My personal opinion is that most people lost interest and stopped caring about the anthrax attacks a while ago. That might be partly because the media hasn't been talking about them too much, thanks in no small part to the fact that everyone thought they had their guy in Hatfill and turned out to be wrong.
That line in the article sounds to me like a veiled way of saying that if the government/media complex is forced to settle with Hatfill, that the media will then be bringing this issue back into the forefront full force as a campaign weapon against Bush and the Republicans.
Also, I expect that most of the left-leaning media outlets probably subscribe to the Barbara Hatch Rosenberg/Sherwood Ross conspiracy theory that the government knows who did it but it is intentionally covering it up for political reasons.
I've seen no indications that anyone who thought that Dr. Hatfill sent the anthrax letters has changed his or her mind.
In March of last year, "60 Minutes" did a show where they basically said that Dr. Hatfill was getting away with it and would probably collect a big settlement as payment from the Bush administration. Just a few days ago, The Los Angeles Times seemed to be suggesting something along that same line:
By settling with Hatfill, the government would all but dispel the possibility that he might ever be charged for the deadly mailings.
In a way, it might be a good thing for the trial to take place after the new president has been sworn in. Assuming it's a Democrat, and assuming that even if they start the trial in December, they won't get much farther than picking the jury by January 20, it will help make it VERY clear to the world that Dr. Hatfill is innocent if the trial ends in his favor during a Democratic administration.
You had rogue Commies (not under the discipline of the KGB) out "protecting" friends and associates from being accused of the Anthrax attack. She did it by attacking Dr. Hatfill.
Their inside guy at the FBI (or is it "guys") arranged to direct the investigation in such a way that none of the leftwingtards were checked out for their involvement in the deal.
This is going to change.
Ed, I think some of your "loose ends" will shortly be knitted together so you might want to review the vast corpus of stuff you've come up with.