Will Ted Stevens be the Anchor that McCain Uses to Sink Sarah Palin?

In the wake of stories about a growing rift between John McCain and Sarah Palin, I found it kind of amusing to hear McCain’s harsh vilification of newly minted felon, Ted Stevens:

Yesterday, Sen. Ted Stevens was found guilty of corruption. It is a sign of the health of our democracy that the people continue to hold their representatives to account for improper or illegal conduct, but this verdict is also a sign of the corruption and insider-dealing that has become so pervasive in our nation's capital.

"It is clear that Sen. Stevens has broken his trust with the people and that he should now step down. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will be spurred by these events to redouble their efforts to end this kind of corruption once and for all."

At this time next week, McCain will be licking his wounds and lamenting the complete evaporation of his reputation for honor and decency; while Palin will be flooding the airwaves (probably with the help of her new BFF, Elizabeth Hasselbeck) with all the reasons she could have beaten Barack Obama if not for the grumpy old boring dude who was dragging her down!

However, I’m going to predict that the spiteful McCain won’t sit back and take this for long, and we’ll soon start hearing a lot more about Palin’s many connections with Senator Stevens and his contractor friends, as described by Wayne Barrett in the Village Voice, including this snippet discussing construction of the Wasilla Sports Complex that Palin oversaw while she was mayor:

A list of subcontractors on the job, obtained by the Voice, includes many with Palin ties. One was Spenard Builders Supply, the state's leading supplier of wood, floor, roof, and other "pre-engineered components." In addition to being a sponsor of Todd Palin's snow-machine team that has earned tens of thousands for the Palin family, Spenard hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004. When the Palins began building a new family home off Lake Lucille in 2002—at the same time that Palin was running for lieutenant governor and in her final months as mayor—Spenard supplied the materials, according to Antoine Bricks, who works in its Wasilla office. Spenard actually filed a notice "of its right to assert a lien" on the deed for the Palin property after contracting for labor and materials for the site. Spenard's name has popped up in the trial of Senator Stevens—it worked on the house that is at the center of the VECO scandal as well.

As he has done many times in the past, McCain is going to have to find a way to rehabilitate his tarnished image. What better way to accomplish this than to become the harshest critic and chief finger pointer over the corruption and hypocrisy of others, like Ted Stevens and Sarah Palin?

As an added bonus, it will be the perfect way to stamp out the political future of a woman who bills her self as an “anti-corruption crusader,” but who shows all the signs of being another Larry Craig back when he could still bill himself as an “anti-gay crusader!”