The man who gave Ted Stevens his job says it is time for him to step down.

``He has served Alaska for 40 years, but his time is over,'' said former Governor Walter Hickel, who launched Stevens's Senate career by appointing him to a vacancy in 1968.

Hickel, now 88, says he appointed Stevens because he was young at the time and could help Alaska -- which became a state only in 1959 -- during a long Senate career.

``We were a young state, and I learned we needed seniority, and Ted was a survivor,'' said Hickel, who later served as secretary of the interior in the Nixon administration.

Now it's time for a change, he said. ``He's just doing what those big economic interests want done,'' Hickel said. ``I don't care if I appointed him. That was a long time ago.''

Damn! When the guy who gave you the job over forty years ago says you should step down then there is really no argument for you to stay.

Walter Hickel is an Alaskan institution, having served as Governor from 1966 to 1969 when he left to work with Richard Nixon. Nixon essentially forced Hickel to join his cabinet and then constantly argued with him over his decisions as the Secretary of the Interior. Then after Hickel and Nixon had a confrontation over the National Guard shooting of students at Kent State , during which Hickel told Nixon he needed to listen to the student protests and leave Vietnam, he was fired.

So Walter Hickel knows a little something about arrogance and how power can corrupt.

I think, unlike Nixon, Stevens should follow Hickel's advice.