Sen. Stevens deserves the boot

If men of good will are going to reform the Republican Party, then its elected and part officials need to be held to the highest of standards. The first step on the road to recovering the party's legitimacy with the people is to forcibly fire someone like Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. In July Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts of failing to properly report gifts valued at approximately $250,000. Stevens was, according to a Los Angeles Times report, using his political connections to invest his money with businesses that received government contracts, which is a conflict of interest for the senator.

On Tuesday, it's seems the voters in Alaska decided to return Stevens to office. There are about 40,000 absentee votes waiting to be counted, but Stevens holds a slim lead. If Stevens is returned to Washington, that will make him the first convicted felon to be re-elected to Congress. I don't know why the people of Alaska would choose to send a corrupt official back to Washington, but it is disconcerting to say the least. The Constitution does give the Senate the power to expel Stevens from that august body, but it should never come to that.

If Stevens truly believes in John McCain's philosophy of Country First, he should step down from both the U.S. Senate and from the Republican Party itself. Then it would appear that principle would triumph over party.

Yes, it is true that the Democrats may have returned a felon to office in Rep. William Jefferson who has been indicted on 15 counts of corruption, but Jefferson has not been convicted in a court of law. And even if Jefferson had been convicted, Republicans cannot afford to play the tit for tat game. If it's not good for the goose, then it's not good for the gander.

Let's take back the party and send it a message - hold elected officials to the highest standards and purge criminals from our ranks. Send an email to your state and national party leaders to call for Stevens' dismissal from office.