McConnell Calls On Stevens To Resign

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling for the resignation of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens – a day after the Senate’s longest-serving Republican was convicted on seven federal felony counts.

McConnell, locked in a tough reelection fight in Kentucky, did not call for Stevens’ resignation in his initial statement following the Alaskan’s conviction on Monday on seven federal corruption charges.

But Republican Sens. John McCain, Norm Coleman, Jim DeMint , John Sununu, and Gordon Smith and Democrat Barack Obama all called on Stevens to resign Tuesday.

And by the time a reporter from the Lexington Herald-Leader put the question to him at a campaign stop Elizabethtown, Ky., Tuesday night, McConnell was ready to say that he thought Stevens “should resign.”