GOP Likely to Hold Off on Expelling Stevens

18 Nov 2008 // Republican senators are not expected to vote Tuesday to expel Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), deciding instead to hold off on the vote until his Senate race is decided.

Though Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), the sponsor of the motion to expel Stevens, said he still plans to push for a vote, a number of GOP senators and aides said Monday they would prefer to wait and see if Stevens wins reelection.

“If Sen. Stevens has lost the race, there’s really not an issue to deal with,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). “I’m not sure the purpose of [expulsion]. It seems to me that we would be taking a step that was not necessary.”

DeMint has planned to offer a motion expelling Stevens from the conference for Stevens’s conviction last month.

The longest-serving Republican senator was found guilty on seven felony counts of filing false financial disclosure forms to hide gifts and services from a former Alaskan oil services firm. The DeMint proposal would strip the Alaskan of his committee assignments and position in the conference, although he would remain a senator.

But Stevens has fallen more than 1,000 votes behind Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich in the still-unofficial election results, leaving GOP senators with little reason to consider DeMint’s proposal Tuesday.

DeMint still plans to offer the motion.

“Sen. DeMint believes this is an important time for the Republican Party and we’ve got to let people know we’re taking care of this,” said spokesman Wesley Denton. “We’ve got to clean our own house, not sweep it under the rug.”

Even if the DeMint proposal is postponed, Stevens’s future in the Senate is far from safe. If he were to pull out a comeback victory and Republicans were confronted with the question at a later date, Corker left little doubt that it would pass.

“I haven’t bumped into anyone yet who thinks that a senator who has been convicted of seven counts can serve in the Senate,” he said.