The Incredible Hulk appeared Tuesday on the Senate floor, adorning the necktie of Sen. Ted Stevens - a familiar sign that the veteran from Alaska is pumped for the fight to open part of an arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling.
But to hear his colleagues tell it, Stevens is more like the Grinch who would steal Christmas - and New Year's, if need be - to collect on his end of a vote-swapping deal he struck with two Democrats 25 years ago.
"A promise made is a debt unpaid," Stevens, 82, is fond of repeating. "This is a debt unpaid to this Senate, to the country, to Alaska."
Back in 1980, the deal went like this: Vote yes on setting aside 19 million acres of wilderness, said Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington and Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and Congress will support permission to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Stevens agreed. Tsongas and Jackson, meanwhile, died before Congress could grant permission to drill.
Their debt survives, Stevens insists. And he's playing procedural hardball to make the Senate pay up.