Alaska senator and convicted felon Ted Stevens recently said: "I wouldn't wish what I'm going through on anyone, my worst enemy. I haven't had a night's sleep for almost four months."
Things got worse yesterday when, with almost all votes now counted, Mr. Stevens lost his seat, which he would have lost anyway had he won since the Senate would certainly have expelled him.
It's nice that Mr. Stevens wouldn't wish his travails on his worst enemy, but why did Mr. Stevens wish them upon himself? Everything bad that has befallen him was caused by his own hand. He was convicted on seven counts of lying by failing to report gifts. These weren't "whoops, I forgot" boo-boos; he got some $250,000 in gifts (absurdly insisting that just because someone put something in his house which he subsequently used and enjoyed for years didn't mean that he had received a gift--he actually said this on the witness stand under oath!).
Were these gifts worth your career, Mr. Stevens? You'll have a lot of free time in your cell to ponder that question. Now at 85, this sad, old man gets to see everything he ever achieved, every good deed he ever did, obliterated by the fact that he is a convicted felon on his way to prison where he may spend the last years of his life. A lifetime lost to greed. What does it profit a man...?
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