It seems that if you take the train you might hear stuff: Open Left:: An Interesting Train Ride.
One interesting aspect of this story is that it probably never occurred to the main protagonist, a paleoconservative former US Senator, that any of the regular folks hearing him would have access to the sort of megaphone that blogging can give you.
And after all, if they were DC journalists, odds are good that they're housebroken and would never write about it without permission.
Why would Rick Santorum object to his views being plastered all over the Web? Its a much more efficient method of getting his message out.
The reason Santorum and other members of the DeLay/Abramhof faction hate McCain is that he turned them in. The whole Abramhof saga that brought down DeLay started with McCain’s investigation into the corrupt casino lobbying. The money laundering chages that brought down DeLay came right out of that investigation – Abramoff was chair of the PAC.
Santorum probably blames McCain for ending his career (whether this is true or not). He would much rather see Hillary in the Whitehouse than McCain.
Giving a press conference would be seen as disloyal. But reports of overheard conversations have a sufficient degree of plausible deniability to get the message out without blame.