lkmcgann July 18, 2007, 2:42 PM

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) gave an artful explanation of how he paid for the remodeling of his home yesterday — so flagrantly artful that quite a few TPM readers have written in to flag it as a “non-denial denial.”

The longest-serving Republican senator was defending himself from accusations that oil-services company Veco Corp. paid for the renovation project that doubled the size of his Girdwood, Alaska house in 2000. A grand jury in Washington has started looking into the job because of Veco’s bizarre role as general contractor.

As a practical matter, I will tell you. We paid every bill that was given to us. Every bill that was sent to us has been paid, personally, with our own money, and that’s all there is to it. It’s our own money.

Notice Stevens didn’t say he paid for the whole job: he paid for what he was sent.

And who was sending him the invoices?

According to the sub-contractor, Augie Paone, who was hired by Veco to handle the construction work, he would give his bills to Veco (not Stevens) for review. Then, payment from Stevens would arrive in the mail. The checks all came from a special account set up specifically for the remodeling job, Paone told the press a few months ago. He recently hired a lawyer and is no longer speaking publicly.

We haven’t received a response on our request for clarification from Stevens’ office.

Ted Stevens, Veco