The AP has a pretty hard hitting piece on Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) who is under investigation by the FBI for possible corruption in association with the renovation of his house back in 2000.

The article essentially calls Stevens out for using his position as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee to benefit himself financially...even with a bit of sarcasm thrown in.

For his first three decades as a senator, Stevens was poor by Senate standards.

In 1997, his largest assets were his savings in the Senate Credit Union, worth between $100,001 and $250,000 and three $50,001-$100,000 investments...

But after 1997, the year that Stevens became chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he began to leave the Senate's poorhouse.

But like a good Republican, he made sure he wasn't the only one to benefit...he had to spread the wealth to his friends. Take VECO Corp, whose CEO is Stevens' longtime friend and business partner Bill Allen.

After a lull in federal business in the early- to mid-1990s, VECO landed several major government contracts at the end of the decade.

That growth corresponded with Stevens' ascension to chairman of Appropriations Committee. Since 1997, when Stevens took the helm of the committee, VECO won more than $65 million in federal contracts -- more than three times what it earned in the prior nine years.

As you might expect, it's VECO that is at the heart of the FBI probe Stevens currently finds himself at the center of. Turns out Stevens set himself up as the contractor of the renovations but ultimately used VECO and Allen as a go between. Check out how sketchy this sounds:

Once Allen approved the work, Stevens paid for it with a series of checks, according to two people close to the investigation...Stevens would not discuss the details of the investigation, including why the checks were drawn on an apparently new account and where the money came from.

The carpentry bill alone exceeded $100,000, and contractor Tony Hannah said Stevens paid an additional $3,720 to have the house jacked up. The FBI has those records, and agents recently examined Stevens' building permits, which do not mention VECO or any of the contractors who worked on the job.

Unfortunately for Stevens, Allen already has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators and "is cooperating with the FBI," 5 words that could spell doom for Stevens' political career, as they have for so many corrupt Republicans before him. As the AP puts it:

...investigators appear to be looking at whether VECO got anything in return for the home improvement help.

Hmm, and lookie here...

Over the past six years, VECO executives and the company itself contributed more than $119,000 to Stevens' political organizations...

All of which caused Stevens to utter these terribly candid words:

"The worst thing about this investigation is that it does change your life in terms of employment potential," Stevens said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It doesn't matter what anyone says, it does shake you up. If this is still hanging around a year from November, it could cause me some trouble."

Senate2008Guru lists potential contenders as follows:

Unalaska City Councilman Rocky Caldero (link)
2006 Lt. Gov. nominee Ethan Berkowitz (considering)
Kenai Peninsula School Board Member Dr. Nels Anderson (considering)