CNN’S SCHNEIDER suggests that the Condit story’s lack of local resonance is probably related to the area’s Democratic bent. " A lot of places with a lot of Republicans are making a big deal out of it because they want that seat, " says Schneider. " Conservative editorialists and conservative talk-show hosts are pushing the story very hard. " Both the National Review Online and the Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal.com offer frequent updates on Condit. Syndicated columnist Ann Coulter expressed a common view on the right when she commented on National Review Online, " All this is a long-winded way of saying what the entire country recognized instantly after watching Condit’s interview: The man is Clintonesque. " (Coulter, a conservative, errs in the comparison. Clinton was a flawed personality who nonetheless helped engineer an economic boom and presided over an era of peace and prosperity. Condit is a creepy social conservative who wants to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in the nation’s schools.)

Almost nobody around here wants to use Condit to rehash the Clinton scandals. Marsh, who appears frequently on MSNBC, won’t even accept invitations to discuss Condit on television, though she says she receives three to four offers a day from both MSNBC and Fox. " I don’t want to talk about it, " she says. " People tune you out if they see you talking about everything. I’d rather criticize George Bush. "

Don Feder, a conservative columnist at the Boston Herald, tried to light a fire under the issue with his August 29 column, titled " Condit’s Sleaze Is on the House. " " Gary Condit is more than a bad man. He’s a man who exemplifies Washington power politics — those attracted to it and shaped by it, " he wrote. But it hasn’t escaped his interest that his critique has yet to catch on locally. " I have a sneaking suspicion that if Condit were a Republican, the local media would do a better job of covering it, " he told the Phoenix.

Feder could be right. John Vanscoyoc, the senior producer of NewsNight on New England Cable News, says he’s seen minimal interest in the Condit story, which his show has featured a few times: " Massachusetts has never really needed to go to California for political fodder, " he notes. But he noticed a different reaction to the recent story on the retirement of ultra-conservative senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. " The Jesse Helms story was of more interest to the viewers, " he says, indicating that some of the lack of interest in the first out-of-state story may indeed be ideological.

Well, it’s probably a little bit ideology and a little bit collective egocentrism. At a time when local commentators like to lament the demise of our unique political and business culture (a major theme of MassINC’s fifth-anniversary forum with Brudnoy, Globe columnist Joan Vennochi, Herald political editor Joe Sciacca, WCVB-TV political commentator Hubie Jones, and the Phoenix’s own Dan Kennedy), the failure of this made-for-cable story to catch on here is one encouraging sign. In this sense, the Condit affair is not unlike the epic of former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate run — a huge story in New York and on the cable news stations, but a dud locally. (One watcher of the political scene once said to me of Clinton and her political travails: " We don’t care about that around here. " ) Boston may have the same stores as other parts of the country; Abercrombie & Fitch now inhabits the former space of the Tasty in Harvard Square. But some things are still banned in Boston.

Seth Gitell can be reached at sgitell[a]phx.com.