Earth Equity News

The Senate’s Senior Moment. By Manu Raju, The Hill, September 22, 2008. “Sen. Ted Stevens appeared in federal court Monday for the first day of his criminal trial as the court announced a list of prospective witnesses that included several of the most senior members of the Senate. Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), who is Stevens’s closest friend in the Senate, could be asked to take the stand... Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said Monday. In addition, witnesses might include former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Bob Penney, a powerful political operative in Alaska and a long-time friend of Stevens... Jury selection is expected to take much of the next two days, and opening arguments could begin as early as Wednesday. The Alaska Republican, facing seven felony charges for concealing more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil-services company from 1999 to 2006, has pleaded not guilty in the first case involving a sitting senator in nearly 30 years... The trial is expected to run five days a week for four weeks... The timing is critical for Stevens’s re-election hopes. The longest-serving Republican senator is seeking a seventh full term in November, and is trying to get his name cleared before Alaskan voters head to the polls.”