Stevens is a Republican. They're true patriots, good Christian souls who can do no wrong. Republicans aren't convicted, they're victimized. And, usually, pardoned.

He's not some dope-smoking scofflaw who should be sent away for life. He's good people, like daycare-picker-upper Scooter Libby.

Why do you hate America?

and there's not enough room under here for all the people Rahm Emanuel shoved.

(not surprisingly) -- http://www.slate.com/id/2203348/

i'm sure he'll get re-elected.

Only DC mayors can be convicted criminals.

The Steven's and Murkowski's are the definition of corruption and cronyism, but just like anywhere else, as longs your city or state is growing or moving foward, people look the other way. Just look at the modern history of Chicago.

The latest bumper sticker to appear in Anchorage:

"Vote For Ted Until He's Dead."

More than a little macabre, but Alaskan humor has always been dark; living with danger will do that. Unfortunately for Stevens and his backers, the voters have already decided that Stevens has breathed his last as a United States Senator. The latest polls show Begich opening up a formidable lead with only a couple of days left before the election.

In direct opposition to repeated unfounded claims,

he’s a shoo-in for re-election no matter what.

i’m sure he’ll get re-elected.

There isn’t a thing Stevens could do to lose, I don’t think. … Stevens has brought in so much bacon that his people gladly overlook his blatant criminal acts.

what was a tight race has broken sharply against Stevens since his conviction.

The shift from the previous closeness to this estimate of Begich up by 4% reflects the shift in voter opinion since Stevens’ conviction on seven felony counts. But the swing is actually quite a bit bigger. Polster.com uses a rolling average system, a careful and conservative way of smoothing the data and correcting for aberrant outlier poll results. Good practice in general, keeping a calm analytical approach rather than leaping from one conflicting result to another, but it can also mask real changes in a volatile setting.

Detuning that averaging system a little, we see here that Stevens’ indictment resulted in a sharp downturn for him and a corresponding uptick for his opponent. A relentless PR campaign by Stevens asserting his innocence along with a general upsurge in Republican voter confidence from the Palin nomination and bungling by the prosecution combined to regain all of the goodwill he had lost, and by the time his trial was nearing completion the race was even. Since the conviction, however, two new polls have shown the predictable result:

A Rasmussen poll on October 28 shows Begich up by 8%, while a Kos-funded Research2000 poll closing October 30 has the race as a blowout, Begich leading by 22% with 58% to Stevens’ 36%. This is the political equivalent of falling off a cliff. Begich wins this race in a walkaway, and Stevens’ next federal position will be scrubbing pots and pans in Stony Lonesome.

Begich is no prize, but he will be a very junior Senator and far less able to use his position for corrupt purposes than was Stevens. He also moves the Democrats one step closer to cloture and control of the agenda, as well as another step along the path to stripping Joe Lieberman from his chairmanship position. I’ll take that trade, any day.