Written By : John Hawkins

Here’s an email I received from RWN reader Gunnar Hallgren,

I am an Alaskan and have been critical of Ted Stevens for quite a while, but I am a little torn on what to do now.

Before he was found guilty, I was going to hold my nose (very tightly) and vote for him (like McCain) to keep GOP numbers up and not give complete control of the country to the dems.

Now, I’m wondering which is worse: voting for a felon or handing a senate seat to Mark Begich, the democrat opponent.

What are your thoughts on the situation?

One of the reasons I hold Democrats in so much contempt is that they will happily vote for the absolute scum of the earth as long as they have a (D) beside of their name. Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, William Jefferson — these are people who should have gone to prison, not back to Congress.

I know that it’s tough in this case because the Democrats are going to gain so many seats in the Senate, but I don’t think Republicans should be willing to vote for a guy like Stevens, who has now been convicted of corruption.

Now, we could say, “Gee, the Democrats do it, so why not us?” Well, that’s the point; if we don’t have ethical Republicans in Congress, we’re not going to have ethical government period. If Republicans had the same sort of ethics as the Democratic Party, the lobbyists would be roaming the halls of Congress handing out bags of cash and everyone would turn a blind eye to it in the name of staying in power.

Granted, both the Democrats and Republicans have crooks that come up through the ranks, but one of the defining differences between the parties is that Republicans put those people out of office.

PS: After Ted Stevens loses — and he is going to deservedly lose — aren’t you going to feel better about yourself for standing on principle and not voting for a candidate like that?

PS 2: If Stevens had any integrity or honor, he would simply resign so that they could hold a special election to appoint a replacement for him. The fact that he’s not doing that tells you everything you need to know about him.

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