... damn WHIPPERSNAPPERS!!

Sen. Ted Stevens officially qualified as a senile old coot Monday (who is nonetheless #3 on the presidential line of succession, if that doesn't send a chill down your spine...). As the ANWR drilling provision went down to defeat before Congress left for the holidays, Stevens apparently threatened to resign and go home to sit on his porch with a shotgun to keep punks off his lawn. Or maybe he meant he was going to try to do it on the steps of the Capitol building. Anyway, he clarified his comments Monday, saying he wasn't resigning, but that he was just not going to be "friends" with certain people anymore, that he would not "play tennis or swim or do various things with them," and hinted that he was referring specifically to Sen. Maria Cantwell (story via Cursor).

Up until this whole thing, I think many voters in Washington State, including myself, had been pretty unimpressed with Cantwell's first term in office. After seeing her leadership on this issue, I think a lot of us will fight to be at the front of the line to vote to re-elect her in 2006.