Yes. My reasoning is "under" O'Malley cannot be called upon with any form of "gravitas" to "shut down" this investigation into the corruption of the MD4Bush matter. O'Malley is obviously a weak player himself to have allowed this situation, from first rumor to grow out of control; and then attempt/allow his own underlings to attempt to control spin by planting the rumor upon Erlich's staffmember, Steffan.
The group as it is now, O'Mally and "under"staff, resembled a torched pigeon hurtling towards the ground. For Dems to suceed at their current mission (protecting MDDEMS and WaPO credibility), a bigger player with more media pull than merely O'Malley has got to arrive on the scene. Or even some "50-center" wordings by some of the elite in the media. I doubt the media is willing to stick their necks out even further for the Dems on this. Ergo, the Dem "national" figure.