of prosecutorial misconduct”. Basically, the prosecutor illegally hid evidence from the defendant.
Now, let me be clear that I despise Ted Stevens. He was a conservative who spent 40 years putting the interests of the Republican party and Alaska above the interests of the United States. Consistently he would drive tax payers’ money (money from all 50 states) to Alaska. Alaska takes twice as much federal funds as it puts in. This is the inherent problem with the US Senate; giving equal power to someone representing 350,000 people and someone who represents 18,000,000 people. And Ted Stevens abused this undemocratic system to the detriment of the other 350,000,000 people in the US.
Anyway…there are two major issues going on here. The first is that the Justice Department is just dropping the charges. If he is guilty then he NEEDS to be prosecuted. It is appalling how public officials are simple above the law. From Nixon to Elliot Spitzer, public officials just go free. These are the people who should be the most accountable to the law, the people that should be examples of justice to the rest of us. And don’t get me started on George Bush, but if he broke the law, that he needs to be help accountable too.
However, let’s say that Stevens was innocent, well then the US Justice Department just changed the election for a US Senator (one of the most powerful position in the country). Not to mention (at the time) a possible filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats in Congress. No matter how much I think the country is better off without Stevens, it is completely unethical that he lost his Senate seat. If the Justice Department was run by Democrats at the time there would be a national uproar, but I say there should be one anyway. This is the kind of crap the CIA would do; fix an election by smearing the opponent. Hell, let’s put him on trial for corruption and hide evidence that could provide his innocence.
Justice, it’s about justice, not Karma.
Now, let me be clear that I despise Ted Stevens. He was a conservative who spent 40 years putting the interests of the Republican party and Alaska above the interests of the United States. Consistently he would drive tax payers’ money (money from all 50 states) to Alaska. Alaska takes twice as much federal funds as it puts in. This is the inherent problem with the US Senate; giving equal power to someone representing 350,000 people and someone who represents 18,000,000 people. And Ted Stevens abused this undemocratic system to the detriment of the other 350,000,000 people in the US.
Anyway…there are two major issues going on here. The first is that the Justice Department is just dropping the charges. If he is guilty then he NEEDS to be prosecuted. It is appalling how public officials are simple above the law. From Nixon to Elliot Spitzer, public officials just go free. These are the people who should be the most accountable to the law, the people that should be examples of justice to the rest of us. And don’t get me started on George Bush, but if he broke the law, that he needs to be help accountable too.
However, let’s say that Stevens was innocent, well then the US Justice Department just changed the election for a US Senator (one of the most powerful position in the country). Not to mention (at the time) a possible filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats in Congress. No matter how much I think the country is better off without Stevens, it is completely unethical that he lost his Senate seat. If the Justice Department was run by Democrats at the time there would be a national uproar, but I say there should be one anyway. This is the kind of crap the CIA would do; fix an election by smearing the opponent. Hell, let’s put him on trial for corruption and hide evidence that could provide his innocence.
Justice, it’s about justice, not Karma.
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