Let's hope for Alaska State Sen. John Cowdery's (R) sake that former Rep. Vic Kohring was right about prison being a long vacation because Crowdery is the latest Alaska lawmaker to be indicted in the extensive VECO Corp. bribery scandal. Crowdery was indicted for conspiracy and bribery following revelations by Rick Smith, the CEO of VECO that he had bribed state lawmakers in exchange for legislation that would benefit the company.

Man, at this rate Alaska's state legislature is going to have to form an Inmate's Caucus.

My colleague Adam Smith notes that Cowdery gave my favorite Alaska lawmaker, Sen. Ted Stevens (R) a $1,000 campaign contribution back in February -- probably should have held on to that for his legal defense fund. Unless he's counting on getting a lot of care packages from Stevens if and when he heads to the Big House.

For all the dirt this VECO scandal is producing, one positive is that it has really energized efforts to pass a Clean Elections law in the state, which means there will be a full public financing initiative on the ballot in August in Alaska!