Ted Stevens on Talk of Alaska - My Question

Steve Heimel hosted Senator Stevens on Talk of Alaska today. (The audio isn't up yet, but should be by this evening I think.) Since I'm a writer more than a talker, I emailed my question in. But apparently the guys who read the emails were still recovering from a late night of Running.


The Senator was explaining that his wealth of experience and knowledge made it important for him to be retained in the Senate to protect the interest of Alaska. Here's my question to the Senator that didn't get asked:

Senator, you have said that your many years of experience and knowledge of issues is critical to represent Alaska and protect our interests.

Isn't that always going to be the case? How do you propose that your eventual successor be prepared to take office? Right now, you are still healthy enough to act as a mentor for a new Senator, that may not be the case in six more years.

If you should lose to Mark Begich, what role do you see for yourself in helping get him up to speed to fight for Alaska?

If you get to hear the show, see if you agree with my assessment that he was pretty belligerent to anyone who pushed for more than a superficial answer to questions he didn't want to answer. I understand that he'd said he wasn't going to talk about the impending trial, but it's just as easy (well, maybe not for him) to politely deflect the question as it is to sputter in anger at the callers.

I do think that age and succession are important issues for Alaskans to think about in this election. I note this from Time Magazine's 1962 Senate Scorecard:

Alaska. Senator Ernest Gruening, territorial Governor back in pre-statehood days, is challenged by Republican Ted Stevens, a former U.S. attorney only half Gruening's age (38 to 75). But Stevens will probably have to wait a while.

Today's challenger is 46 to Stevens' 84 years, more than half Stevens' even greater age.

My mother's a couple years older than the Senator and she only retired last year. She has good days days and not so good days, and my experience with others in their mid-80s suggests that while their brains can still be sharp, their bodies simply aren't as reliable as they once were.

Stevens did a fair amount of mumbling on today's radio show as he tried to get his words out. Hey, I do that too sometimes. But if you set yourself up as a candidate for office, you invite people to candidly assess your abilities.

There is a reluctance - I feel it myself - to challenge elders. I know that his knowledge of Alaska and particularly of the US Senate and Alaska is unrivaled. But one day, he will leave the Senate. It would be better when he's still alive and well enough to help his successor. And respect for elders apparently didn't stop Ted Stevens when he first ran for Senate. Michael Carey writes:

As a much younger candidate for the Senate, Stevens repeatedly hammered incumbent Ernest Gruening as too old. His attacks in 1968 were blunt, personal and quite jarring -- especially as the "aged" Ernest Gruening was younger then than Stevens is now.

Some Stevens' supporters say we should vote for him because of all he has done for us. But we should also remember that the young Ted Stevens didn't have that attitude toward the 78 year old Ernest Gruening. The Senator would have us believe it is not about him, but about what is good for the State of Alaska. Then we shouldn't simply vote for Stevens out of respect for what he has done in the past, but we should consider which candidate is poised to do the most good for us in the future.