Blog P.I.

[Note: Updated below]

If an allegedly closeted senator is “outed” and Matt Drudge doesn’t link to it, did it actually happen?

To be sure, the blogosphere has been hammering away at this story since last night — and at each other as well, over what it all supposedly means:

A question bears asking: Has anybody actually been “outed” here? Or is someone just spreading rumors and calling it an outing?

Obviously, it’s still too early to tell where this story with Larry Craig and Mike Rogers (there, I’m using their names too) is going, if anywhere. That said, if Drudge isn’t biting (he rarely links to bloggers) then certainly nor will the Beltway press (distinct from the Beltway media). And as long as this story remains the idle speculation of bloggers, the blogosphere is where it will stay. (There is another possible avenue into the national press, one almost quaint: through the local press.)

Despite the finger-pointer’s recent accuracy in such matters, that isn’t enough to go on here. In those cases he presented physical or circumstantial evidence that led others to act. This time he’s quoting anonymous sources only he has access to (and appears to hope this will make him the next Judy Miller).

Blog P.I. is never one to avoid controversy, but until something resembling evidence materializes, we’ll refrain from calling this anything more than rumormongering.

P.S. Of course, some not-insignificant bloggers are fanning the flames without even stopping to ask whether it’s true. Probably the worst single headline belongs to Patrick Frey:

Lefty Blogger Outs Senator As Gay

As if it was Q.E.D. But he’s far from alone. At the moment I count, from the left and right, in a list that is by no means comprehensive: Inactivist, Culture Kitchen, Pam’s House Blend, Corrente Wire, Glenn Greenwald, Confederate Yankee, Law Hawk, The Moderate Voice, Ann Althouse (who quotes Frey’s headline as her headline) and Andrew Sullivan all speculating about what this means for the senator, for the election, for acceptance of gays, about almost anything but whether the allegation has any merit. Does it? Who knows?

Credit where it’s due: A few have entertained the thought that the claim’s merit has yet to be substantiated. Captain Ed, Blue Crab Boulevard, Hot Air, Dan Riehl and La Shawn Barber are in that crowd. The currently 404 New West Network deserves special mention for having reported the senator’s denials.

Update: I don’t have much more to add here, except that what I’ve said above pretty much goes for Jerry Weller, too.

Updated, August 2007: I’ll never doubt Mike Rogers again. Wait… yes, I will.