After giving the press "no comments" since the FBI raided his home in August, Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) finally spoke yesterday. And what did he have to say? Stevens told a Fairbanks Daily News Miner reporter that he's on "frosty" terms with Gov. Sarah Palin (R), and she should think carefully about how she spends Alaska's federal bridge to nowhere money.

Short about $329 million to build the bridge that would have connected an island of 50 people to a more densely populated, neighboring island, Palin told transportation officials to direct the $200 million to an alternative project like an upgraded ferry system.

Stevens worries the federal government might want the money back, even though the language that targeted the money to the project was stripped from the bill after it became a scandal. Alaska got the money just the same, however, and Stevens has never admitted defeat.

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Yesterday a jury found former Alaska state Rep. Pete Kott (R) guilty of taking bribes from former Veco CEO Bill Allen, who testified during the trial that he also paid for some of Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) home remodeling, AP reports.

In exchange for helping to get a petroleum state tax law passed that would entice oil companies to build a pipeline lucrative for Veco, Allen gave Kott cash and promised him a job at the company. Kott's sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 7.

Federal prosecutors say the seven-term former lawmaker from Eagle River, north of Anchorage, accepted nearly $9,000, including a $7,993 check that he used to pay his son to work as his campaign manager. The company also paid for a poll at a cost of a $2,750, prosecutors said.

Also, prosecutors said, VECO promised Kott a job after he left office in exchange for his support of their political agenda.

The jury conviction signals danger for Stevens, who is under investigation for his dealings with Allen.

The Senate is certainly a kinder place to mucked-up pols than the House.

Despite testimony last week from former Veco CEO Bill Allen that he bribed Sen. Ted Sevens (R-AK) and news that the FBI taped two of their phone conversations, Senate leaders haven't commented on the legal woes plaguing the longest-serving Republican senator.

That's in stark contrast to how the House leadership has reacted to news of investigations. House Republicans apparently put the squeeze on Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) to remove him from his committee spots. Democrats gave Rep. William Jefferson (D-CA) the same treatment. Senate Republicans did react aggressively to news of Sen. Larry Craig's (R-WY) guilty plea, but apparently this is a much different case.

Roll Call asked Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) if Stevens should be removed from his committee assignments in the wake of the scandal. McConnell referred back to a July 31 statement, in which he referred to Stevens' "four decades of service" in the Senate and said he didn't have "any announcements today."

On the other side of the aisle, Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was similarly tight-lipped:

"I didn’t comment on [Sen.] Larry Craig [R-Idaho]. I’m not going to comment on this. ... I’m not going to get into that.”

Keep your fingers crossed, Ted. The AP is reporting that a recent decision in the Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) case could make it impossible to tap lawmakers' phones in corruption cases. That's good news for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), since it was just reported that he was secretly recorded by the FBI while on the phone with former Veco CEO Bill Allen.

The decision, which one watchdog group worried would be a boon for corrupt politicians, dealt with the FBI's raid of Jefferson's Congressional office. The court found the raid unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the Speech or Debate Clause because agents thumbed through protected legislative documents.

And in an appeal of that decision last week, the Justice Department argued that the ruling "'threatens to complicate numerous ongoing and future investigations' and hinder the ability to use electronic surveillance."

The decision is already starting to affect federal investigations. The AP also reported that some members of Congress interpret the ruling as protecting staffers from speaking to the FBI.

The FBI is so interested in what Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) says to former Veco CEO Bill Allen that they secretly taped his calls to hear. There is no word yet on the content of the conversations.

The recorded calls between Stevens and businessman Bill Allen were confirmed by two people close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way. They declined to say how many calls were recorded or what was said.

Allen, a wealthy businessman and Stevens' political patron, agreed to the taping last year after authorities confronted him with evidence he had bribed Alaska lawmakers. He pleaded guilty to bribery and is a key witness against Alaska legislators. He also has told prosecutors he paid his employees to renovate the senator's house.

Allen pleaded guilty himself to corruption charges and is cooperating in the broad investigation. During the corruption trial of former state Rep. Pete Kott (R-AK) this week, prosecutors played a recorded phone conversation between Kott and Allen where Kott admits Allen tucked extra money into a payment for a legitimate flooring project. The Anchorage Daily News has the audio here. (On the call, Kott and Allen also touch on Kott's dream of becoming a prison warden in Barbados.)

The AP also reveals that Stevens, whose home was raided by the FBI in June, has been of interest to investigators long before that.

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A newly-identified key player in the investigations of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK), construction worker Robert Williams, told the AP about the testimony he gave a federal grand jury on his double-duty rolls while on the Veco payroll:

Williams said he was in charge of "special projects" for VECO founder Bill Allen, and the renovation of Stevens' home was one such project. Others included working three or four fundraisers for Stevens while on the clock with VECO. Federal elections laws prohibit candidates from accepting donations or free services from corporations.

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Reading about Veco CEO Bill Allen's testimony of Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) home makeover didn't capture Allen's mentality quite like reading the actual transcript. (Available here.)

While we learned last week that Allen admitted to paying for some of the work (alleged bribes of a U.S. senator), Allen's full answers make it sound like he has a very hazy recollection of the job. He wasn't completely sure how much he spent, how many Veco employees he assigned to the job, how long the project took or if he gave Stevens anything else besides some old furniture. It almost seems like it was routine (which for Allen, who's admitted to bribing a group of Alaska pols, it was).

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Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) may be under federal investigation, but that's not keeping him from what he does best. In the 2008 defense appropriations bill, his earmarks for individual projects topped The Hill's list at $189 million. He shares $24.7 million in earmark requests with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) -- who's certainly no slouch herself.

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I just spoke with Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) spokesman Aaron Saunders who said they are not commenting on the recent testimony from Bill Allen. Saunders said they are standing by the old statement they put out when Stevens' home was raided by the FBI. That statement, declaring that Stevens won't comment on the investigation "until it has concluded," is below.

But during a press conference in July, Stevens wasn't so disciplined, declaring that he'd paid "every bill that was given to us" as part of the home renovation. With Allen's testimony today, that line is looking more and more like the artful dodge it was suspected to be.

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It's getting juicy up in Alaska, as former Veco CEO Bill Allen testified again today. From the AP:

Under cross-examination by defense attorney James Wendt, representing former state Rep. Pete Kott, Allen acknowledged that the more than $400,000 he admitted spending in the bribery charge was for other legislators - and including for work done at the Girdwood, Alaska, home of Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the U.S. Senate.

"I gave Ted some old furniture," Allen said. "I don't think there was a lot of material, There was some labor."

The workers were VECO employees, probably one to four at a time, Allen said. He said the work on the home lasted for "probably a couple of months." Later, he said it might have been as much as six months.

Maybe Stevens wasn't getting all of his bills, after all?

Update: Bill Allen testified that Veco actually paid for some of the work. Rich Mauer at the Anchorage Daily News reports live from the courtroom:

Wendt: “There wasn’t a lot of material … but you paid some labor bills that went into Sen. Stevens’ house?”

Allen: “Yes.”

Allen said it the labor was from Veco employees.

Update: To clarify, according to Bill Allen's plea deal, he admitted to giving more than $400,000 worth of "illegal benefits" to politicians and their families.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is well connected in the state's scandal circuit. He came up twice yesterday in two separate Alaska cases, one criminal and one civil, that both hinge on the financial ties between public officials and company leaders.

In the favors-for-votes corruption trial of former state legislator Pete Kott (who dreams of a topless beaches and a Barbados prison gig), the FBI played a videotape of a secret meeting between Veco executives discussing Stevens' arrival, just in time to support legislation they wanted pushed through the state legislature.

In the grainy video, VECO Corp. executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith can be heard talking about how to ensure passage of an oil tax bill. If approved, the bill would increase chances that a natural gas pipeline would be built, a deal that could mean huge profits for VECO.

Allen and Smith said they wanted to ensure Stevens was asked "good questions" that would steer him toward discussing the bill and the pipeline. The senator, Allen said, would make clear that "we need oil."

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The latest edition of The New Republic takes a look at Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) "twisted genius for getting what he wants" and the political atmosphere that has let him get away with it for so long.

The key to the most senior Republican senator's success seems to be his tactical use of his extreme temper. In conversations with Alaska locals, I've heard that the legend of Stevens' temper dates back to the death of his wife in 1978 when the couple's plane crashed landing at the Anchorage airport. TNR fleshes out how Stevens' first response to the tragic incident was to lash out at Sen. Mike Gravel (D-AK), grumbling that if it weren't for Gravel, he and his wife wouldn't have needed to rush to a meeting over a piece of legislation Gravel was trying to block.

His accusation became more specific in what a former Senate aide who was present calls "one of the most horrifying moments in the modern Senate." According to the aide (the story was also chronicled by The Washington Post at the time), Stevens hobbled into a Senate committee hearing a couple of months later on crutches and in bandages. With Gravel present, Stevens raised the topic of his reason for flying that fateful day. "I don't want to get personal about it," he told the stunned audience, "but I think if that bill had passed, I might have a wife sitting at home when I get home tonight, too."

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Until now, real estate developer Bob Penney looked like maybe he just enjoys helping out Alaska politicians. (Like giving Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) half off on a prime piece of land.) But in today's edition of The Hill, it's starting to look more likely that at least his relationship with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) fetched him more in return than he's admitted. And Stevens' help neatly coincided with his involvement in a highly profitable land deal orchestrated by Penney.

Reporter Manu Raju trolled through public documents and spoke with Alaska officials to confirm that Stevens quietly slipped Penney's group, the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, $4.5 million in earmarks between fiscal 2004 and 2006 to research salmon populations in the famed river and a connected stream.

The spending laws do not specifically say the money was targeted for the group, but the funds were given to it after Stevens’s office instructed the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to do so, according to officials there.

Penney has long fought for sport fishermen to get increased access to the Kenai, much to the chagrin of commercial fishing industry groups, which are fierce competitors with sport fishermen over salmon allocations. Officials from the commercial fishing industry say that the group shut them out of determining how to spend the earmarked dollars, alleging the sporting group is using the funding to lay the groundwork to help them at the commercial sector’s expense.

All of the fish-money funneling took place right around the time Penney brought Stevens in on a Utah land deal that turned a $15,000 investment into $125,000 in just one year. Penney told the Anchorage Daily News at the time (2004) that he and his fellow investors invited Stevens in "appreciation for all he's done for Alaska and the country. We respect him very, very much."

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