Prison Bars Are a Series of Tubes

Senator Ted Stevens guilty of 7 Counts of Lying on Senate Disclosure Forms

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens vowed to fight his Monday conviction on federal corruption charges, a verdict he attributed to "repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct."

Sen. Ted Stevens leaves federal court Monday as the jury deliberated in his corruption trial.

"I will fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have," the 84-year-old Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican, said in a written statement after the jury came back Monday afternoon. "I am innocent."

Stevens was convicted of seven counts of making false statements on Senate ethics forms to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and work on his Alaska home from an oilfield contractor at the center of a corruption investigation in the state."

"This verdict is the result of the unconscionable manner in which the Justice Department lawyers conducted this trial," he said.

Actually, this verdict is the result of the unconscionable manner in which Ted Stevens abused the public trust, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a corrupt oil service company so they could in turn steal millions from taxpayers.

And I'm guessing Ted Stevens is innocent...of the Kennedy assassination.

This leaves Sarah Palin as about the only member of the Alaska Republican Party not to go to jail. Then again, Troopergate isn't over yet.

PS. Of course, this is excellent news for John McCain. How stupid of me not to realize it immediately.