Sarah Palin took a HARD LINE against domestic terrorist Ted Stevens this afternoon after a wishy-washy first response, saying he “needs to step aside.” Take that, crook. Sarah Palin is playing a good hand here: get this douche out of the way tonight, appoint herself to fill out the remainder of his term in the Senate, quit that on Friday morning, and then campaign through Tuesday as a former Senator and Governor a.k.a. the most qualified candidate on either ticket in the last quarter-century. [LAT/Top of the Ticket]

BREAKING: MSNBC is reporting on the teevee, “Jury finds Sen. Ted Stevens guilty of making false statements.” On all seven counts. Aaaaaaand there goes another Senate seat for the Republicans. UPDATE: Oh and here’s a long article about it from those hepcats at the Politico, almost like they wrote it HMMM BEFOREHAND? [Politico]

The jurors in the corruption trial for corrupt Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens are now in their second day of deliberations, and they’re having trouble! It seems one among them is running around the jury room shouting schizoid psychobabble at the others, which is just not productive at all, and so the other jurors have tattled on her! “In a note to the judge, jurors asked that one of their panel be sent home. The note described the female juror as rude, disrespectful and unreasonable.” We hear that this lady juror’s name is Michele and she’s been calling her colleagues “anti-America” whenever they say anything. MORE »

Check out this piece from Washington Post “color” writer Dana Milbank detailing the theatrics of the Ted Stevens corruption trial. Ted Stevens’ defense lawyer’s strategy is, of course, to paint Stevens as the Common Man, who likes to go huntin’ and stuff. It’s just his dumb wife who’s actually the miserably corrupt turd Senator: “Yes, Stevens, the first sitting senator to be indicted in a generation, failed to report a home renovation and other pricey gifts from a pipeline company. But, his lawyer told the jury yesterday, it was his wife who reviewed the bills and took care of the finances.” [WP]