[Sen. Ted Stevens, the most senior Republican in the U.S. Senate, was convicted today on charges of corruption stemming from his failure to list over $250,000 in gifts from a wealthy oil businessman. ](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/washington/28stevens.html?hp) Well, if Justice Michael Gableman can’t go to jail, Ted Stevens is equally worthy. Not only is Stevens a poignant demonstration of the corrupt political culture which has wrought havoc on this country for years, but his power in Senate is a depressing display of how such unqualified individuals are given positions of such influence in an institution that prizes seniority and partisanship above competence. Stevens, whose understanding of technology matches what would be expected of most octogenarians, was ironically put in charge of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Science and Technology by the Republican leadership before the Democrats took control in 2007. [He produced this explanation of the internet](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ir_mKso_qc) when defending the reasoning behind voting against “Net Neutrality.” In case you don’t care to watch the eight second video, Stevens asserts that the internet is “not a dumptruck, it’s a series of tubes.”