Known sometimes as Washington state's third U.S. senator for his support of local projects and the large donor base he developed among Seattle's fishing and aerospace industries, former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is reported to have been among the nine people aboard a private plane that crashed near Dillingham, southwest of Anchorage last night. Rescue teams so far have been unable to reach the crash site and Stevens' condition is unknown at this time. But five of the passengers are reported to have died. Former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe was also aboard.
Stevens, 86, who survived a 1978 plane crash that killed his wife Ann (and had a premonition that's how he would someday die), is remembered not only for his taxpayer largess – pork – including the Bridge to Nowhere, but for his Incredible Hulk neckties and some memorable comments, most famously noting that the Internet is "not a big truck. It's, it's, a series of tubes."
His downfall after 40 years as a Republican senator came with the filing of corruption charges in 2008. He was convicted of seven counts and the following week lost his Senate seat to Democrat Mark Begich. The indictment was later dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct.
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