Ruh-roh:

The FBI, working with an Alaska oil contractor, secretly taped telephone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens as part of a public corruption sting, according to people close to the investigation.

The secret recordings suggest the Justice Department was eyeing Stevens long before June, when the Republican senator first publicly acknowledged he was under scrutiny. At that time, it appeared Stevens was a new focus in a case that had already ensnared several state lawmakers.

The recorded calls between Stevens and businessman Bill Allen were confirmed by two people close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way. They declined to say how many calls were recorded or what was said.

Allen, who recently pleaded guilty to corruption charges and last week testified that he paid his employees at Veco to renovate Stevens's house (Stevens's response: 'no comment'), agreed to the tapings last year. It's unclear as of yet what incriminating evidence if any the sting has produced.

Is this the final straw before a Stevens resignation? At the very least, it's the latest escalation in the ongoing corruption woes for the GOP.