An Impending '08 Sex Scandal?

Ron Rosenbaum [via TMV] can't help himself anymore and plays a kind of "blind item" game:

So I was down in DC this past weekend and happened to run into a well-connected media person, who told me flatly, unequivocally that “everyone knows” The LA Times was sitting on a story, all wrapped up and ready to go about what is a potentially devastating sexual scandal involving a leading Presidential candidate. “Everyone knows” meaning everyone in the DC mainstream media political reporting world. “Sitting on it” because the paper couldn’t decide the complex ethics of whether and when to run it. The way I heard it they’d had it for a while but don’t know what to do. The person who told me )not an LAT person) knows I write and didn’t say “don’t write about this”.

Rosenbaum goes on to specifically say it is not John Edwards, who was the subject of a laughable National Enquirer "expose" a few weeks ago.

I admit it -- I love a good scandal, especially a superficial sex scandal, and this is almost twice as good because it involves it allows me to engage in wild and totally unfounded speculation.

First off, let's determine who the "leading" presidential candidates are here. Obviously we're not talking about Mike Gravel. National Journal has the GOP rankings thusly: 1.) Rudy, 2.) Romney, 3.) Fred Thompson, and a tie for 4.) between McCain and Huckabee. Among the Dems the same publication has 1.) Hillary, 2.) Obama and 3.) Edwards, whom we already noted has been eliminated from equation.

It's hard to say if the fact that this may be coming from the LA Times has anything to do with whom it may be. It could mean the person has a California, or at least a West Coast, connection; but it could also just as well mean nothing (remember, Rosenbaum said everyone in DC knows about this and the LA Times does have one of the better DC bureaus in the country). There's not really much else to go on.

One thing's for sure: if it's a Republican it will hurt the whole GOP field by reinforcing the recent string of conservative indiscretions. If it's a Democrat, the field loses the ability to drop Mark Foley and Larry Craig's name with much resonance, but something like this would certainly hurt Republicans more.

Then again, it could be nothing.

MORE: Matt Yglesias also takes note.

EVEN MORE: An update from TMV.