In June, Josh Marshall of the indomitable Talking Points Memo Weblog went on vacation with this note to readers:

A few points before signing off, though. You may have noticed a slight down-tick in the frequency of posts of late. And that’s for a few different reasons. But a principal one is that I and several colleagues have been working on a story that, if and when it comes to fruition — and I’m confident it shall — should shuffle the tectonic plates under that capital city where I normally hang my hat. So that’s something to look forward to in the not too distant future. And that’s taken some of my time away from TPM and prevented me from sharing with you some delectable tidbits which otherwise I would have loved to have done.

Well, as far as I know, Josh Marshall has yet to inspire any earthquakes in D.C. That leaves me to wonder if he’s still working on this political-landscape-altering story. Here’s a more recent tip, again from Marshall, this time about the Sandy Berger mess, that he may be up to something big:

I’ve spent so much time over the last several months reporting on a project that has to do with classified materials that I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know just what the rules are for taking notes of such classified documents in secure reading rooms.

I realize it’s a bit inside the box to report on someone else’s reporting, but I believe Marshall has the potential to blow-up a la Drudge and the Clinton affair. The difference, of course, is that Marshall is a bonafide reporter committed to getting the story right, rather than first. If he breaks something, it will be well documented and accurate.

Still, I can’t help but wonder. When Marshall went on vacation Atrios readers speculated on the
“big story.” Unfortunately, the comments have been deleted from Atrios’ archives. A few I remember: Proof that Bush bailed on military service, Bush ordered the torture in Iraq, Cheney leaked Plame’s identity, and my personal favorite guess, Howell Raines (former NY Times editor) is CIA.

What’s up, Josh? What’s the story?