Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)

I know, it's weird to have a Florida-based blog writing about an Alaska senator (although the Republicans are doing their damnedest to make a connection ... a love connection). But, having dealt with Sen. Stevens personally on several occasions back in the '80s, I am taking great pleasure in watching him squirm now.

According to Josh Marshall over at TPM, Sen. Stevens may well be the crookedest senator of them all. And we're only scratching the scandalous surface so far.

Still, when a guy like Sen. Stevens gets into a scandal on the order of the one he seems to be involved in we really need to jump right on it because there just can't be that many senators as crooked as he seems to be.

As we noted yesterday, not only is the already-reported grand jury in Alaska now looking into Stevens' shenanigans. There's also another grand jury impanelled in DC also looking into Stevens' dealings with Veco Corp. and specifically how the crooked oil services company (two of its execs, including its CEO, recently pleaded guilty to bribing public officials) managed to end up renovating Stevens' home.

The second grand jury in DC, which has no connection to the Veco investigation save for Sen. Stevens, is the pretty sure sign that Stevens is in the colloquial if not the technical sense a target of the investigation.

In any case, common sense tells me that you don't come up with an MO like that that led to the shady house renovation deal thirty-plus years into your senate career. And we're already hearing tales of lots of other at least borderline scams by Alaska's senior senator. Indeed, since we started reporting in earnest on the Stevens' story quite a few Alaska readers have come out of the wood with more helpful details about Sen. Stevens.

Oh, boy, is this great!

See, I have personal reasons for my schadenfreude this time. When I taught in D.C., I had to (among other things) organize meetings with members of Congress. I met many of them in my two years there, probably about 30 senators and 40 or 50 members of the House. And not a single one of them was as big an asshole, or as unpleasant to deal with, as the (current) senior senator from Alaska.

About a year and a half ago, I finally completed my quest to visit all fifty states. Alaska was the last one. And as I exited the airport in Anchorage, I looked back and saw to my disgust that I'd just landed at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Blecch.

At least when they frogmarch Ted off to join Scooter, he can look back on his legacy in transportation: an airport and a bridge to nowhere. And the progenitor of the intertubes, too ...

In the meantime, congratulations to Ted Stevens ... as the scandals continue to be uncovered, today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!