Ted Stevens On Stand, Giving Geography Lesson

(The Politico)  We're sure the serious stuff will come later, but right now the Ted Stevens testimony seems like a combination of Schoolhouse Rock and elementary school geography.

This is the Stevens defense team, mind you, lobbing the softballs, but here's what we've learned so far in the first 20 minutes of Stevens testimony this morning:

* Stevens is a U.S. senator, and that means wearing many hats, including dealing with constituents and serving on committees. "And each committee has subcommittees," Stevens reminded the jury.

* Stevens' main committee is known as Appropriations, in case you haven't heard. (See bridge to nowhere.).

* Alaska is very far away from Washington -- 3,300 miles to Anchorage.

* Alaska is also a very wide state -- 3,000 miles wide from the eastern border with Canada to the western most Aleutian island.

* Ted Stevens has the power to change time zones. Alaska used to be five hours behind, but he says he got an act of Congress to change it to four hours.

Stevens was also shown a map of North America, and used a telestrator on the stand to point out where Alaska is on the globe.