The Anchorage Daily News has become a must-read for anyone interested in public corruption.  Today, the paper has an interview with Senator Ted Stevens.  Apparently, the senior Senator from Alaska thinks politics and the media, not his interactions with Veco Corp., are to blame for his current predicament: 

Stevens has said little about the investigation since the FBI and IRS raided his home in Girdwood in late July as part of a wider probe into corruption in Alaska politics.

So far, the corruption investigation has led to the conviction of three state lawmakers, two oil executives and a lobbyist. They include former Veco CEO Bill Allen, a major political fundraiser who has pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers and who has been a witness in the ongoing corruption trials. Allen oversaw the renovations to Stevens' home in 2000; Stevens has long maintained that he did nothing wrong and paid every remodeling bill he was given.

Stevens said Thursday that he intends to remain tight-lipped about the investigation, in part because he doesn't want to be accused of obstructing justice. As a former U.S. attorney, Stevens said "I think I know the law and the consequences of making comments about this investigation better than any other senator does.

"I'm not about to get myself into a worse situation by commenting on something I don't think needs any comment," he added.

But Stevens also suggested that the scrutiny he has faced is politically motivated. He pointed to four other senators who went through investigations, and said that those colleagues failed to draw the same sort of attention. He did not identify which senators he was referring to.

"I don't see any reason why we should have had this massive press interest in what's going on," Stevens said. "It's just an investigation of a federal agency. They go on all the time. No one else talks about them the way they talk about the one involving me."