[Alia]

Or are you expecting a national Democrat?

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.

[conservative in nyc]

So far, this is just a Maryland issue that, judging from the "please explain this" comments on every thread, few FReepers understand, let alone the general Maryland electorate. Unless there's something to link the national Democrat party to it (or the damage to the WaPo's credibility becomes much more extensive), I doubt this will become a national issue. I hope I'm wrong.

As for O'Malley's inability to stop rumors about his private life, perhaps he should have started by telling his own wife not to blab to the Washington Post about them in 2000. The Free Republic posts on the O'Malley infidelity rumors were far from the first (even on the Internet) and will be far from the last time you hear them.