On April 2, the Alaska Republican Party sent out a press release saying that in light of the charges being dropped against Ted Stevens, “current Senator Mark Begich should resign his position to allow for a new, special election.” That same day, Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said, “I absolutely agree” when asked about the Alaska Republican Party’s request. However, yesterday in a press conference, Palin tried to backtrack:

“I didn’t call for Begich to step down, either,” Palin said. “I said I absolutely agree that Alaskans deserve a fair, untainted election for the United States senate seat. I’m not splitting hairs on how that happens. I’m saying wonderful, good. I want to see an election that is fair, that isn’t influenced unduly by some announcement that the sitting senator was facing a multi-felony count conviction. That’s what we were told. Now, come to find out, that wasn’t the case.”

However, if Palin supports a new special election, by state law, Begich “would have to step down.” That process would temporarily leave Alaska with just one active senator. Nevertheless, Palin yesterday insisted that she wasn’t “splitting hairs on how a new election should happen.”

During a radio interview yesterday, corrupt Congressman Don Young (R-AK) expressed his hope that the corrupt former Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, might make a run against the corrupt Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin:

“Personally I’d like to see him run for governor, and that’s my personal feeling,” Young told the Alaska Public Radio Network on Thursday. “So, we’ll see what happens down the line. He probably won’t, but I think that would be a great way to cap off a great career as being the governor of the state of Alaska.”

TNR’s Jason Zengerle writes, “Maybe that’s why Sarah Palin wants Mark Begich to give his Senate seat back to Stevens: less competition.”

Today, the Alaska Republican Party called for Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) to step down and allow for a new election, in the wake of Attorney General Holder voiding former senator Ted Stevens’s guilty verdict, due to prosecutorial misconduct. This afternoon, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) echoed those calls and pressed for a new election:

“A special election will allow Alaskans to have a real, non-biased, credible process where the most qualified person could win, without the manipulation of the Department of Justice,” the release stated.

“I absolutely agree,” Palin responded in an e-mail to the News-Miner. She said Begich should step down pending a special election.

Though Palin is now enthusiastically jumping back on the Stevens bandwagon, she was more wary when he was first convicted, backing away from an earlier call that he resign and refusing to say whether she would vote for his re-election.

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder said that he was asking a judge to drop all charges against former Alaska senator Ted Stevens because of prosecutorial misconduct by Justice Department lawyers. In response, the Alaska Republican party today sent out a press release hailing the announcement and calling for the resignation of Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), who defeated Stevens this past November:

The Alaska Republican Party further believes that current Senator Mark Begich should resign his position to allow for a new, special election, so Alaskans may have the chance to vote for a Senator without the improper influence of the corrupt Department of Justice.

The only reason Mark Begich won the election in November is because a few thousand Alaskans thought that Senator Ted Stevens was guilty of seven felonies. Senator Stevens has maintained his innocence and now, even the Department of Justice acknowedges it’s [sic] wrong doing.

CBS News reports Sen. Lisa Murkowski has called President Bush to ask that he pardon former Sen. Ted Stevens, who was convicted of seven felony counts in October for making false statements. Michael Brumas, the Communications Director for Murkowski, said a pardon request was made earlier this month. “He declined to give other details, including whether Stevens himself wanted the pardon and had asked Murkowski to pursue it on his behalf. ‘It’s just a very sensitive issue and a sensitive time — a couple days left,’ Brumas said. ‘We’re just not saying anything more.’”

Last month, convicted felon Ted Stevens lost his U.S. Senate re-election bid to Democrat Mark Begich. The Anchorage Daily News reports that while Begich has tried to reach out, Stevens is ignoring him. Begich’s press secretary Julie Hasquet, said that Begich called Stevens “couple days after the race was final, left a message and there was never a call back.” Since the election, the two men have yet to speak or meet with one another.

Today, Ted Stevens — Alaska’s defeated Republican senator and a convicted felon — was granted time on the Senate floor to deliver his farewell speech. Stevens said that he still can’t believe that he’s “privileged to speak on the floor of the United States Senate.” He also added that he “doesn’t have a rear-view mirror. I look only forward, and I still see the day when I can remove the cloud that currently surrounds me.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) then took the floor and said farewell to his “distinguished colleague.” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had previously called for Stevens’s resignation, recalled the longest-serving Republican’s “extraordinary accomplishments.” Watch it:

Matt Yglesias writes: “I cannot believe that (a) Ted Stevens got a standing ovation from his fellow senators, and (b) Harry Reid is now delivering an ode to him. I mean, the man’s a criminal. Senatorial courtesy is a really bizarre institution.”

Full list of senators speaking on behalf of Stevens today: Harry Reid (D-NV), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Kay-Baily Hutchison (R-TX), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Larry Craig (R-ID), Jim Bunning (R-KY), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thad Cochran (R-MS). John Warner (R-VA) also praised Stevens in advance of the Alaskan senator’s farewell address.

This evening, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor and paid tribute to Republican senators who lost their re-election bids. While McConnell had plenty of nice words for Gordon Smith, Elizabeth Dole, John Sununu, he never mentioned Ted Stevens, who lost his bid in a tight race after being convicted on seven felony charges. McConnell’s office insisted that “the oversight was nothing personal and pointed out McConnell did not give a farewell speech for retiring Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska either.” Stevens is the longest-serving Republican senator in history, in office for almost 40 years.

Yesterday, Anchorage mayor Mark Begich was declared the winner in Alaska’s tight U.S. Senate race, defeating Ted Stevens’s hopes of coming back for a seventh term. Stevens conceded earlier today. A big part of Stevens’s downfall was his conviction in October on seven felony charges for making false statements.

This is a loss for Stevens, but it is also a loss for Fox’s beloved Kristol Ball. On election night, Bill Kristol bravely predicted not only would Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) win the presidency, but Stevens would win re-election to the Senate. He also dismissed Stevens’s ethics violations, calling them “seven counts of something-or-other”:

WALLACE: Bill? Your surprise for Election Night.

KRISTOL: Ted Stevens, the 40-year incumbent in Alaska, recently convicted of seven counts of something-or-other, hangs on in Alaska. The voters of Alaska are loyal to their man. They don’t believe some D.C. grand jury. (Laughter.) Stevens hangs on, which helps Republicans keep the Democratic margin in the Senate reasonable.

And of course, since John McCain is going to take that narrow path to the presidency, let me add, he’ll be there to stop that Democratic Congress with overwhelming majorities from doing all the damage –

Kristol acknowledged that Stevens was “behind a lot in the polls,” but said, “I just sense that the Alaskans might want to not take the word of a D.C. grand jury.” Watch it:

The Kristol Ball of course, has had a less-than-perfect record during this campaign season. Perhaps that’s because the man behind it is still trying to perfect a more elementary skill: fact-checking.

Transcript: Read more

The AP reports:

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term.

The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday’s count.

That’s an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.

In their GOP conference meeting today, Senate Republicans punted on whether to formally kick Stevens out of their caucus.