I take the point, Jonah, but the electorate won’t. As for Ted Stevens, here’s a useful reminder as to what his GOP colleagues (plus Harry Reid and Daniel Inouye) think of him. To give the flavor, I’ll just give you some extracts of what Mitch McConnell had to say “as the Republican leader, an admirer, and a friend”:

When Ted got to the Senate, he had a motto: “To hell with the politics, do what’s right for Alaska.” Over the years, he changed that motto, just slightly. Now it’s: “To hell with the politics, do what’s right for the Nation.” But in one of the most distinguished careers in the history of this body, he’s done both. The people of Alaska and this Nation are better for having Ted Stevens around. We’d hardly know what to do without him.

Even if we allow for the fulsome banality of Senate “collegiality” that sounds as if at least some people in the GOP think that Stevens is pretty prominent. I think voters (at least those outside Alaska) will agree.