There are only two elected officials left standing in the musical chairs among those publicly tied to the state's massive political corruption scandal: current U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R) and his son, former State Sen. Ben Stevens (R).

The indictment of Alaska State Sen. John Cowdery (R) last Thursday, means all of the state legislators whose offices were raided in August of 2006 (except Stevens) -- Cowdery, Vic Kohring (R), Bruce Weyhrauch (R), Pete Kott (R) and Don Olson (D) -- are now either cooperating with federal investigations, convicted or indicted. The FBI warrant allowing the search named former VECO executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith.

Allen and Smith were indicted and pleaded guilty. Their testimony at the trials of Kott, Kohring and Weyhrauch helped convict the three indicted state representatives. While Kott and Weyhrauch's convictions are pending appeal, Kohring recently began his 3.5 year prison sentence. Cowdery's recent indictment on two counts of bribery and conspiracy named an anonymous "Senator A" who was later revealed by Cowdery's lawyer as Olson. Olson followed with a statement that he has been cooperating with the U.S. attorney's office for over a year, and is unlikely to be indicted.

That leaves just the Stevens boys without a fall out. Both are under federal investigation for their ties to VECO, but the investigation of Uncle Ted also stretches to his suspicious pet projects.

As one juror at Kohring's trial observed after his conviction, "they didn't get the sharks. They got the minnow." Cowdery appears to be the last of the "minnows," but does that mean federal prosecutors will be going after bigger game in the near future?

And don't forget the other big fish: Seemingly more tenuous, but still present is the ongoing federal investigation into U.S. Rep. Don Young (R), for his own ties to VECO.

Convicted former-State Rep. Vic Kohring didn't seem to be the least bit fazed that today is his last day of freedom for 3 and 1/2 years.

Before turning himself over to federal marshals, Kohring spent the morning standing next to a home-made sign on the Glenn Highway in Alaska, waving to pedestrians and sipping hot chocolate (picture at left):

He said he's not scared of going to prison, but has been Googling the Southern California facility he'll live in for up to 3 and a half years. He could rattle off the population of the nearby town and the high temperature last week (103 degrees).

Said he might write an autobiography while in jail, call it "Absolutely Innocent." Plans to read a lot. Write a lot of letters.

. . . He said he spent the weekend with his family, and has been doing things like stopping mail to his mail box and closing his bank account. Packing.

"It's almost like going away on a vacation. A .... Government sponsored vacation," he said.

Kohring was convicted in November 2007 and sentenced last month for accepting bribes to advocate a natural gas pipeline. His trial was central in bringing Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) into the VECO scandal, with the testimony of VECO CEO Bill Allen. Allen testified that he was blackmailed by his nephew, who was doing home renovations for Stevens, which were paid for in part by VECO.

[Late Update]: The ADN has obliged us with some great video from Kohring's roadside debacle and a heckler who stopped by to tell him to "give it up and go prison". . . which he does at the end of the clip. Enjoy.