The email came through last weekend that Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), the longest serving member of the House will run for re-election.  Any issues about age or sharpness of mind related to his bid were erased at yesterday's hearing on safety issues at Toyota.

After passing on his first two rounds of questions, Dingell saved up his time and arrows for Toyota's top American official, James Lentz, who got to witness first hand a classic Q&A from the Michigan Democrat.

While Dingell is no longer the imposing physical force in person that he was twenty or thirty years ago - he is slightly stooped these days - the telltale method of questioning witnesses retains its familiar rhythm.

"Mr. Lentz, yes or no," he repeatedly said to the Toyota executive, throwing him a riff of rough questions that certainly could not be judged as softballs.

"Since 2001, how many complaints of sudden unintended acceleration of vehicles sold in the United States has Toyota Motor Sales received?

"I don't know that number," said Lentz.

"Please submit that for the record," Dingell said flatly.

"Mr. Lentz, yes, or no; Has Toyota definitively ruled out non-mechanical failures as the source of sudden unintended acceleration?"

While Lentz earlier said that eletronic failures weren't a priority, he backed off during his Dingell tete-a-tete.

"It's being looked at," Lentz said, as the Toyota exec tried his best to wiggle away from Dingell's line of questions without conceding too much to the Democrat who was first elected in 1955 to succeed his father, who had died.

"Mr. Lentz, I'm just a poor Polish lawyer from Detroit," Dingell said at one point, "Would you please tell me yes or no so I can understand you?" drawing a few laughs in the hearing room.

Lentz survived his extended questioning from the 83 year old Dingell, but not after the Michigan Democrat tried to drill a few holes in the Toyota story.

We'll see how that story holds up in a different committee today.