[DVaut1]

FWIW, take this was a grain of salt because it was told to me as pure baseless speculation and innuendo in the first place:

I have a buddy who's a Congressional staffer, and he actually believes the rumor is about former President Clinton and some affair(s) with some other woman (or women). The "ethical" question the LA times is grappling with is centered around the fact that Bill isn't running this time around, isn't "relevant" to the campaign in the eyes of the Times, etc. Again, this is purely conjecture and likely fifth-level rumor mongering.

Related to that: for something Rosenbaum claims "everyone in Washington" knows, it sure isn't "universally" known to the point where lots of people who work on the Hill know much more than speculation and innuendo. So if this rumor really is known by "elites", it's a rather small cadre of elites who are 'in the know', as everyone my buddy knows on the Hill is pretty much engaged in the same kind of rumor peddling as the blogs are. He's heard everything from the "Hillary Clinton had an affair with her female travel aide" to "Hillary Clinton had an affair with her male aide" to "Fred Thompson with some billionaire's wife" to "Bill Clinton with some billionaire's wife", etc.

tl;dr summary: no one knows anything in the lower-rungs of the Beltway rumor mill.