Newsweek reports that in a conversation “secretly tape-recorded by the FBI on June 25, 2006,” Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) “discussed ways to get a pipeline bill
through the Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services
executive accused of providing the senator with about $250,000 in
undisclosed financial benefits.” Stevens promised Allen, “I’m gonna try
to see if I can get some bigwigs
from back here and say, ‘Look … you gotta get this done’.” Two days
later, Vice President Cheney undertook the unusual move of writing a
letter to the Alaska Legislature urging members to “promptly enact” a bill to build the pipeline.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/23/cheney-linked-to-stevens-corruption-trial
---Does anyone think this is just coincidence? Shades of Agnew, here.
I'd say this requires an independent prosecutor, if not an immediate congressional investigation.