Just how stupid does Ted Stevens think the people in his jury are?

For the second day, Stevens was confronted with contradictions in his story by the lead prosecutor in the case, Brenda Morris. If Stevens didn't consider furniture from Veco chairman Bill Allen a gift when he received in 2001, for instance, why did he offer it to his son Ben in 2005?

Stevens replied that he never owned the furniture.

How about the $2,695 massage chair that Girdwood neighbor and Double Musky owner Bob Persons had delivered to Stevens' Washington home in 2001 and intended it to be a present, based on e-mails Persons sent when he first attempted to get the chair?

It was not a gift, Stevens said. It belongs to Persons. It's just been in his house in Washington for seven years.

"I told him I would not accept is as a gift," Stevens said. "We have lots of things in our house that do not belong with us."

Oh come on! Ted Stevens is an experienced politician, surely he can lie better than that!

Perhaps the good Senator should remember that he did not win his bid to have his trial in Alaska. The people in that Washington jury do not feel indebted to him for bringing them thirty years of pork. They only see him as an arrogant prick who believes that he is above the law.

I am guessing that by the end of his trial they will be asking the judge for permission to apply the death penalty.