Where's the Outrage?

Ted Stevens, the former republican Senator from Alaska, had his conviction thrown out due to prosecutorial abuse: the prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense team. The federal prosecutors in question now face their own legal problems, and Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the Justice Department will not attempt to retry Stevens.

This case has profound implications for the political balance of power in the Congress, since Stevens lost his re-election bid due to his conviction. As a result, a safe Republican Senate seat now is in the hands of the Democrats for the next six years.

Given how close the Democrats are to having a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, every additional seat they hold has a powerful impact on legislation. For example, the "stimulus" bill needed a few Senate Republicans to vote in favor - if Stevens held his seat and one more Republican vote was needed, the legislation may have failed or needed to be modified to attract another Republican vote.

For a story of abuse of power, and one that has such profound political implications, it is gotten relatively little press. Do you think that would be so if the political parties were reversed?