Ted Stevens losing support [View All]

Tough time for Ted

Whoever said, "There's no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell your name right" was wrong.

Just ask Ted Stevens. Between Halloween and Thanksgiving, Alaska's senior senator received publicity enough to satisfy even Paris Hilton -- except his publicity was all bad.

Yes, the critics spelled Stevens right. They also spelled "pork," "greed," "waste" and "nowhere" right. For Stevens, Ketchikan's $223 million Gravina Island Bridge was the bridge to a damaged reputation. After loudly defending the bridge, Stevens was trashed by newspapers columnists, TV talk show hosts, AM-radio blabbermouths and interest groups both left and right, especially conservative groups pushing less federal spending. The trashing of Stevens, godfather of the bridge, stuck -- and I am willing to bet the bridge will one day appear in his New York Times obituary.

The bridge became the perfect symbol of federal waste in Alaska, so potent a symbol that the Wall Street Journal recently reported a poll showing more Americans have heard of the "Bridge to Nowhere" than know their member of Congress.

More (Scroll down): http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/7242791p-7154804c.html