Ol’ Rosty had cancer, and he has been out of the national spotlight for so long that his death got a lot less notice from the media, even though he was one helluva crook in his day.

There’s no shortage of crooked ex-congressmen, to be sure, but given that these sorts of things like to happen in threes, if I were this guy, I’d be staying home with the doors locked and the shades drawn for a few days.

This year they have named twenty-two senators and representatives to the list, along with two “dishonorable mentions”. The list includes 18 Republicans and 4 Democrats — four of them are senators, the rest representatives. Topping the list is none other than Senator Ted “A Series Of Tubes” Stevens of Alaska (Republican), who is the subject of a number of investigations, most notably for accepting bribes from a company called VECO. Yesterday it was revealed that the FBI has been secretly taping his phone conversations with the CEO of VECO, who has already admitted in court to bribing Stevens.

In fact, the entire Alaska Congressional delegation (two senators, one representative) is on this list for their involvement in any number of crimes and misdemeanors, and it’s looking like they could all go to jail.

There’s no eliminating petty corruption in politics — it’s the grease that keeps the wheels of government turning at every level from the smallest city council on up to the White House — but some of these people simply go beyond the pale.