Northern Exposure

Frozen pork king Ted Stevens is now on trial:

The lawyer for Sen. Ted Stevens told a federal jury in D.C. today that the Alaska Republican paid every bill he received for a home renovation project and had no idea he wasn’t being charged for some of the work.

In his opening statement at Stevens’ corruption trial, defense attorney Brendan Sullivan said the senator and his wife believed they had paid the fair market price for the renovations and didn’t know that his friend, oil executive Bill Allen, was keeping other bills or costs from them.

But prosecutors said that the free work was part of a long pattern of gifts Stevens is accused of concealing. Allen gave the senator a gas grill, a generator, a complicated exterior rope lighting system and a sweetheart deal on a car, they said.

It’s not just that Stevens is crooked, it’s that he could be had so damn cheap.