|
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that Alaska Republican Ted Stevens should give up the Senate seat he has held for four decades. “He should resign,” McConnell, fighting for his own political survival, said Tuesday night at a campaign stop. Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, was convicted Monday on seven felony charges for making false statements. He has called on his Senate Republican colleagues to stand behind him as he fights to overturn his conviction and asked Alaska voters to send him back to the Senate for a seventh full term in next week’s election. But Republicans in tough election fights are seeking to distance themselves from the senator, fearing that their ties to the convicted Republican could become a political liability in an already tough election-year for the GOP. On Tuesday, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, along with GOP Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Gordon Smith (Ore.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.) all called on Stevens to resign. DeMint is the only one not on a ballot this November. McConnell initially put out a statement saying that Stevens “will be held accountable so the public trust can be restored.” But his rival, Democratic businessman Bruce Lunsford, had repeatedly pressed McConnell to call for Stevens’s resignation throughout Tuesday. Republican calls for his resignation will only make it harder for Stevens, a political legend in the state, to convince voters to give him another six years. If he wins reelection, senators could decide to expel him from his seat, but his conviction does not preclude him from serving. |
