Driscoll captures the atmosphere, embedding an understanding in an understanding of Montana politics, not just the value of the seat to the National RNC and DNC players, even as the national importance is in the debate hall.

The debate was held in the recently renovated Mother Lode Theater in the old mining town's historic district. The theater seats about 1,200 and the door count was somewhat north of 700 at 10 minutes before show time. In this city once famous for union and Democratic solidarity, the crowd seemed to favor Tester. But in recent decades conservative local politicians have found a voice here, too, and Burns supporters were clearly evident. Many Tester supporters wore bright yellow T-shirts that read: Fire Burns. Still, partisan noisemaking was minimal with none of the heckling that marked the previous debate held in a high school gymnasium in Hamilton.

Local and regional affiliates of the major television networks were busy filming from the wings. Linda Wertheimer, National Public Radio 's senior national correspondent, was next to me in the media row. A political reporter from the online magazine Salon.com was a couple of seats down.

Driscoll also relays the exchanges in with enough detail that the reader can hear and feel the exchanges between Tester and Burns. Exchanges on national security, Abramoff, Jobs and environmentalists.

The debate was sponsored in part by The Montana Standard, Butte's local daily newspaper, and questions were offered by a small panel of journalists that included veteran Lee Newspapers State Bureau Chief Chuck Johnson. He prefaced his first question by noting that Burns occupies the seat once held by the legendary Democratic Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. Mansfield, according to Johnson, said in 1972 that he would not "see any lobbyist at any time."

"You seem a world of difference," Johnson mused to general laughter from the audience. He then detailed two occasions where Burns evidently changed course following lobbying pressure from Abramoff and his associates. While Burns replied that he "never shortchanged Montanans," Tester followed up the question during his allotted response. The Abramoff lobby "got everything they wanted," he said. "Staff after staff left your office" only to return to lobby, Tester said.

"It's all he has to run on," Burns said in rebuttal.

"No one forced you to take the money," Tester replied, referring to the roughly $150,000 that Burns initially accepted from the disgraced lobbyist and his associates. Burns has since donated the money to charities, but wide speculation centers on whether he will be further implicated in the slowly widening scandal, or even indicted on charges of corruption.

For his part, Tester fielded questions from the panel and from Burns that alluded to a weak stand on the war against terror. Tester said the war in Iraq has proven a distraction on the war against terror. "We've taken our eye off the ball," he said. While U.S. troops have done a "marvelous job" in Iraq, Tester said he is interested in promoting "intelligence and special forces" to combat terror.

Tester said one of the first actions against terror by the Bush administration was to "take away freedoms from you" through enactment of the Patriot Act. "It's ridiculous," he said and called for repeal of the act.

Tester was almost laconic as he addressed his reputation as a tax-and-spend liberal. He countered that Burns is a "borrow-and-spender," who doubled the national debt in five years. Tester claimed that the national debt constitutes a "birth tax" because it obligates future generations to pay for today's excess spending. "I'm for tax equity," he said.

"No doubt, we've got a spending problem," Burns admitted. He blamed the recession following the attacks of September 11th and the costs of the war on terrorism for much of the spending. The solution is to "grow the economy and stem spending," he said. "We are on the heels of Hurricane Katrina and the war on terror."

In one of the more interesting exchanges, a panelist asked Tester about lawsuits filed by certain environmental groups to stop logging of beetle-killed and fire-killed forests. Tester replied unconvincingly that "leadership is the key."

"They're his supporters," Burns countered quickly. "For the cost of a .39-cent stamp" these groups can shut down a proposed timber sale, Burns said. "They shut them down every day. That group endorses him. He will be beholden to them."

Tester admitted that those groups probably endorse him. "But I don't owe `em a dime," he added.

The moral of this story, if you want to know what happens in a political debate watch it, or read the newspaper, or better yet turn to Internet sources who give a much more complete reading of events and their meaning.