Stevens Convicted, Idiots Arresed

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate’s history and a figure of enormous influence in his state, was found guilty on Monday of violating ethics laws for failing to report gifts and services that he was given by friends. - The New York Times

The eldest Republican in Washington, who was third-in-line for the Presidency for a number of years, has been convicted on all counts of - essentially - lying about taking a de facto bribe. In the wake of the Abramoff scandals of 2006 which contributed to the fall of the most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, the parallel fall of the most senior Republican in the Senate is a stunning reminder of the endemic corruption enabled by the past eight years of misrule. Ted Stevens and Tom DeLay both represent the idea that power and authority is owed to some people, and damn those who say otherwise.

The fall of Ted Stevens, who has served Alaska in Washington since before Alaska became a state should be a ringing call to reform and change up and down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Should be.

But there's a funny thing. Just as the conviction was announced, another announcement came out of our Government.

Law enforcement agents have broken up a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 88 black people, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn., federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school in a murder spree that was to begin in Tennessee. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name. - MSNBC.com

When you dig into this story, which stole some thunder from the conviction of the most senior Republican in Washington, you discover that the idiots behind this so-called "plot" were two fools barely out of high school. It was less of a "plot" than "bad idea." These would-be sociopaths weren't arrested for the plot, but on a relatively routine gun charge last week. It is only today that the court records were unsealed.

This is not to take anything from the horrific nature of these bad idas, nor to the real threat represented by the fact they were able to collect a few guns to get started. However, this was barely more of a "plot" than the one uncovered during the DNC (if you even remember that one). It seems like the kind of thing that would have been just as good to release a week ago, or a week from today. But for some reason, the ATF announced it today.

I do not like thinking that the ATF released these records today to try to muffle some of the corrupt thunder from the Stevens' trial. I do not like thinking that, but after eight years of manipulating events to serve the Republican agenda, I cannot help it.

We cannot let this conviction go away. It it is an exclamation point on an amazing election season, the cherry on top of the corrupt, crap sundae served to the American people for eight years. America runs the risk of becoming inured to Republican corruption, but each instance is a withering of our system, and each instance will require a strong Democratic majority to overcome.

One week. Then the real work of recovery begins.