Sen. Stevens Has ‘Senior Moment’ On StandWhen Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens first took the witness stand, it was with his familiar vigor and spunk, telling the judge in a firm voice it would be “a privilege and a duty” to testify. He then crisply recounted what supporters see as a personal history unparalleled in politics. But later, in the midst of often arduous testimony about possible corruption, there was what his detractors might call a senior moment: “I can’t read my own writing,” Stevens mumbled as he struggled to read aloud a note he’d written to a friend. The conflicting snapshots of the longest-sitting Republican senator don’t just matter in the Washington courtroom where he has been on trial for nearly a month on charges he lied about more than $250,000 in free home renovations and other gifts. Stevens’ performance during two days on the stand last week - and at least another day this week - could sway what’s been called a second jury: the Alaska voters who on Nov. 4 will deliver a verdict on whether he should keep a position he’s held for 40 years. Like jurors, voters have to decide which Stevens they believe: The razor-sharp politician who easily gushed dates, facts and figures about a proposed Alaska natural pipeline? Or the agitated defendant who struggled to come up with an answer when teased by a prosecutor that “You can’t remember when somebody put in a big, old bulky staircase at your house that you didn’t ask for?” With the polls close and Stevens stuck in the courtroom, his Democratic opponent, Mark Begich, has taunted him from afar. The Anchorage mayor accuses the senator of ducking debates and uses his legal predicament against him. Stevens, 84, pushed for a speedy trial in hopes of clearing his name before Election Day. The senator says his wife, Catherine, paid every bill received by the couple for the modernization of their Alaska cabin - $160,000 in all. |
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