Wednesday was sizzling and steamy in DC, but I got to spend most of it in the cool corridors of the Capitol, surrounded by lots of marble, statuary and history. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reclined -- reflective, loose and folksy -- in his sitting room underneath portraits of John Kennedy and FDR, schmoozing about baseball and the proposed federal shield law for reporters, otherwise known as the Free Flow of Information Act.

As an aside, he mentioned that five years ago, 70 percent of the world's gas was consumed by end users (cars, planes, etc.) Now, he says, 80 percent is bought by speculators. Doesn't exactly sound like a supply and demand dynamic to me. The other day, former New York (City) Times bad boy executive editor Howell Raines ripped the press for general blind belief in the s&d theory and not enough investigation into oil costs. Maybe Senate attention to that kind of thing helped the price of oil drop this week. Or was Reid suggesting that while he'd field the press protection-for-sources legislation as eaerly as next week, maybe the press was whiffing on a big story? 

This blog originally appeared on sfgate.com. To read the rest, click here.