Stevens visit makes a point

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska on Tuesday made good on his threat to haunt Sen. Maria Cantwell in her home state for leading the opposition to Arctic oil drilling. Without mentioning her name, he bemoaned the decay of relations between Washington state and Alaska and said both states will suffer for it.

"I'm not commenting on any politics. It's not my bag," Stevens said after a morning appearance in Tacoma.

The man he hopes will unseat Cantwell in November, fellow Republican Mike McGavick, was out of town for Stevens' visit. They'll meet up Thursday night for a fundraiser in Anchorage.

The Stevens-Cantwell feud has grown beyond what the substance would suggest, making the Washington Democrat's re-election fight seem at times as if it's against Stevens rather than McGavick, a former insurance executive.

Even if Stevens didn't want to talk politics — he couldn't help himself at times — plenty of others were willing as they looked to find deeper meaning in the early days of the 2006 campaign.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts was in Seattle stumping for Cantwell on Tuesday and said the fact that Stevens was here is evidence of Cantwell's influence in the Senate.

"Maria Cantwell has been a terrific leader who is representing the real interests of the people of Washington state. The appearance of Ted Stevens underscores that," Kerry said.

However, he added, Stevens' visit also reflects "a continuation of the lack of congeniality in the U.S. Senate."

The Republican National Committee, not surprisingly, drew a different meaning from the competing visits by two senators.

"Maria Cantwell is hosting the divisive politician instead of the statesman in the Northwest, Ted Stevens," said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

On Tuesday, there was no sign of the sometimes bristly Stevens, who, for the record, said Seattle's newspapers have inaccurately tagged him as a bully for his comments about Cantwell.

"How can I be a bully if I've never said anything about the person involved?" said Stevens, 82. "Tell me one thing I've done that deserves being called a bully. Name one thing."

He became an issue in the Washington Senate race after Cantwell led the opposition to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. When the proposal failed in December, Stevens took to the Senate floor to reprimand senators who had filibustered the bill.

"I'm going to go to every one of your states, and I'm going to tell them what you've done," the 37-year Senate veteran said. "I'm sure that the senator from Washington will enjoy my visits to Washington."

But Tuesday, he was wistful and nostalgic as he talked about his close relationships with the late Washington Sens. Warren Magnuson and Henry "Scoop" Jackson and bemoaned the loss of Washington's support for Alaska issues.

"They really sort of adopted me. Warren actually called me son, and he had every right to do so," Stevens said in his speech to a group of Tacoma business leaders. "In those days, oil was part of national security," he said. "It's a different world we live in today, a world of filibusters."

Stevens had kind words for Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, a friend so close they call each other brother. "We disagree but we have never argued yet," Stevens said.

And that's what he says is needed among the Washington and Alaska delegations. "Our economic futures are tied together."

This is not the first time Stevens has helped a Republican try to unseat a Democratic senator in Washington. Two years ago, he raised money for Rep. George Nethercutt in his unsuccessful race against Sen. Patty Murray.

And some of the Alaska oil and gas interests expected at McGavick's fundraiser Thursday have given to Nethercutt, former Republican Sen. Slade Gorton and other Republican congressional candidates in this state.

If this year is different, it's because of the focus on Stevens personally.

"I'm a target"

He thinks portrayal of him as a bully is part of the Democrats' national strategy to keep drilling out of the Arctic wildlife refuge.

"I'm not up for election, but I'm a target in an election that I have nothing to do with," Stevens said. "This is part of the war room of the Democratic Party that says ... not to attack ANWR but attack Stevens."

He said Democrats are trying to demonize him to weaken his standing when he again tries to get Congress to open the refuge to drilling. "This is in order to make it look like we're losing and someone else won, and I'm the bully who got beat."

Dwight Pelz, chairman of the state Democratic Party, disagreed. "Ted Stevens stands up on the Senate floor and threatens Maria Cantwell in the most overt terms, and he says we're picking on him?"

McGavick has been doing as much as anyone to keep the Cantwell-Stevens imbroglio going. In speeches, he says it is OK to disagree about ANWR but not to lead the fight against something so important to a state so closely tied to Washington.

"She sure picked a fight with another state we rely on for our future," McGavick said in a recent interview. "I think most Washingtonians won't understand it, and it's her one claim to fame."

Last month, McGavick made Stevens into the embodiment of his campaign theme of restoring civil discourse to Washington, D.C.

On the day Stevens said he was ending his effort to allow more oil tankers in Puget Sound, he said he did so because of a request from McGavick. McGavick held a news conference that day to accept the credit and characterize himself as "a voice of Northwest common sense, Northwest civility."

Staff reporter Alex Fryer contributed to this story.

David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com