I'm starting a pool on the number of hours until Bush invokes executive privilege to bail Stevens out.

My guess is 26-32 hours.

"In other words, this is not good news for the GOP."

Is it?  Alaska has not yet held its primary - if Stevens loses, a generic Republican may well have a better chance of holding the seat than a not-yet-indicted-but-heavily-implicated Stevens.

It'll be quicker than that, because it will be flying through the tubes of the internets.

Therefore never sent to see for whom the bell. . . Aw f--it! Yes, yes , yes.

While good for a shiver of schadenfreude, it means nothing.  Randy Cunningham plead guilty to the most dizzying array of blatant corruption charges, was sentenced to the longest prison term ever meted out to a Member of Congress, and the Good People of his District still sent a Republican in his stead.  I'm surprised they didn't write in Cunningham's name.

At long last, justice for this a-hole.

I get your point, dubya, but Stevens is a little more high-profile, and anything that helps further taint the Republican brand name is a good thing.   Also, getting less political, it is nice that a man like Stevens will spend his last days in self-wrought ignominy, apossibly even prison.  Man ran his state like a fiefdom, and beside that was one of the most obnoxious and least progressive people in all of the Senate (maybe in all of public life).   So, even if Generic Republican A wins, the Senate will almost certianly be a better place.  And, if they run, say, Palin, then it will also have the virtue of being a much better-looking place.  All in all a good day.

I'm not sure Stevens will step aside for the good of the party.  He seems to not be a team player and is generally a cranky old fart.  I can see him sticking it out, a la Jim Trafficant...

I wonder if he'll wear his hulk tie to his trial.

Maybe we could have a 3rd world country come in and help with cleaning up public corruption. Christ, there's another politician heading to the slammer every six-months. Though distressing on a general level, I'm with boneill on this one: Stevens is a first-class horses' ass and I'm glad to know he will be spending his golden years guarding his bong hole from the shower prowler.

Yeah, this is good for McCain because it will remind everyone how he's on the cutting edge the GOP in terms of computer literacy.  

Oh goodie, it had been MONTHS since a high profile Republican whack-a-doodle had been busted.  I needed my fix, I'd been getting the good stuff all year.  Can't wait to hear about the loot and sleaze. Can he top gold toilets and male crack hoes?  I hope so.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Oh Ted...what better way to send a guy off to the clink for his low-brow manners than simply sending him to a Club-Fed. I think jail would be far to easy for a cantankerous guy like that and I'd like to see how his manly-man persona holds up in the real world. I propose we tie some smoked salmon around his neck and the leave him in the Alaskan back-country buck-naked for the bears and wolves to find him. If he makes it out alive unscathed, he can live the rest of his life a free man working the cleaning line at the local fish processing plant and retire each day to an unheated cabin with only a live feed to the Lifestyle channel.

"...with only a live feed to the Lifestyle channel."

singlespeed, you are without a doubt the most merciless person on this website.

Isaac Chotiner-

You write: "A friend points out astutely. . .this [indictment] is potentially very good news for the Alaska GOP.  If there's any way for them to get Stevens to step down so that some generic Republican can run for the seat, that's their best chance of holding onto it."

But according to the NY Times website, it doesn't look as though Stevens is going to step down. Indeed, it looks as though he may dig in and fight:

From the NYT website as of 5:25pm, Tuesday:

____________________________________________________________________________

"I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that," Mr. Stevens said several hours after the indictment was announced. . . .

Mr. Stevens said he. . .had "proudly served this nation and Alaska for over 50 years." He said he had "never knowingly submitted a false disclosure form required by law as a U.S. senator." . . .

Mr. Stevens is seen as a legendary, even heroic, figure in Alaska, who played a crucial role in its achievement of statehood, which became official in 1959.

_______________________________________________________________________________

But as the Times also points out, "All the charges are felonies." And: "Under Senate Republican party rules, an indictment on felony charges compels a member to temporarily give up his leadership posts."

So Stevens has already said in a statement that he has "temporarily relinquished his Senate leadership positions 'until I am absolved of these charges.'"

Gspinks...

The punishment must fit the crime and in this case I might even go so far as to disable the mute button.

As an Alaska Democrat I have (slightly) mixed feelings about this. Stevens really has done a lot of valuable things for the state in addition to the questionable things. And I don't just mean bringing home the bacon in pork-barrel form. He has done many things that make a positive difference up here -- we know that except when the country wants to drill for oil, it often doesn't remember that Alaska exists or is a bit different from other states. To me, there was always a mix of bad and good in the guy. Not that most of the negative things said about him are not true,

But I think he is toast now, and if he can't be convinced to step down before the primary next month, then we can welcome Mark Begich (D-AK) to the Senate come November.

One thing that might surprise you is that is is amazingly fit for such an old guy. I saw him in the airport last summer, and when he got to the escalators up, he zipped up the stairs instead. He wouldn't stand a chance against a bear, but he might still be able to climb a tree!