Palin's stardom gives Ted Stevens a boost, despite his upcoming criminal trial

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Palin's stardom gives Stevens boost



Despite facing an upcoming criminal trial, 84-year-old Sen. Ted Stevens is gaining ground in his effort to win re-election to a sixth term in the U.S. Senate.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008193194_tedstevens21m0.html

The 84-year-old Sen. Ted Stevens is a charter member in the good-old-boy network of Alaska politics. That might appear a liability in this campaign season, when Gov. Sarah Palin has rocketed to stardom as a Republican vice-presidential candidate who bucked the state's chummy political establishment.

In his four decades in the U.S. Senate, Stevens forged friendships with much of the state's business and political elite. This week, one of those friendships will be the focus of Stevens' criminal trial, where federal prosecutors will seek a seven-count conviction on charges that the senator failed to report more than $250,000 in free labor and gifts from a former oil executive who once ranked as one of Alaska's most formidable power brokers.

Yet Stevens, who denies the charges, still wields significant political clout, trouncing six opponents in an August Republican primary. Since then, even as his trial approaches, several polls indicate Stevens has gained substantial ground on his Democratic opponent, 46-year-old Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, and the two men now appear to be in a tight race.

Political observers in Alaska say that Stevens has received a significant boost from an unexpected source — Palin — whose presence on the national ticket appears to be energizing the state's conservative base for a strong showing at the polls in November.

[d_b]

1. He's going down

don't buy the bs.

[LunaSea]

2. down the tubes....