Qwest, still smarting from the beating it got chasing MCI, hasn’t given up hope. If enough MCI shareholders revolt at the deal being offered by Verizon, CEO Richard Notebaert would mind taking another run at the company. “One always needs to keep an open mind. Every offer we made was totally unsolicited and was not warmly received,” he told The Denver Post. “It was a poor way to run an auction.” Apparently, there is a hostile bid still in the works, the story says. Rocky Mountain News, the other major daily in Denver, reports that perhaps its time to drop what has been described as a fool’s errand.