Noted at ABC

Returning from a week off of summer R&R, ABC's The Note, the agenda-setting daily tip sheet for the Beltway press class, today summarizes what's "consuming" the so-called Gang of 500. And wouldn’t you know it, the embarrassing outing of Karl Rove as Matt Cooper's CIA source is not among today's approved hot topics.

That's hardly surprising, since The Note in the last year has morphed into a soothing comfort blanket for the administration, adopting White House talking points as savvy insight and always being mindful of not getting too far out in front of stories that might upset the administration.

Still, it is a bit astonishing that today's Note doesn't even bother to mention the breaking Rove controversy until the 48th paragraph. And even then it offers up only a cursory overview of the scandal. (Just two of today's 41 links on The Note are related to the Rove affair.) By comparison, The Note gives essentially the same amount space to recapping David Broder's latest wonky column about Dean Democrats and new polling data.

So there you have it D.C. media players, The Note has spoken: The fact that the president's closest political advisor has been unmasked as a central player in a long-running independent counsel investigation ranks right alongside a new Broder number-crunching column.