Senator Stevens....."The Chair is Not a Gift."...

[Stuart G]

Brenda Morris..lead prosecutor at Steven's trial was able to elicit this testimony from the fine Seantor..(this took place yesterday)

from the New York Times.........

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/us/21stevens.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin



"But Ms. Morris did highlight two other issues intended to damage Mr. Stevens’s credibility. She challenged Mr. Stevens about his possession for seven years of an expensive massage chair bought for him in 2001 by another friend, Bob Persons.

Mr. Stevens did not list the chair on his Senate disclosure forms as a gift, he said, because it was a loan.

“That chair, it’s still at your house?” Ms. Morris asked.

“Yes,” Mr. Stevens replied.

“How is that not a gift?” she then asked.

Mr. Stevens said Mr. Persons “bought the chair as a gift but I refused it as a gift.” He said he agreed to have the chair stored in his home for Mr. Persons.

“So, if you say it’s not a gift, it’s not a gift?” the prosecutor asked. She then confronted Mr. Stevens with a note he had written to Mr. Persons thanking him for the chair, saying how much he loved using the chair and even sometimes fell asleep in it.

Ms. Morris also challenged testimony by Mr. and Mrs. Stevens that furniture placed in the Girdwood home by Mr. Allen was of little value because it was used and damaged. On the stand, Mrs. Stevens had pronounced it tasteless. But Ms. Morris noted that the Stevenses had wanted to give it to a recently married son to furnish his new home."

Aren’t you trying to regift to your son the furniture you found so hideous?” she asked.

_______________________________________________________________________________

It is possible that the jury will not buy this particular line of thinking.."The Chair is not a Gift."
..Let us hear it for Senator Stevens...a fine example of rethug thinking..........

[Ian David]

1. If you send someone a thank-you card, it's a gift, n/t

[Fuzz]

2. Methinks he's screwn (thanks freepers for that term)

[Stuart G]

3. You are correct...the jury could think that that the chair is a gift...he's screwn ..nt

[Solly Mack]

4. I'd like to store a few billion in my house if anyone wants to "gift" me with the money

While storing it I probably will use it. Consider it a storage charge.

[PatSeg]

5. Sounds like a friggin' sitcom!

This guy has gotten away with so much for so long, he's clueless.

[Stuart G]

7. Here is MSNBC's take on the same story...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27279947/

At that story, it still sounds like the chair just might be a ...are you ready. a.. gift

[PatSeg]

8. Sounds like Stevens was ready to explode

Can't blame the poor guy - people loan people expensive massage chairs all the time! Man, is that the best he could come up with?

[gratuitous]

6. So, you use it, wrote a thank-you note, but you're just storing it?

Gee, I wonder if the jury will buy such a transparent, self-serving lie? Better get Faux News on the job to repeat the lie over and over again that if the recipient acts like it was a gift, uses something as a gift, but says it's not a gift, it is therefore not a gift. Because without a big dollop of reality-changing assistance, I as a juror would have to conclude that Sen. Hulk Smash!'s pants are combustible.

[dysfunctional press]

9. "We have lots of things in our house that don't belong to us."

the prosecutor should have asked to to list some of those other items...it probably could have only helped to add weight to their case.

[Spritz57]

10. Let's not let anyone trivialize this. . .

Message chairs are very expensive--they usually range in price from 2k to over 10k. I know this proof positive because my doctor recommended one for me following an accident, so I shopped and was stunned by the prices.

[shadowknows69]

11. And he was going to give away a chair that was just a loan?

Um, wouldn't that be stealing?

[MsLeopard]

12. Yes, Ted

and the internet is not a big truck - it's a series of tubes!! Really! :rofl:

[Stuart G]

13. today...this interaction about the chair was brought up before the jury

during the final summation..I wonder if the jury will buy Mr. Steven's explanation of the "Chair" The comment above is being compared to the rest of his comments about the renovation..Somehow the jury may not believe that the good Senator really did not know what was being done ...was really a "quid pro quo."

Perhaps the Senator could get a nice chair in one of our nation's finest..long term care facilities...prison.

[Disturbed]

14. Busholini will commute this old guy's Prison Sentence & be

praised for doing so.

Will Alaskans vote him back in spite of his obvious corruption?