Contempt in Court

Ted Stevens once told his Senate colleagues that he's "a mean, miserable SOB." Yesterday, he set out to prove it.

Taking the stand yesterday in his trial on corruption-related charges, the octogenarian Alaska Republican could not conceal his scorn for prosecutor Brenda Morris during her cross-examination.

Why did he keep letting the head of a pipeline company leave gifts in his house? "You're making a lot of assumptions that aren't warranted."

When did he find out that he had been given a new deck he hadn't asked for? "I'm not going to get into a numbers game -- you tell me what year you're asking about."

Why did he take free materials from Veco, an oil services company? "You're not listening to me. I answered it twice."

Read the whole Sketch

-- Dana Milbank