When Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) says he isn't going to talk to reporters about any investigation, he means it. Yesterday he declined to even give his thoughts on the Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) scandal, Alaska NBC affiliate KTUU reports.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) -- whose home was raided by the FBI late last month -- told an NBC affiliate in Alaska, KTUU, he still isn't sure if he is the "target" of the federal investigation.

"I'm not sure I'm a target yet. I've not been told I'm a target. But as a practical matter, the situation -- I shouldn't have answered that question either," Stevens said. "I was not a target of those other investigations, is what I was saying."

As we've noted before, the "target" line is a favorite one of scandal subjects who want to sound as if things aren't all that bad. But it sounds like Stevens needs some convincing.

It looks like there is still more to come in the Alaska political corruption scandal, according to the Juneau Empire, which quoted a federal prosecutor saying there are "multiple, ongoing nonpublic investigations" looking at the ties between Alaska lawmakers and the oil industry.

The paper also notes that a federal judge officially named Ben Stevens, former Alaska Senate President and son of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), as a subject in the investigation. Stevens had been identified as "Senator B" in charging documents; the Anchorage Daily News pieced together the younger Stevens' involvement in May.

We're slowing down for a repeat stop on our Alaska fundraising tour. The last time we dropped in on former Alaska Gov. Bill Sheffield's (D) house, he was hosting the annual Rep. Don Young (R-AK) pig roast. This time he's helping out Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). Thanks to TPMm Reader LDR for sending us the invitation to "Ted's in Town" where guests are encouraged to contribute $250 to the senior senator's campaign fund. No word on the spread.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is tired of the local Alaska press making him out to be a "senator-for-life" figure. He's not royalty!

In other news, protesters were kept out of his sight and earshot at the official opening of the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute in Juneau yesterday.

It's tough being friends with someone under federal criminal investigation.

That's what Bob Persons says. The longtime friend of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) testified before a grand jury last fall about his involvement in the Veco-overseen renovations of Stevens' home, because he'd been the one to keep tabs on the job while Stevens was in Washington. News of Persons' testimony put him in local and national media stories about the Alaska corruption probe and soiled his good name, he told the Turnagain Times in an interview.

Persons has largely stayed quiet during the investigation, but he wanted to let his neighbors know he isn't a bad guy. In the interview with the Turnaround Times he revealed that he is the "Secret Santa" who has provided the needy children of Girdwood with presents each Christmas for the last 25 years.

He's also racked up $35,000 in legal fees recently.

“This is kind of embarrassing for me,” Persons said. “I’ve kept quiet for 25 years (as “Secret Santa”) and once I got caught up in the investigation, I wanted to stand up. I don’t want my reputation that I’ve built up over 25 years being sullied by an investigation. Things that are unproven, things that nobody knows."

When news broke that Persons testified and produced documents, I tried getting in touch with him at his Girdwood restaurant, The Double Musky Inn. I didn't have any luck.

Remember the good old days when politicians faced scrutiny in discrete media -- print, radio and television? No longer. New media convergence is here and it's killing folks like Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), according to the NBC affiliate in Alaska, KTUU.

KTUU said there's a new rule for politicians: "if it's out there, it's going everywhere."

Stevens learned that lesson last week when the Anchorage Daily News posted audio from an editorial board interview on its site, where Stevens complained that the paper is out to "assassinate" him. It was a big first for the paper and popular with several other outlets that picked it up (cough), including a local radio show that aired parts of the interview.

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The FBI wants to know why oil services company Veco Corp. won federal contracts worth $170 million to provide the National Science Foundation with polar and arctic research support, despite having no experience in the field, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Veco won the federal awards right around the time CEO Bill Allen oversaw the remodeling of Stevens' Girdwood home, another field in which Veco had no prior experience.

Stevens, who has long supported NSF arctic research, would have had authority over NSF funding as a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, though no evidence has surfaced holding Stevens responsible for directly securing the contracts for Veco.

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Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) finally stood up for himself. He called out the Anchorage Daily News for trying to destroy his credibility during an interview with its editorial board last week. Presumably Stevens is upset about coverage of events like the FBI raid of his Girdwood home, which marked the first time in history federal investigators searched a sitting U.S. senator's residence.

Stevens initially threatened to leave the interview when a reporter brought up the ongoing federal investigation, but Stevens did respond to a question about his "ability to be effective in Congress":

A. What about it? You're destroying it. More people are repeating what you're writing in your paper than anything else in the country. This paper has caused me more difficulty, and I've told you that before, than anything else. You've created me as the senator-for-life. You've been hanging me weekly.

You read any paper, the information -- most of it is not true -- started right here. And your guys just yesterday, they taunt me. They taunt me with statements that really no respectable reporter would ask a senator. It was already said I'm not going to answer your questions. They say, don't you have any concerns for your own integrity? Don't you have any conscience? That's what your reporters do to me. ...

I've spent hours here with you here in the past, and I've never seen any result of it at all. ... This paper has done nothing but try to assassinate me.

Yeah Daily News, ease up.

The AP teamed up with Taxpayers for Common Sense to take a hard look at how Alaska has benefited from earmarks:

More than 2,000 projects worth $7.5 billion have gone to Alaska since 2000, says Taxpayers for Common Sense. Alaska received a little over $1 billion in the 2005 highway bill.

A 2005-2007 study of earmarks by the group showed that Alaska _ ranked 47th in population _ has done far better than other states, when spending is calculated per person. Spending over the three-year period came to $4,311 per person in earmarked projects for Alaskans, while Hawaii was a distant second at $1,812. At the low end were the populous states of Texas, at $98 per person, and New York, $95 per person.

Part of the difference can be explained by Alaska's special needs, with its remote geography, rough terrain and extreme weather. But the clout of Stevens and Young also has played a huge role.

Here are a few of the more, ahem, interesting projects.

Another invitation lost in the mail!

From Roll Call:

Undeterred in the face of a federal corruption probe, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is hosting a small klatch of top lobbyists and others this weekend for a fishing and fundraising trip to his home state.

The getaway, billed as the “Ted Stevens El Capitan Fishing Event,” combines “three days of some of the best salt water fishing you will ever have,” according to the invite, with a fundraising reception expected to net at least $2,300 per person for the Senator’s re-election campaign.

Apparently, lobbyists must fly into Seattle or Anchorage and then take a boat or a float plane to get to the El Capitan Lodge on the remote Prince of Wales Island. On top of their donation for accommodations, fishing and meals, participants pay $2,500 to rub shoulders with Stevens at the El Capitan.

Things aren't looking good for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).

The Anchorage Daily News reports that the FBI found a thank-you note Stevens hand-wrote to former US Attorney Wev Shea after the White House hosted a dinner in the Republican senator's honor in May. In the June 7th note, Stevens makes it sound like he got a good deal on the 2000 remodeling of his home:

"This is a sad portion of my life -- it will take time to explain," Stevens said in the two-page note. "Catherine and I personally paid over $130,000 for the improvements to our chalet in Girdwood. Someone -- or more than one -- keeps telling the FBI that's not so. Takes time to go back over five years to prove they are wrong."

Stevens has claimed before that there was nothing nefarious about the job, despite oil services Veco Corp. acting as general contractor while Stevens was in Washington.

But the Daily News' story raises pretty clear doubts about how Stevens could have managed to get all the work done for that amount of money:

If $130,000 is an accurate total, it would raise questions about how such a major renovation could have been accomplished within such a tight budget. The carpentry contractor alone said he was paid more than $100,000 by Stevens. Another contractor, who raised up the house to make room for the new first floor and built part of the foundation, said he too was paid by Stevens, though he didn't recall the amount. The earth-moving contractor who prepared the ground for the job also said he was paid by Stevens.

That would leave little if any left over for a range of other work that was done, everything from design to plumbing and electric to a new roof. As recently as this week, Stevens declined to answer questions about how the project was billed and financed.

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Explaining that he doesn't want to interfere with an ongoing investigation, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) told reporters in Alaska yesterday that he would not answer any questions about the federal criminal probe into his dealings with Veco Corp. and others.

"I know you're interested in the items that have been in the media recently. I wish I could discuss those in detail. But to avoid any suggestion that I as a senator am attempting to influence an investigation by the Department of Justice, I simply cannot talk about it," he said at the start of his speech before The Anchorage Rotary Club at the Anchorage Hilton. He talked for more than 30 minutes, counting time for questions.

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Can't keep all of the ins-and-outs of the Alaska political corruption scandal straight, what with one jury conviction, three guilty pleas, three impending corruption trials, seven current and former officials in the spotlight, a murky non-profit taking heat, an oil services company facing scrutiny and a sea life tourist attraction under fire? The Anchorage Daily News posted a user-friendly run down of all of these key players, here.

If the Senate aide who has been accused of handling Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) personal finances while on the government clock received separate payments from the Alaska senator, she didn't list them on her public financial disclosure in 2006, the AP reports.

Roll Call reported yesterday that the aide, Barbara Flanders, didn't disclose any additional personal income in 2007 either.

Flanders' involvement in the ethics scandal aired Tuesday when press reports said she testified before a grand jury about Stevens' finances and provided documents. Flanders is a former personal aide to Stevens and now is supposed to work full time for the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. It appears she also handles Stevens' bills. If she wasn't paid for this work, Stevens should have listed her services as a gift on his own disclosure forms, which he has not done. If accurate, this kind of an arrangement is a violation of federal law.

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Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) called the tactics used by FBI and IRS agents who raided Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) home "Gestapo-like" today, the Crypt reports.

Craig's main objection seems to be that the agents could have parked a large white truck in front of Stevens' Girdwood home, photographed it and the neighboring property and carried out black trash bags (presumably filled with evidence) much more discreetly than they did. Maybe Craig's never been to Girdwood, because I just consulted our handy Girdwood map and it looks like it might have been tough for a dozen federal agents to have shown up at the most famous Alaskan's house without any of the neighbors noticing:

From the Crypt:

"I think some people say, 'Ah, but for the grace of God go I.' Especially when you have the allegatiatons, you have the judicial segment of our government, the executive branch, out raiding the homes of senators, that is a very frightening proposition. It is a bit Gestapo-like in its style and tactics," Craig said on Wednesday. "When the FBI was offered a key and invited into the home, they chose publicize it to make sure the media was there first, and they broke in. That is gamesmanship. That makes senators very, very angry when they attempt to cooperate when for reason they are caught in these webs and yet they are denied that for the sake of the judciary’s publicity. That is wrong.’’

Planning to eat at Uncle Ted's tonight? If you are, plan on canceling.

A former aide to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) filed papers in 2004 to create a restaurant company called Uncle Ted's Alaska LLC. But, unfortunately, it looks like the aide got cold feet last year, right around the time his boss' criminal investigation came to light. A few weeks following The Anchorage Daily News' initial coverage of the scandal, the aide, Trevor McCabe, dissolved the company. "Decision not to pursue original business idea," is the only explanation.

According to documents McCabe filed with the state, he was registered to run eating and drinking places, food stores and miscellaneous retail stores. Perhaps he had a vision for a chain restaurant devoted to foods loved by Stevens, who is known as "Uncle Ted" up in his home state. Alas, we'll never know (we can only offer our suggestion of "Big Boy" inspired icon). I can imagine a mean salmon sandwich, you could even call it a "Murkowski" for fun. Certainly pork (ribs? chop? roast?) would have been in generous supply.

This wouldn't have been the first time that McCabe used his relationship with Stevens for his benefit -- a connection that's become clearer due to the federal investigation of Stevens. He served on a marketing board with Stevens' son, Ben Stevens, that provided federal grants to the seafood industry, while they were paid "consulting fees" by the same companies receiving the money. He also benefited from a string of the elder Stevens' earmarks that have come under FBI scrutiny.

One of the companies involved in the widening federal probe into Alaska political corruption is positioned to benefit handsomely from a $3.5 million earmark tucked into a 2008 Senate spending bill by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), CQ reports.

The company, Trident Seafoods Corp., was one of several that received federal money via a local board headed by Stevens' son, Ben Stevens. While the younger Stevens dolled out federal grants supplied by his father, he received "consulting fees" from an association formed by the same companies winning the grants. Trident CEO Charles Bundrant contributed $6,700 to the elder Stevens' campaign and affiliated PACs since 2004. He also gave the National Republican Senatorial Committee $35,000 between 2005 and 2007.

The earmark CQ notes is for an airstrip that would service seafood giant Trident, and the 100 Alaskans who live in Akutan.

Trident and Stevens are no strangers. For years, company founder and Chief Executive Charles Bundrant has been a generous contributor to the Alaska Republican’s campaigns. And in December, according to the Seattle Times, a federal grand jury investigating political corruption in Alaska ordered Trident and other seafood companies to produce documents detailing financial ties to the senator’s son, former Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board Chairman Ben Stevens.

Members of the Senate leadership told The Hill that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) should be allowed to keep his committee seats.

Two watchdog groups have pushed to have Stevens temporarily removed from his committee assignments until the conclusion of a federal criminal investigation looking into his dealings with oil services company Veco and a series of earmarks that benefited one of his pet projects in Alaska.

Unlike in the House, the Senate has adopted a "wait and see" posture:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) both said Tuesday that Stevens could continue serving on his Senate panels, since charges have not been brought against him.

“My personal feeling is that we have to be very careful about punishing people during an investigation,” Reid, a former longtime appropriator, said Tuesday. “I don’t know anything about the Stevens investigation, but I’m not going to be in a position where just because someone’s under investigation they’re punished here in the Senate.”