Caught On Tape: Politicians Taking BribesGiven the Republican corruption scandals of the last couple of years, it's easy to get inured to the seriousness of the controversies. After a while, names like DeLay, Cunningham, Ney, Foley, Lewis, and Burns start to blur together. Which one was Abramoff's buddy? Which one took bribes from defense contractors?But as ongoing corruption scandals go, let's not lose sight of the world of trouble Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is in. An executive from oil company has already admitted to offering Stevens bribes, and today we learn that the senator's calls were being secretly taped by FBI investigators.An Alaska oil contractor cooperated with the FBI by tape-recording phone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) as part of a public corruption investigation, a source familiar with the probe said last night.The recordings done by former Veco Corp. chief executive Bill Allen mean that Stevens, who is the longest serving Republican in the Senate, was under scrutiny by the FBI much earlier than June, when the senator first acknowledged publicly that he was a subject of FBI inquiries.The central focus of all of this stems from Veco Corp., an oil-services company, remodeling Ted Stevens' house in an exclusive ski resort area. After the lavish renovation was complete, Stevens steered $170 million in contracts to Veco, which, wouldn't you know it, looked suspicious to the FBI.

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