That's exactly what I meant when I said "While the scandal is certainly contrived, I'm not sure it's dead quite yet."
Sorry if I wasn't more clear, though I thought my use of the phrase "certainly contrived" was fairly straightforward.
Carrying the Universal Pictures metaphor a little further, this is a zombie scandal which will probably have to be killed a few more times before the final act.
And will be brought up again and again, by "semi-malcontents" as yourself(personally I consider you a full blown malcontent), but it seems you are trying to "position"(triangulate) somewhere in the middle, so you can stay in the good graces of FR and the LP Biker Bar.
Oh well, all I can say is, welcome to the world and of politics, you triangulator.