Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called last night for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) to resign his seat in the Senate. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports:
“I think he should resign immediately,” McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, told the Herald-Leader Tuesday night after a Hardin County GOP rally. “If he did not do that … there is a 100 percent certainty that he would be expelled from the Senate.” … “The Senate would have zero tolerance for the continued service of a convicted felon,” McConnell said.
In calling for Stevens’s resignation, McConnell joins several other prominent Republican senators including Jim DeMint (SC), Lindsey Graham (SC), John McCain (AZ), Gordon Smith (OR), and Norm Coleman (MN). Other Republican senators, including Pat Roberts (KS) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), have suggested that “it’s up to Alaskans to decide Stevens’ fate.” Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) also called for Stevens to resign.