"They've spent 5 years battling to save their careers, and have been slipping backwards all that time."

Whether or not ALH84001 does contain evidence of ancient life I'd say the careers of the scientists involved have been enhanced rather than detracted from.
I'd say the general view of most scientists now is that it won't be able to be definitively determined if there ever was Martian life in Alh84001.
You can be sure for instance that there will now be counterarguments to this recent report that the magnetites formed from impact heating. For one thing it ignores paleomagnetic evidence that the magnetite was never raised to high temperatures, and independent isotopic evidence that the carbonate was never raised to high temperatures.

Bob Clark