Originally Posted By alexbook Turns out maybe Ted Stevens isn't corrupt after all. Or at least the government can't prove it, if he is. The lack of discussion of this makes me wonder if WE's Republicans have all left.
Originally Posted By Mr X Wow...old news much? Anyway, to answer your two statements, neither. It wasn't a matter of corruption (it occurred), nor "proof" (it was proven). It was simply a procedural screw up. Sometimes guilty folks walk away thanks to incompetent bungling. This is one of those times. A convicted felon walking free is better than the alternative, in a democratic system. No doubt some politicking entered into it as well (most felons don't get the chance to have their case scrutinized by the justice department...Stevens happens to be famous and important so he got his additional "days in court" to say the least). The guy is still a dirtbag as far as I'm concerned. Thank god he was at least thrown out of office in the process. C'est la vie.
Originally Posted By Mr X Hang on...Alex, are you saying that you are supportive of Stevens? Do you believe he was innocent all along? If so, please do explain your take, I'd be very interested in hearing it!
Originally Posted By alexbook Actually, I'm not supportive of Stevens at all. It's just that I heard the umpteenth story this morning on the news about the charges being dropped and suddenly thought, "Wow. We haven't talked about this in WE, have we? What happened to all the folks who should be gloating? Did they leave?"
Originally Posted By alexbook BTW, it's not entirely "old news". Top story right now in the "Nation" section at npr.com: "Judge Dismisses Stevens Case, Orders Inquiry"
Originally Posted By Mr X Perhaps the right wingers on LP didn't get the memo. A quick look at Drudge offers up no stories at all. Glancing at Fox news...again, nada. However, MSNBC DID cover the story (reason I thought it was "old news") via Olbermann and Maddow, AND it was, as you mention, a story on NPR as well. So perhaps the bigger question for you is, WHY is the noise machine killing this story? It's been made clear that the resident right wingers of LP can't react without instructions from the noise machine. When the noise machine buries a story, they don't know what to do. It's a very interesting thing though, why the noise machine is keeping hush hush about this. Have they dismissed the guy now as irrelevant or something?
Originally Posted By Mr X By the way, there is an article to be found on the left wing site "Huffington Post", right there on their main page. So, SOMEONE is talking about it (you would think the liberals would want to keep it down, NOT the conservatives.......go figure!?). Just not the machine.
Originally Posted By Mr X ah... thanks, EC. it's clear to me now! (interesting to note that the noise machine has no problem throwing one of their most loyal senators under the bus!)
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I think most right-wingers, here and elsewhere, understand that sometimes police or prosecutor malfeasance and/or ineptitude results in someone guilty being found not guilty (i.e. OJ). It doesn't mean they didn't do it, so there would be precious little to gloat about. Why the noise machine is quiet? Who knows? Maybe they don't want to acknowledge that powerful conservatives can also get off on a technicality?
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Why the noise machine is quiet? Who knows? Maybe they don't want to acknowledge that powerful conservatives can also get off on a technicality?*** Nah...that wouldn't stop em. I think ECDC hit the nail on the head. It was the Bush folks who did it, and they can't be brought to task. Stevens loses all the way 'round (not that I feel too bad for the guy). It's the same reason the noise machine is dead quiet when the issue of Obama keeping some of Bush's civil liberty violations keeps coming up. They would LOVE to nail him on it, but they can't without admitting that Bush was wrong in the first place. In this bizarro Universe we live in, it's the left wingers who are bitching right now (that might change, depending on how far Obama goes)... Weird.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh There has been extensive discussion of this issue on right wing blogs. I can link to them if you'd like. As to why no right wingers are posting anything here, why would they bother? Their views would just be distorted, dismissed, and denigrated.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I was actually giving you guys more credit than that, in the first paragraph of #10. But the boilerplate comes out anyway.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh He asked a question, and I gave an honest answer. If you don't want to see "boilerplate", then stop the behavior it describes. Then maybe more conservatives will consider posting here again.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Calm down, dude. I gave an honest answer too, that actually gave you conservatives more credit; that you probably didn't reply because you know that Stevens getting off on a technicality is nothing to crow about; he's dirty and you're not going to defend someone dirty, any more than any liberals here defended the Dem. congressman with the money in the freezer. Then you came in with the boilerplate about how if you did respond it would just be met with blah blah blah, when nothing like that had appeared in this thread. It's like a knee-jerk. I can even predict your response to THIS, but I guess I'll let you do it...
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <when nothing like that had appeared in this thread.> Of course it did. Still is.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Except for one stray comment by Mr. X in #6 (which I don't agree with), it was mostly just musing about why it was getting more play on some sites than others.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Their views would just be distorted, dismissed, and denigrated.<< Just the second one.
Originally Posted By DAR What did Stevens do again? It's so far off my radar I approach it from the angle of I don't give a crap.
Originally Posted By alexbook >>What did Stevens do again? It's so far off my radar I approach it from the angle of I don't give a crap.<< He is alleged to have failed to properly report gifts that included "furniture, a puppy, a stained-glass window, a statue of migrating salmon and a Shiatsu massage lounger."
