Remember Ted Stevens? He’s the senator from Alaska who’s famous for describing the internet as “a series of tubes” and wearing Incredible Hulk ties. Like your grandfather, he has a shaky grasp of technology and a charmingly goofy fashion sense. Unlike your grandfather, he’s advocated vociferously in the Senate for oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge and has just been indicted for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a crooked oil services company.
So, surprise! Businesses pay senators for favors. And few senators were more prominently aligned with oil interests than Stevens. We just hope Alaska doesn’t let this slide. Stevens bent the rules to get Alaska into the union back in the 1950s, so the state tends to forgive his shenanigans. This indictment may get him ousted though.
Related:
–This piece looks at the latest indictment in the context of Alaskan politics.
-Check out the screenshot above: Exxon is sponsoring the sponsored a 2007 Stevens oil corruption story. Maybe they support objective reporting; maybe they just haven’t caught this yet.
-Here’s audio of Stevens on the intricacies of the internet. On Netflix and email: “Ten movies streaming across that…that internet. And what happens to your own personal internet? Just the other day internet was sent by my staff…and I just got it yesterday…”
