Posted on 08/10/2010 9:46:19 AM PDT by Talkradio03
(Reuters) - Former Republican Senator Ted Stevens, 86, whose four decades in the U.S. Senate ended after a conviction on corruption charges, was aboard a plane that crashed in his home state of Alaska.
Here are some facts about Stevens, a hot-tempered and gruff former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee who was a bulldozer when it came to securing money for his state.
— He survived a plane crash in 1978 at Anchorage International Airport that killed his first wife, Ann.
— In 2000 he was named “Alaskan of the Century” and had an airport named after him: the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
— He was first appointed to the Senate in 1968 to fill the seat vacated due to the death of Democratic Senator Bob Bartlett. Stevens repeatedly won re-election by wide margins.
— Stevens lost a re-election bid in 2008 after being convicted on corruption charges, but the case was later thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct.
— In September 2007, his proposed “Bridge to Nowhere,” which became a symbol of out-of-control “pork barrel” spending and government waste, was abandoned when Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced the state would focus on other needs. The proposed bridge would have linked Gravna Island, population 50, to the town of Ketchikan at a cost of $398 million.
— Stevens relished his reputation as a hot head. When he succeeded Mark Hatfield as chairman of the Appropriations Committee in 1997, Stevens said, “Senator Hatfield had the patience of Job and the disposition of a saint. I don't. The watch has changed. I'm a mean, miserable SOB.”
— Born on Nov. 18, 1923, in Indianapolis, Stevens was raised in Indiana and later in California. He joined the Army Air Corps during World War Two. After returning from the war, Stevens graduated from UCLA and Harvard Law School and then headed north to Alaska, where he practiced law in the 1950s.
May he Rest in Peace.
I think Don Young started the “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark and not Stevens. Stevens just got blamed for it.
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