Sen. Ted Stevens Indicted: GOP's Longest-Serving Senator In The Crosshairs

The New York Times reported today that the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, Ted Stevens of Alaska, has been indicted on seven counts of falsely reporting income. This comes during a presidential election year, and one in which the 84-year-old Stevens has been seeking re-election. His challenger is Mark Begich, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage.

Click here for the complete NYT report.

It's a rule in journalism never to convict a person in print. Sen. Stevens is innocent until proved guilty.

But one can't help but wonder how a politician of the senator's vast experience could get himself into this predicament.

Ernest Hemingway, no stranger to a variety of predicaments himself, once wrote or said something in response to the common notion that old men grow wiser with age.

It was something to the effect of, "They (old men) do not become wiser. They become more careful."

Perhaps sometimes it just doesn't work either way. We'll have to wait for the courts to decide.