That just means it is not "breaking news" anymore.
* The reference to the various media outlets (that were working on it) is gone
No it isn't. I just checked, it is still in the body of the article. I also caught earlier that the Washington Post canceled its daily online political chat today; I suspect it's because they did not want to get inundated with comments about the story and demands that the Post run whatever information it has about Kerry. Other Web sources have corroborated that Time magazine is working on the story.
* The reporter's remarks re: Lehane's shopping the story all over the place...
Someone posted earlier that the reporter (from Congressional Quarterly) had bitched to Drudge that this was in a confidential email, so it would make sense that Drudge would pull it if the guy asked him to.
I would not make too much of these things. If Drudge were getting nervous about the story, he would have pulled everything.