Yesterday afternoon I was reading the Associated Press stories posted on the Bozeman Daily Chronicle website.

A story with the headline, “Conrad Burns registers as lobbyist” caught my eye. Burns had moved on, and I wondered what he was up to these days.

Short answer: He’s a lobbyist for the American Quarter Horse Association. He probably makes a lot of money, too, which chafes the left because in 2006 they and their friends in the media convinced the voters that Burns would be in a federal penitentiary in 2007. Now their credibility is hurt for 2008.

This STORY was written by Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick. I’ve had concerns about Ms. Jalonick’s leanings to the left, especially during the campaign of 2006. It seemed to me that she and a couple of other reporters were hell-bent on helping the Democrats in Montana defeat Burns.

Mary and her team did defeat Burns. Things like this happen. The best man does not always win. Mary must be proud of her work, but she wants more.

The first few paragraphs of her story contained the basic information that a high school journalism student would have included in their story.

Starting with paragraph seven or so, Ms. Jalonick decided to re-re-re-review the Abramoff deal again. In this story, I did not find any quotes from unnamed sources or sources close to the investigation, not even an anonymous source, which was quite different from 2006.

Correctly, she did mention, “Burns was no longer part of the probe.” She couldn’t quite write, “Cleared of any wrongdoing.”

If Ms. Jalonick was as hell-bent on nailing Baucus as she was Burns, Baucus would be living somewhere in France.

Give it up Ms. Jalonick, your side won.