Bloggers, others weigh in on Stevens

Those who are determined to cheat the system by improperly accepting gifts and failing to report them must realize, as a spate of public corruption prosecutions has proved, that what they may justify to themselves as penny ante is in fact criminal. Mr. Stevens worked to give so much to his state, but he forgot the most important duty he owed its citizens: honest service.

-- Washington Post editorial

IDENTITY CRISIS

Senator Stevens is but the latest to have mistaken himself for one of the marble statues in the Capitol dome.

-- Wall Street Journal editorial

GOP MALAISE

We'd pause before writing off Stevens -- even with a felony conviction weighing him down -- because of the status he long enjoyed among his constituents. And in a statement he issued, Stevens ... made clear he'll depict himself as the target of unscrupulous and unethical federal prosecutors.

The verdict is yet another stain on a GOP brand that hardly needed it . ... it adds to a general malaise that has enveloped the party -- and which many GOP officials fear will only get thicker with next week's election results.

-- Top of the Ticket, LA Times political blog

ETHICAL BEARINGS

The party's future may ultimately depend as much on regaining its ethical bearings as it does on retaining 41 seats in the Senate. Had Republicans urged Stevens to step aside months ago, those two goals would not be in conflict. Should Stevens' conviction be instrumental in handing Senate Democrats a filibuster-proof majority, Republicans will have reaped what they have sown.

-- National Review editorial

SENATE FUTURE DIM

Stevens doesn't have to exit the race since you can be a convicted felon and still serve in Congress. But if he were to somehow win, it's hard to see how the Republican caucus wouldn't force him to quit.

-- The Swamp, chicagotribune.com, Washington bureau

HOME SWEET HOME

What awaits (Stevens)? ... Maybe it's prison. Maybe it's here, back home, among the people who will always call him Uncle Ted. The people who will say: "He might be a crook, but he's Alaska's crook. He's just one of us."

-- Anchorage writer Amanda Coyne, in The Guardian (U.K.)

ARROGANCE

Stevens' real crime was arrogance -- he assumed that rules made for mere mortals didn't apply to him. This is Washington: That's not an unfamiliar story.

-- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post blog post

JUST DESSERTS

Whether Stevens knew it -- or was too obtuse to get it -- the courtroom's optics worked against him. It's one thing to kick around Senate witnesses and staff. (I was a Senate staffer in the 1970s and saw Stevens snarl and go off on people with little reason.) But Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who tried to convince a Washington jury that he didn't have to report gifts from wealthy supporters because, well, he considered them loans (even though he never returned them), got what he richly deserved.

-- Dan Turner, Los Angeles Times blog post

WRONG ATTITUDE

Talking down to a federal prosecutor during his cross examination as if she were a dummy -- as Stevens reportedly did -- was virtually a gold-plated invitation for jurors to decide to put him in his place, provided the evidence also supported such a decision.

-- Colbert King, Washington Post blog post

MARK MATCH TED?

Mark Begich would have to work his way up to influential positions Stevens once claimed on the appropriations and commerce, science and transportation committees. For Begich to carry out his very appropriate and much needed energy and climate change plans, he's going to need money, and the Treasury's not looking so fat these days. Whether Begich can match Stevens in that category, the jury's still out.

-- American Prospect