About a week ago, I wrote about the routine journalistic practice of advancing the story, wondering if anybody would do that in the wake of a Pete Domenici reversal.
He had expressed support of Sen. Jeff Bingaman's amodest effort to curb greehouse gas emissions. However, after a session with Vice President Cheney, he decided otherwise.
Advancing the story, I wrote, might take the form of asking Domenici what happened in that meeting.
Well, credit Michael Coleman, of the Albuquerque Journal's Washington bureau, with doing just that.
Coleman tells us today that Domenci denies caving to pressure or getting talked out of his position by Cheney. Rather. the GOP Senator said, fellow Senate Republicans dissuaded him by saying they found the Bingaman amendment confusing.
As Coleman tells us it, neither Deomienici nor Bingaman wanted to endanger the passage of the energy bill under consideration, so they have agreed to hold hearings on global warming afterwards.
I'm not sure I accept that whole scenario, but that's my problem. Fact is, Coleman did the job properly. And his column today lays out it quite clearly.
PS Coleman also touches on the chances that Attorney-General Patricia Madrid may challenge Rep. Heather Wilson next year. In that connection, the other side of page B6 is instructive. That's where Roll Call summarizes Wilson's votes this past week. Roll Call is a wonderful feature of the Sunday newspaper.