politics

[almaty 19]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The identity of the blogosphere's "secret senator" has been revealed.

CNN has confirmed that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has placed a hold on a bill that would require the government to publish online a database of federal spending.

"He does have a hold on the bill," Stevens' spokesperson Aaron Saunders told CNN. "At the time he placed the hold he notified Sen. [Tom] Coburn and his staff and identified several questions we had with the bill. Two weeks ago Sen. Coburn named Stevens as having a hold on the bill, so we don't consider it a secret."

Senate tradition allows any senator to keep a piece of legislation from reaching the Senate floor by placing a hold on the bill.

Coburn's office confirmed that Coburn had revealed Steven's hold during a town hall meeting in Oklahoma two weeks ago.

The bill has become a cause célèbre for both liberal and conservative bloggers as they tried to uncover the "secret senator" who had blocked passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590). The bill was introduced earlier this year by Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Coburn, R-Oklahoma.

The conservative-leaning, anti-government waste site Porkbusters urged readers to call their senators and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. Left-leaning TPMuckraker, under the banner "blogosphere unites in pursuit of masked senator" also got in on the act, posting updates from readers around the country.

The effort prompted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to weigh in online: Blogging at his political action committee Web site, Sen. Frist, R-Tennessee, called on "all members, when asked by the blog community, to instruct their staff to answer whether or not they have a hold."

Saunders said Stevens did not attempt to keep his hold anonymous.

"This wasn't in anyway secretive," Saunders said. "We're baffled as to why it's been called a secret hold."

"He prefers to handle things at the member to member level or at the staff level," Saunders said. "That's the way Sen. Stevens has always operated."

"Sen. Stevens has a series of concerns and questions about the bill. He wants a cost benefit analysis to make sure it doesn't create an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and not meet its purpose," Saunders said.

Saunders said Stevens has no problem with bill's goal to improve transparency. "We understand the concept and want to know how it will work and will it be effective."

Last year a proposed $223 million for a "bridge to nowhere" connecting Alaska's Gravina Island -- population 50 -- to the mainland caused a nationwide furor. The allocation was backed by Stevens and fellow Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, the powerful chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The earmarked funding for the bridge was later rescinded by Congress. However, Alaska's overall allocation of federal transportation funds was not decreased, and the state is free to spend the federal dollars to build the bridge if it wishes.

When Coburn tried to block funds for the bridge, he was heavily denounced by Stevens on the Senate floor.

stevens sounds like a chopf##k

[*Robert* 2]

that he is brother dean...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

He wants transparency but fears the cost of it - as he backed the $223 million dollar bridge for 50 people... what a schmuck.

[almaty 19]

He wants transparency but fears the cost of it - as he backed the $223 million dollar bridge for 50 people... what a schmuck.

i agree brother steven and robert...stevens is an old fashioned pork loving politician..

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I think Alaska has more pork spending than any other state in the union

No wonder Ted Stevens is against this bill

[Ban Hammer 13,336]

He wants transparency but fears the cost of it - as he backed the $223 million dollar bridge for 50 people... what a schmuck.

would have been cheaper to give each one 3 mill and call it even

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I think Alaska has more pork spending than any other state in the union

No wonder Ted Stevens is against this bill

Anybody know if he's up for re-election this November?

[almaty 19]

I think Alaska has more pork spending than any other state in the union

No wonder Ted Stevens is against this bill

Anybody know if he's up for re-election this November?

brother steven, if he is ,...he will win..he is a legend there..got of like kennedy in mass. no matter what he does..he gets the votes

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I think Alaska has more pork spending than any other state in the union

No wonder Ted Stevens is against this bill

Anybody know if he's up for re-election this November?

brother steven, if he is ,...he will win..he is a legend there..got of like kennedy in mass. no matter what he does..he gets the votes

Oh...this chopf##k...

On June 28, 2006, the Senate commerce committee was in the final day of three days of hearings [15] (http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=1779), during which the Committee members considered over 200 amendments. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) cosponsored and spoke on behalf of an amendment that would have inserted strong network neutrality mandates into the bill. In between speeches by Snowe and Dorgan, Stevens gave an 11-minute speech in which he made several technical and terminological errors while attempting to explain his opposition to the amendment. Among others, Stevens likened the Internet to a series of tubes that could be clogged with information. He also complained that an email addressed to him by his staff had been delayed by five days. He said, "an internet was sent by my staff," and he said commercial traffic was to blame for the delay:

"They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material. "

[*Robert* 2]

I think Alaska has more pork spending than any other state in the union

No wonder Ted Stevens is against this bill

Anybody know if he's up for re-election this November?

brother steven, if he is ,...he will win..he is a legend there..got of like kennedy in mass. no matter what he does..he gets the votes

yes, he tried to cause the closure of the Kwajalein Atoll Army Reagan Test Site, because he wanted all their assets in Alaska, instead of "outside" the US. He is a total Chopf##k...

[Ban Hammer 13,336]

"They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material. "