Sen. Murkowski Asked Bush for Stevens Pardon

Sen. Lisa Murkowski asked President Bush to pardon former Alaska Republican colleague Ted Stevens, the Anchorage Daily News reports. But Stevens would rather fight his corruption conviction in court, friends say, because he felt a pardon would taint his legacy. Murkowski wrote that she did not want to see Stevens, 85, spend the rest of his life involved in litigation.

“Senator Stevens has indicated that he does not intend to seek a pardon,” Murkowski wrote in the letter, released after Barack Obama took office yesterday. “I am pursuing this request, on my own initiative, in the interest of justice and out of compassion for a man who has served our Nation and the State of Alaska with great distinction for all of his adult life.” (More Ted Stevens stories.)