Behold, new rules in formation. Our commenters have their own pet theory, of course, but I’m skeptical that ideology matters much. It was the Times, remember, that revealed the secret identity of Client Number Nine in March. Jack Shafer detects “homo-hypocrisy” in the saturation coverage of Larry Craig vis-a-vis the pass for Silky, but there’s a less nefarious explanation available. The press is probably laying off of this for the same reason we laid off of it last night and why I debated whether even to write this meta-post about the coverage (before deciding that given how the story was at the top of Drudge for 12 hours, the genie’s already safely out of the bottle): It’s simply too thin and Edwards, for the moment at least, isn’t a public official. The allegations against Spitzer and Larry Craig, sitting office-holders both, came from cops; this is coming from the Enquirer aimed at someone who may or may not end up back in government but isn’t there yet. If he becomes the nominee for AG, then the gossip becomes news. Until then, why pry?

Exit question: Hasn’t the damage already been done? Obama’s not going to risk sidetracking the Hopenchange Express in the first few months with a confirmation battle as tawdry as this could be, even if he thinks Edwards is innocent.

Update (Ed): I’d agree with most of what AP writes here, except that I consider Edwards a public figure, especially to the extent that he continues to participate in this race.  I didn’t write about this because I consider the National Enquirer a very unreliable news outlet, and the actual news value of this story is far outweighed by its salaciousness, if true at all.

We ripped the New York Times for making these kind of allegations about McCain with no evidence at all.  I think that standard applies to Edwards, perhaps more so given that he’s no longer a candidate for office, as AP says.

Update: Amerpundit notes in the comments that the Times didn’t give this same benefit of the doubt to McCain vis-a-vis Vicki Iseman. True, but McCain’s still in office and he’s a major party nominee. And before you ask — no, of course they wouldn’t treat Obama the same way. I said ideology didn’t matter much, I didn’t say it didn’t matter.