How do you get two candidates together for a debate when one of them is stuck in Washington D.C. being found guilty of seven felony corruption charges — and the other one is in Alaska? Through the magic of the Internet, of course! And so, that is how Senator Ted Stevens today comes to Alaskans to fight for the sanctity of his Senate seat: Through the so-called "Series of Tubes" for which he will now forever known...along with being found guilty of seven felony corruption charges.
CBS affiliate KTVA 11 in Anchorage, Alaska is today hosting an online debate between Stevens and challenger Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, featuring individual videotaped responses to ten questions — five from KTVA and five from selected viewers — plus one more question, directed by each candidate to his opponent.
Regular readers of this column will recognize the KTVA call numbers as those which beckoned former CBS Public Eye blogger Matthew Felling northward to Alaska, just before the state exploded onto the national scene thanks to Governor and GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin and now, of course, Stevens. Felling, having observed the campaign unfold as a media watcher, floated the idea to both sides as a solution to geographical challenges.
"With the Senate race being so important here -- we only have three seats on Capitol Hill -- and to the national picture, I wanted to see how KTVA could pass information onto Alaskans," Felling told me via email. Plus, with the debate process being undercut by Senator Stevens' inability to participate in Alaska, I wanted to get a head-to-head between the candidates in any way possible. "
The questions came in over the weekend via email and phone, and the candidates filmed their responses Tuesday, with the debate posting this morning at 8 a.m. (Alaska time). This gave Begich the opportunity to hit Stevens with a question about his conviction: 
In your trial you didn t deny accepting multiple gifts and having your home remodeled by special interests - in many cases with business before the Senate. Regardless of the verdict, in hindsight, do you think you showed poor judgment in accepting these gifts and not reporting them?
Hoo boy. Stevens did not like that. Here's his typically cranky response:
The premise of your question is false! Records available to you and the public show the government knowingly presented false testimony which will lead to a reversal of this case. Your focus, Mark, on negative innuendo or on other political smear, doesn't discuss the issues. I want to keep families warm this winter! Make fuel cheaper for fisherman and get help to save villages from being threatened by storms...I am bruised but not beaten. My integrity will be vindicated...I'm the guy who will never quit fighting for Alaska!
Watching these videos, it's hard not to notice their varying production values: According to Felling, Stevens' was shot by his campaign in D.C., and Begich's was actually taped in Anchorage at his campaign headquarters by a KTVA cameraman. Of the two, Stevens' is clearly the most polished, not to mention feisty; by contrast, Begich seems washed-out and a little nervous, with a more amateurish video quality and background (that said, the nervousness has an appealing Michael Cera-like quality to it). Production values notwithstanding, it's not looking likely that they'll be decisive in this election, seeing as Stevens down 8 points in the polls and was, you know, found guilty of seven felony corruption charges.
(Then again, they do love him up there. I mean, if you lived in Alaska, wouldn't you vote for the guy who promised to keep your family warm? So who knows.)
But the real winner here may be...democracy! As a method of conducting a debate, it's a pretty good one — and pretty fair. Says Felling: "Submitting the questions to the candidates eliminates any "gotcha" card, and the audience is allowed to gauge how -- or if -- the candidates addressed the questions for themselves." Felling said that, once the questions were selection, the process was actually pretty smooth — not to mention particularly well-suited to Alaska, which is actually ranked number one in home Internet penetration.
Could this be a format that could work for the future? Absolutely, said Felling: "The heck with spin rooms, let's take it to the living room."
Watch the full debate here; go to HuffPo's Ted Stevens Big News page here; read 23/6's 'Dickipedia' entry on Stevens here.