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Stevens' Artful Dodge
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) gave an artful explanation of how he paid for the remodeling of his home yesterday -- so flagrantly artful that quite a few TPM readers have written in to flag it as a "non-denial denial."
The longest-serving Republican senator was defending himself from accusations that oil-services company Veco Corp. paid for the renovation project that doubled the size of his Girdwood, Alaska house in 2000. A grand jury in Washington has started looking into the job because of Veco's bizarre role as general contractor.
As a practical matter, I will tell you. We paid every bill that was given to us. Every bill that was sent to us has been paid, personally, with our own money, and that's all there is to it. It's our own money.
Notice Stevens didn't say he paid for the whole job: he paid for what he was sent.
And who was sending him the invoices?
According to the sub-contractor, Augie Paone, who was hired by Veco to handle the construction work, he would give his bills to Veco (not Stevens) for review. Then, payment from Stevens would arrive in the mail. The checks all came from a special account set up specifically for the remodeling job, Paone told the press a few months ago. He recently hired a lawyer and is no longer speaking publicly.
We haven't received a response on our request for clarification from Stevens' office.
Comments (19)
Bearpaw wrote on July 18, 2007 3:05 PM:Nice catch!
jrcjr wrote on July 18, 2007 3:36 PM:I have often been thinking these past few years that it's worth reminding our friends in the GOP exactly what a lie is. I don't know about Stevens in this case, but it certainly fits the recently accelerated trend of parsing the truth to deliberately convey a false impression, like that isn't ACTUALLY lying.
It's lying when a four-year-old does it, and it is when a forty-year-old does it, too.
lie - noun
thomas wrote on July 18, 2007 3:48 PM:1. a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.
2. something intended or serving to convey a false impression; imposture: His flashy car was a lie that deceived no one.
3. an inaccurate or false statement.
4. the charge or accusation of lying: He flung the lie back at his accusers.
–verb (used without object)
5. to speak falsely or utter untruth knowingly, as with intent to deceive.
6. to express what is false; convey a false impression.
I've been watching this show of Alaska's repugnant politicians (Stevens family, Murkowski family, does Young have a family?) with admiration.
davis13 wrote on July 18, 2007 3:55 PM:Being from Illinois I've known we didn't have a monopoly on corruption - after all there are 49 other states - i just thought we were pros, along with Louisana, Maryland, New Jersey etc. It now seems the only real major leaguers are from the 49th state.
Yeah, I'm from Illinois too and Daley has nothing on the Republicans. He's a crook but they are much, much better at hiding behind Christ.
global citizen wrote on July 18, 2007 4:39 PM:I do wish the senior Senator form Alaska good health so that he makes it through the investigation and trial and gets to serve some hard time in his waning years.
paul wrote on July 18, 2007 4:43 PM:Of course it was his own money. He stole it fair and square.
will wrote on July 18, 2007 5:03 PM:Just another criminal republican. Is there one person in the Republican party that has any ethics left? Ethics and Republican don't go together.
vm wrote on July 18, 2007 5:07 PM:Gone are the days when a public figure needed to maintain plausible deniability of wrongdoing. The Bush Administration has demonstrated over and over again that implausible deniability will suffice.
Brianm0122 wrote on July 18, 2007 5:16 PM:This is the Phil Gramm defense.
He once had his weekend cabin on the eastern shore renovated, and the contractor "forgot" to send a bill.
So he was able to say he paid every bill he received....
IMU wrote on July 18, 2007 5:28 PM:Also note the use of the first person PLURAL.
"We paid every bill that was given to us. Every bill that was sent to us has been paid, personally, with our own money, and that's all there is to it. It's our own money."
Uh, who is this "we"? Stepehns and his wife? Has he taken to using the royal "we"? Or is it, say, a business partner? Is it any more clear from the context?
regular lurker wrote on July 18, 2007 5:36 PM:IMU - Interesting observation on the "we." What about the singular "I"?
"I paid every bill that was given to ME. Every bill that was sent to ME has been paid, personally, with MY own money, and that's all there is to it. It's MY own money."
Or maybe not...
mr.ed wrote on July 18, 2007 5:47 PM:Does the addition have some of them there tubes the internet comes down in? Just askin' 'cause Ted knows all about it. He said so.
Anonymous wrote on July 19, 2007 2:36 AM:This ain't nothing, wait 'til his son Ben is brought down by the Feds. It will be a happy day in AK!
Buster-49er
Anonymous wrote on July 19, 2007 4:11 AM:Ben and his dad worked the fishery deals for mutual enrichment. This was their own doing.
Now his remodler is lawyering up, probably lied a time or two to the grand jury.
It's not hard to do the stings but those are artificial.
What is better is when legislation like the PPT is already under scrutiny of investigation and the actors just play it out for the investigation.
Greed Crimes make good copy.
Security Code" MINE
Many Indictments No Entrapment
trailfollower wrote on July 20, 2007 8:49 PM:Take a look at Steven's newly filed ethics report - it contains amendments to prior years reports in which apparently he "forgot" to report the expensive guns given to him by Bob Penny's so-called nonprofit, the Kenai River Sportsman's Association. If you look at its 990s on Guidestar you will see that this organization gets big buckets of money from grants and has it socked away, earning boodles of interest so it can afford to buy fancy engraved guns for Ted Stevens, to wit:
2002 - Marlin Guide - $850 (reported in 2007)
trailfollower wrote on July 20, 2007 9:01 PM:2003 - Winchester - $1400 (reported in 2007)
2004 - Beretta Silver Eagle - $1800 (reported in 2007)
2005 - Ruger - $800.00 (reported in 2007)
If you want to see an actual presentation, you can see a photo of him accepting this gift at:
http://www.kenairiversportfishing.com/gallery2.asp?SUB_ID=53&CAT_ID=3
trailfollower wrote on July 20, 2007 9:40 PM:And in a hilarious (not) example of how all Alaskans are related in a really ooky way, a member of the Alaska State Legislature Ethics Committee is on the Board of Bob Penny's gift-giving Kenai River... you know the rest. Who, pray tell, is watching the watchers? Google Gary Turner and you will see that it was the Executive Director of Bob Pennys Kenai River Sportfishing Association (the illegal gift-giving one) that testifed in support of his being appointed to the Legislative Ethics Committee.
CuriousLarry wrote on July 31, 2007 8:20 AM:What happened to the FBI that they are investigating Republicans? I thought government employees get promoted for investigating Democrats and fired as soon as they so much as suspect a Republican. Does Stevens hold the wrong position on Iraq?
optimism abounds wrote on September 15, 2007 6:09 AM:I hate to just bash Republicans because so many of them are proving to be crooks. Republican is just a word. The party could stand for anything.
Unfortunately, it's gotten a lot too cozy with business. Maybe someday it'll return to being a political party in our democracy, and not a plutocratic club in the world of high finance.