One of the funniest -- yet most perceptive and provocative -- news-conference questions I've ever been aware of was asked in the 1970s by Ron Powers, who was then the brilliant young television critic of the Chicago Sun-Times.

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At a press conference at City Hall, he claimed he was not aware he had been struck-off and that he was still a priest in the Church of England.

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Baucus should be very aware of this from his experiences during the 1990 House-Senate conference committee on Clean Air Act amendments, when he failed to persuade the Senate to adopt language requiring the EPA to set CO2 emission standards for motor vehicles.

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