Stevens, a lawyer who once served in the Justice Department, argued an interesting legal theory: it is not a conviction until the appeals process is over.

"I've not been convicted yet," Stevens said Thursday in a meeting with the editorial board of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "There's not a black mark by my name yet, until the appeal is over and I am finally convicted, if that happens. If that happens, of course I'll do what's right for Alaska and for the Senate. ... I don't anticipate it happening, and until it happens I do not have a black mark."

Call it the "Black Mark Theory" -- one he reiterated in his debate last night with Democratic candidate for Senate, Mark Begich:

Stevens reiterated that position during a televised debate late Thursday night, declaring early in the give-and-take with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, "I have not been convicted of anything."

To top it off, Stevens essentially called John McCain and Sarah Palin political opportunists who were insincere in their calls for him to resign.

The senator said Gov. Sarah Palin and the other Republicans who have called on him to resign are only doing so for political gain, not because they are sincere. "I wouldn't hold it against them, I understand what they're doing, trying to get elected."

Years after he resurrected his political fortunes from the Keating Five savings and loan investigation, John McCain promoted an Arizona land swap that would've benefited a former mentor and partner of the scandal's central figure.

The owners of the Spur Cross Ranch, a dramatic 2,154-acre tract of Sonoran desert just north of Phoenix, in the late 1990s sought to sell it to a developer who planned to build a premier golf course surrounded by 390 luxury homes.

Nearby residents and environmentalists, however, wanted to preserve the area's unusual cacti, stone formations and hundreds of Hopi Indian tribal artifacts.

After opposition surfaced, the developer sought McCain's help in forging a land swap with the U.S. Forest Service — a deal that also would benefit the owners of the ranch, including a company controlled by billionaire Carl H. Lindner Jr., an associate of S&L chief Charles H. Keating.

McCain and an aide pushed for the exchange in more than a half dozen sometimes-testy letters and phone calls up and down the Forest Service's hierarchy, according to former agency officials and correspondence. McCain's office even circulated draft legislation that would have overridden the agency's objection to surrendering national forest land. Ultimately, the deal fell apart.

McCain's behind-the-scenes maneuvering on Spur Cross contrasts with his image as a congressional ethics champion and his pledge — made after the Keating scandal in 1991 sullied his reputation — never to intervene with regulators again.

John McCain's broken promise on intervention with regulators should not come as any surprise. McCain's lawyer during the scandal, John Dowd, claimed that McCain didn't do anything wrong in the Keating Five -- reversing nearly 20 years of self-recriminations and repentance.

Just more evidence that John McCain is more of the same last eight years.

The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.

The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.

Additionally, McCain's team is changing their story on what McCain knew. Washington Post:

Sometimes in politics, memories fail.

In a conference call with reporters, attorney John Dowd was asked about a specific part of the Keating Five inquiry, the fact that Cindy McCain and her father had invested in a Keating strip mall.

"It was part of the inquiry, but it did not -- John was unconnected to that and unaware of it at the time, and did not participate in it," Dowd said.

As the Post reported, McCain did know about the investments, in fact, there's video and guess who asked him the question? His lawyer, John Dowd.

When mortgage giant Freddie Mac feared several years ago that Sen. John McCain was too outspoken on the issue of executive pay, it pinpointed a lobbyist known for his closeness to McCain and hired him to work with the senator.

Mark Buse, a longtime McCain adviser who had been staff director of the Senate commerce committee, signed on as a Freddie Mac lobbyist, and his firm, ML Strategies, earned $460,000 in lobbying fees in late 2003 and 2004, according to lobbying disclosures. Buse is now chief of staff at McCain's Senate office.

While McCain made noise about executive pay, as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, he did not hold any hearings on the matter due to "lack of jurisdiction," his campaign says.

McCain continued to talk about the compensation issue. But inside Freddie Mac, Buse's effort was viewed as "hugely successful," a former Freddie Mac lobbyist said. "The statements didn't go away completely, but in terms of Senator McCain doing anything about it, it just never materialized. As far as I know, Buse was the only person working that issue for Fannie or Freddie, so he got a lot of credit internally for the results." [emphasis added]

And McCain's relationship to Buse?

Buse was nicknamed "The Ferret" because he helped his boss, McCain, find pork-barrel provisions buried in legislation. McCain has said he considered Buse to be like a son.

Buse left the commerce committee staff to lobby, signing on clients as diverse as oil giant Exxon Mobil, Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, according to the government records. He also represented telecommunications clients affected by the committee.

Buse returned to McCain's office this year as chief of staff.

Wasn't it John McCain who said that "access is influence"?

Sarah Palin likes to tell voters around the country about how she “put the government checkbook online” in Alaska. On Thursday, Palin suggested she would take that same proposal to Washington. [...]

There’s just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online – somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama.

Senator Barack Obama -- a proven record of getting things done.

In 2006 and 2007, Obama teamed up with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to pass the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, also known as “Google for Government.” The act created a free, searchable web site – USASpending.gov — that discloses to the public all federal grants, contracts, loans and insurance payments.

In June of this year, Obama and Coburn introduced new Senate legislation to expand the information available online to include details on earmarks, competitive bidding, criminal activities, audit disputes and other government information.

Gov. Sarah Palin is unlikely to speak with an independent counsel hired by Alaska lawmakers to review the firing of her public safety commissioner, a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday.

"The partisan presidential campaign of McCain/Palin has interfered and is picking partisan targets to smear in order to make this investigation look like something it isn't," said Patti Higgins, chairwoman of the Alaska Democratic Party. "Rather than cooperating with the investigation, the Republican presidential campaign is doing everything it can to stall and smear."

We've seen this movie before and as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Senator Joe Biden, said yesterday, "the sequel is always worse than the original."

Former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales mishandled highly classified information relating to the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program and the administration’s prisoner interrogation program, an internal report concluded Tuesday.

The Justice Department inspector general, who investigated Mr. Gonzales’s handling of the documents, said he kept classified material at his home and in an office safe in violation of security procedures. The inspector general referred the matter to the national security division of the Justice Department for possible criminal action, but officials there declined to prosecute Mr. Gonzales.

This week is the culmination of an historic race that has brought millions of voters to the polls—many voting for the first time. All Democrats salute Senator Hillary Clinton for her excellent campaign. Our party and our country are strengthened by her candidacy.

We meet today at a defining moment in our history. America stands at a crossroads, with an historic choice between two paths for our country. One is a path of renewing opportunity and promoting innovation here at home, and of greater security and respect around the world. It is the path that renews our democracy by bringing us together as one nation under God. But there is another path—it leads us to the same broken promises and failed policies that have diminished the American dream and weakened the security of our nation.

We call this convention to order tonight to put America on the path begun by our founders—a path that renews America’s promise for a new century. We call this convention to order to nominate a new leader for our time—Barack Obama—the next President of the United States. Two years ago, the American people set our nation in a new direction—electing a new Democratic majority in Congress committed to real change.

I am very proud of the Democrats in Congress. Working with Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Senate, here are some of our accomplishments:

• After years of inaction by Republicans, in our very first act, we passed the 9/11 Commission recommendations to protect the American people. That was just the beginning.
• We helped rebuild the Gulf Coast for the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• We put recovery rebates into the hands of more than 130 million families.
• We passed legislation to keep hard-working American families in their homes and to keep toxic toys out of the hands of our children.
• We increased the minimum wage for the first time in ten years.
• We improved fuel efficiency for the first time in 32 years.
• We passed the largest college aid expansion since the G.I. Bill 64 years ago.
• We passed the largest veterans' health care funding in the 77 year history of the Veterans Administration.
• And, we enacted a new G.I. Bill to thank our veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by sending them to college.

Every chance we get, we must honor our veterans and our men and women in uniform for their courage, patriotism, and the sacrifice they and their families are willing to make. Because of them, America is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The American people gave Democrats their confidence, and we have started to reclaim the American dream for all Americans. But our journey to take our nation in a new direction cannot be complete without new leadership in the White House. Democrats know we can't afford any more of the same failed Republican path. Democrats stand for the change America needs. We stand for Barack Obama for President of the United States.

Republicans say John McCain has experience. We say John McCain has the experience of being wrong. On the failed Bush policies that have weakened our economy and taken us from the Clinton surplus to reckless Bush deficits and on raising the minimum wage for millions of American workers, Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong. On health care for 10 million American children and on protecting Medicare—a bill so crucial that Senator Ted Kennedy left his own medical treatment to cast the decisive vote—Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong. On a future of American energy independence, investment in renewable clean energy, and millions of good-paying green jobs here at home, Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong. And on the most important foreign policy decision of our time, the war in Iraq—a catastrophic mistake that has cost thousands of lives of our men and women in uniform and trillions of dollars, as well as has weakened our standing in the world and our capability to protect the American people, Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong. Very, very wrong.

America needs a president who knows that health care is a right, not a privilege, and that quality education is the key to our future. America needs a president who knows our democracy depends on a strong middle class and who will create millions of good-paying jobs right here at home. America needs a president who will once and for all end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and invest in renewable, clean energy.

To make America stronger, America needs a president who will honor our troops and responsibly end the war in Iraq. For our children and grandchildren, America needs President Barack Obama.

The night before I was sworn in as Speaker, we had a celebration dinner at the Italian Embassy. In addition to being the first woman Speaker of the House, I am proud to be the first Italian-American Speaker of the House. My little grandson Ryan, who lives in Texas and, at the time was five years old, was playing under the table. At one point, he came out from under the table, looked up, saw Senator Obama and said, “Barack Obama! I must be dreaming!”

Barack Obama’s dream is the American dream. He gives us renewed faith in a vision of the future that is free of the constraints of the tired policies of the past—a vision that is new and bold and calls forth the best in the American people.

Barack Obama’s change is the change America needs. Whether in Illinois or in Washington, Barack Obama has bridged partisanship to bring about significant reform. Barack Obama knew that to change policy in Washington you had to change how Washington works.

That means restoring integrity to government by reducing the influence of special interests. I saw firsthand his strong leadership on one of the toughest issues: enacting the toughest ethics reform legislation in the history of Congress. This was only possible with Barack Obama's leadership.

Barack Obama’s values are enduring American values:

• A belief in personal responsibility, community, and hard work that brought him to the struggling neighborhoods of Chicago;
• A faith in God that gives him strength;
• A patriotic love of America that gives him courage;
• And his wife Michelle and his entire loving family, inspiring him every day to strengthen and renew this great country.

One hundred and fifteen years ago, a young woman named Katharine Lee Bates visited Denver. From the top of Pike’s Peak, she looked across Colorado—to the bountiful golden prairies to the east and to the majestic mountains to the west. That night she returned to her hotel room, opened her notebook, and the words of “America the Beautiful” spilled from her pen. My favorite verse is the fourth: O beautiful, for patriot dream, that sees beyond the years…

Today, Barack Obama is a 21st century patriot who sees beyond the years. As president, Barack Obama will renew the American dream; Barack Obama is the leader for America’s future.

Inspired by that same vision of “America the Beautiful,” Democrats will leave this Denver convention, unified, organized, and stronger than ever to take America in a new direction with Barack Obama and Joe Biden as President and Vice President of the United States!

God bless you and God bless America.

On the left is infamous con-man Jack Abramoff who plead guilty to a variety of charges including conspiracy to bribe public officials. He is now serving a five-year sentence related to those charges.

Who are the public officials Abramoff was bribing? Well, one willing bribe-taker is pictured on the right, former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). Ney is lucky enough to walk out of jail this morning after serving 17 months of his 30 month sentence.

To the left of Ney is David Safavian, who has similar charges pending in an appeal.

And besides the unlucky "golf organizer" standing in the back, Jason Murdoch, the last person surrounded by these nefarious golfers is Ralph Reed, who is raising money for John McCain. Reed escaped the law but his name is more than tainted. He lost the Republican primary for Georgia Lt. Governor in 2006 and has been exposed as a hypocrite for taking money from casinos after previously referring to gambling as "a cancer."

Representative Henry Waxman, Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had this to say this morning:

John McCain's decision to raise money from one of the key figures in the Jack Abramoff scandal - one of Abramoff's conspirators in a money laundering scheme -- is a very disappointing example of John McCain abandoning his principles on the campaign trail. He claimed to be a reformer? Well, reformer no more.

With Bob Ney being released from prison, how long before Senator McCain asks him to host a fundraiser also?

Earlier this week, reports revealed that Reed--one of Abramoff's closest business associates--sent an email solicitation claiming to be a member of McCain's Victory 2008 team and asking people to "join me and Jo Anne at the August 18 event in" Atlanta. This makes Reed the second Abramoff-linked fundraiser to raise campaign cash for McCain. Last month, reports revealed that Juan Carlos Benitez, a lawyer and lobbyist who was appointed to a Department of Justice post responsible for overseeing Abramoff clients after a recommendation from Abramoff himself, is a bundler for McCain's campaign.

JOHN MCCAIN'S ABRAMOFF CONNECTION

Abramoff Associate Ralph Reed Raising Money for McCain. "The McCain campaign has long been concerned about whether conservative Christian voters would fall in line this fall. But last week Ralph Reed, the first executive editor of the Christian Coalition and an unsuccessful 2006 candidate for Georgia lieutenant governor, invited well-heeled folks to a "very special event" - that means a fundraiser - for McCain in downtown Atlanta on August 18. Reed, whose campaign was torpedoed by his affiliation with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, noted he's also agreed to serve as a member of the McCain Victory 2008 Team, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported." [Washington Post, 8/12/08]

Abramoff's Law Firm Won Praise from McCain After Hiring McCain Advisor to Lobby on Its Behalf. "When Senator John McCain led a Senate investigation three years ago of Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist who later pleaded guilty to fraud charges, Mr. Abramoff's old firm turned to a former McCain campaign adviser for help. The firm, Greenberg Traurig, which had quickly cut its ties to Mr. Abramoff, hired Randy Scheunemann, who had been the McCain campaign's foreign policy adviser in 2000 -- and is again this year -- for advice on handling the Senate investigation… Mr. McCain praised Greenberg Traurig's cooperation, saying in prepared remarks at the time that 'consistent with their professional obligations, Greenberg Traurig and its counsel have always been responsive to the committee's requests, always made themselves available to answer questions, and have always conducted themselves with dignity and professionalism in these trying circumstances.'" [New York Times, 8/14/08: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/us/politics/14mccain.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin]

Watchdog Group: Scheunemann's Dual Role Raises Questions. "Craig Holman, the governmental affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, said Mr. Scheunemann's dual role -- sometimes advising Mr. McCain as a candidate, and sometimes advising private clients on their interactions with him as a senator -- raised potential red flags. 'This is a serious revolving door problem: a person who keeps fluctuating between being a lobbyist, and advising candidates,' Mr. Holman said." [New York Times, 8/14/08: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/us/politics/14mccain.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin]

Abramoff Helped McCain Bundler Obtain DOJ Post Overseeing Abramoff's Clients. "As Mr. McCain releases the names of hundreds of 'bundlers' -- his top money collectors -- one person who popped up is Juan Carlos Benitez, a lawyer and lobbyist whom Mr. Abramoff had championed for a Bush administration post. According to a 2006 report of the House Committee on Government Reform, Mr. Abramoff had urged the appointment of Mr. Benitez as special counsel for immigration-related unfair employment practices. He was named to the position in 2001. The committee's report said Mr. Benitez's job at the Justice Department 'gave Benitez authority' to conduct investigations into unfair labor practices that were 'issues of importance to Abramoff clients.' For Mr. McCain, Mr. Benitez raised $50,000 to $100,000, according to the McCain Web site." [New York Times The Caucus Blog, 7/16/08]

In 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges after a federal investigation unearthed an extensive effort to buy influence with Republican lawmakers by showering them with gifts and campaign contributions. Emails made public during the investigation revealed that Reed had received at least $4.2 million from Abramoff to help his clients. Despite his shady ties to Abramoff, McCain never called Reed to testify before his committee. In fact, despite acknowledging wrongdoing among his colleagues, McCain refused to investigate fellow Republicans in Congress. Now, despite the scandal surrounding Reed--and despite objections from nonpartisan watchdog groups--The Hill reports that McCain is refusing to cancel Monday's fundraiser. [Washington Post, 1/16/06; The Hill, 8/13/08]

DNC Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement on McCain's double talk on ethics and lobbying reform:

"John McCain's decision to cozy up to one of the central figures in the Republican culture of corruption shows how far HE IS is willing to go to win. Despite all of his rhetoric about reform, McCain's willingness to accept tainted money raised by tainted Abramoff cronies like Ralph Reed shows that McCain simply cannot be trusted to bring change to Washington politics. A maverick no more, the John McCain of 2000 wouldn't even consider voting for the John McCain of 2008."

Prosecutors say the Alaska Republican accepted more than $250,000 in house renovations and gifts from contractors but didn't disclose them on Senate financial records.

Stevens' legal team asked the judge to move the trial to Alaska, where the senator has been a political patron since before statehood. Attorney Sullivan also asked that the trial date be speeded up to give Stevens his day in court before the Nov. 4 election.

The trial is scheduled for September 24.