Last week, Rep. Rick Boucher, the Democrat who represents most of Southwest Virginia, received accolades. The Newspaper Association of America presented its Sunshine in Government Award to him and to Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., for their sponsorship of the Free Flow of Information Act.

Virginia's senators should lend their bipartisan support next. The act would protect journalists and their anonymous sources from overzealous prosecutors and judges.

This sort of protection is commonly called a "shield law." It creates a privileged relationship between journalists and their sources akin to those between doctors and their patients or lawyers and their clients. The courts could not compel a reporter who receives information from a confidential source to divulge the identity of that source under most circumstances.

Since its first attempt 36 years ago and dozens since, Congress has yet to pass a federal shield law for reporters to complement shield laws in 34 states, including Florida. But Congress is as close as it's ever been. The House of Representatives passed a bill called the Free Flow of Information Act last year. The Senate is moving closer to doing so. The bill won the support of all three senators running for the presidency -- Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama. McCain gave his surprise endorsement last week during an address to the Associated Press' annual meeting.

It's the absence of a federal shield law that has enabled prosecutors to subpoena more than 65 journalists since 2001, jailing or putting under house arrest some who refused to reveal their sources. The Bush administration's campaign against the press has been so heavy-handed that it's helped galvanize support for the shield law. Its House champion is conservative Indiana Republican Mike Pence, who last week appealed again to the Senate to take up the bill. "As a conservative who believes in limited government," he said Friday, "I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press."

Top Ten Quotes From Petraeus Hearings

5. “To be perfectly frank, congressman, thus far, I’ve seen no concrete results as a result of these discussions.” -- Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s response to Rep. Mike Pence’s question if our talks with Iran have “produced any results relative to Iran’s directinvolvement in violence against U.S. troops within Iraq, or enmity toward Israel or their nuclear weapons program.”