Tip: When Accepting Large Bribes, Don't Wear Your "Corrupt Bastards Club" Logo

The FBI conducted a large, multi-city raid on the state offices of a number of Alaska legislators, including Ben Stevens, Ted Stevens' son, looking, literally, for hats that say "Corrupt Bastards Club." The investigation is almost certainly over a extensive bribery scheme perpetrated by oil goons extraordinaire Veco to a number of Republican and one Democratic legislators.

UPDATE: Adn. (SEPT 1) The investigation extends much farther: Alaska pollsters are questioned and computer records seized. A very broad warrant is looking for evidence of VECO benefits to legislators in exchange for votes. Agents have been brought in from outside, and other government agencies, including the IRS, are involved.

WHEEEEEE!

Among the items federal agents were searching for in Alaska legislative offices this week are hats or garments labeled “Corrupt Bastards Club” or “Corrupt Bastards Caucus,” according to the search warrant.

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents raided a half-dozen state lawmakers’ offices across Alaska Thursday and continuing Friday, looking for ties between them and oil field services giant VECO Corp.

A copy of one of the search warrants, obtained by The Associated Press, links the investigation to the new production tax law signed last month by Gov. Frank Murkowski and the natural gas pipeline draft contract Murkowski and the state’s three largest oil companies negotiated.

Among the items to be seized, according to the warrant, “from the period of October 2005 to the present, any and all documents concerning, reflecting or relating to proposed legislation in the state of Alaska involving either the creation of a natural gas pipeline or the petroleum production tax.”

It's already made Wonkette. The Undersecretary suggests that FBI raids of this scale are made under this administration only when the crime is huge and the evidence is overwhelming, and the political costs of not doing anything finally exceed the costs of action.

Not yet noted side-note: I imagine there are significant constitutional questions about the FBI raiding a whole set of State Legislative offices.