Yesterday when Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted on 7 felony counts involving corruption, two questions arose concerning the presidential election. I asked one of them: What would Sarah Palin have to say about her years of palling around with Stevens? The answer, as expected, has been that she remains mum.
The Anonymous Liberal asked the other: Why did Palin and John McCain not criticize Stevens immediately after the Stevens verdict was announced? They've tried to portray themselves as reformers who buck their own party, and here was a golden opportunity to give voters the impression that there's actual substance to that claim. And yet almost as if their campaign had no plan in place in case of a guilty verdict, yesterday McCain remained silent and Palin, who's governor of Stevens' state, just mumbled vaguely about Stevens needing to do the right thing. At a minimum, this episode reinforces the aura of incompetence and lack of serious planning that McCain's campaign has exuded all year. He always seems to be a day late and a dollar short.
And true to form, this morning McCain released a muted and brief statement calling for Stevens to resign. McCain didn't even have the sense to step in front of the cameras to make that call in person. Thus he allows the day's story to remain 'Republican corruption', rather than trying to turn it to his advantage by stepping forward to denounce Stevens. Even more clumsily, he muddles the call for Stevens' resignation by turning it into a call for the Senate to adopt new (unspecified) rules. In the end, McCain makes it sound less like a defining issue for the presidential campaign than an inside-baseball discussion. Here's his full press release:
Yesterday, Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty of corruption. It is a sign of the health of our democracy that the people continue to hold their representatives to account for improper or illegal conduct, but this verdict is also a sign of the corruption and insider-dealing that has become so pervasive in our nation’s capital.
It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and that he should now step down. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will be spurred by these events to redouble their efforts to end this kind of corruption once and for all.
In an interview this morning Palin chimed in as well, finally, saying that Stevens should resign (video here).
Neither statement is remotely good enough for a pair of would-be reformers. Until now McCain had refused to condemn Stevens over the revelations that led to the indictment. McCain's reform-credentials are pretty thin and wobbly at best - especially when juxtaposed to his solid corruption-credentials, viz Charles Keating.
As for Palin, her reform-credentials are purely illusory. As Wayne Barrett demonstrated in detail in this excellent Village Voice article, Palin's stories about how she has bucked the political system in Alaska are vastly overblown and disingenuous. The few occasions she has "ruffled feathers" have always been self-serving. Palin is about as corrupt as the next Republican politician in Alaska. And as part of that history of corruption, Palin has benefited from a long and close association with Ted Stevens.
Well, I'll grant McCain and Palin one thing. They weren't as politically tone deaf as Frank Murkowski's hand-picked successor.
Alaska's other U.S. senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, said the prosecution committed several gaffes during the trial and she'll stand with Stevens as he pursues his appeal.
But then in terms of both corruption and political instincts the Murkowskis, father and daughter, set a pretty low bar.
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