From The Washington Post:

It's true that in Washington, adversaries often wind up drinking together after hours. But when insiders at the FBI saw that Sen. Ted Stevens had RSVP'd "yes" to last Friday's annual director's holiday bash, the hunters couldn't quite conceive of partying with the prey. FBI agents raided the Alaska Republican's home less than five months ago as part of a sprawling corruption probe.

Every member of Congress is invited to the party, but Stevens was among those who had replied to say he'd be attending. But the embattled senator must have gotten cold feet: He was a no-show at the packed party, where handcuffs and holsters abound.

If you thought Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) was going to let the berries in his state go unresearched and the vistas of alternative uses for salmon unexplored just because he's under federal investigation for past earmarks (among other things), then you thought wrong. Roll Call (sub. req.) reports that Stevens pulled down $88 million in earmarks in this year's omnibus spending bill. Among them:

According to a preliminary review of the bill, Stevens is listed as inserting 17 earmarks into the bill, worth more than $25 million. The earmarks would cover a variety of projects, including $824,000 for alternative salmon products, $975,000 for berry research, $332,000 for “new crop opportunities,” $133,000 for native plant commercialization, $700,000 for the Mountain View revitalization project in Anchorage and $7.5 million for the Denali Commission to undertake transportation infrastructure projects in the state.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no earmark this year to create another Salmon-30-Salmon (see above).

Even with the Democrats in the majority and the FBI on his tail, he's still got it:

Senior Republican appropriators in the Senate have collected more money in earmarks than any other members of Congress, even though President Bush and GOP leaders have forcefully criticized “pork-barrel spending.”

Not only have these lawmakers defied their leaders, they have also taken a much greater share of the pot set aside for rank-and-file Republicans than have senior Democrats....

Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has collected $774 million worth of earmarks in 12 spending bills. After Cochran, Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the second-ranking Republican on Appropriations, secured more money for special projects than any other member of Congress: $502 million.

Not surprisingly, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) took the gold in the House. And the bronze went to Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who's earmarking activities are also under investigation.