The Washington chattering classes are all off for Thanksgiving vacation. What I had expected was a flurry of slanders from the blogosphere, both pro and con. After a day or two, they usually get dutifully reported here by those who follow those scandalmongers.

Give it till Monday or Tuesday, if we haven't heard about this by then, something really strange is going on.

Some possibilities are:

1) An honest error, or misquote, or over-eager report, or a deliberate misquote designed to sell books.

2) The story is a deliberate plant with no truth to it, so they can come back later and say "See, I told you there was nothing to it". Or alternatively, "I never said anything at all like that, I have been deliberately misquoted".

3) The story is white propaganda by the liberals, or black propaganda by the conservatives, but baseless nonetheless. The hope being the damage will be done before either confirmation or denial can set the record straight.

There are other variations and possibilities, but you are right about one thing: we are all getting pretty inured to this sort of thing, we, too, are losing our capacity for outrage.