As any PR flak knows, the best way to knock your client’s bad news off the front pages is for worse news to catch reporters’ attention. Less scrupulous hucksters will fabricate rumors and stories to help move the media. But sometimes events just fall into place.

So it’s been for Harry Reid. When news broke over the weekend that in 2008 he’d described Barack Obama as a “light-skinned” African American with “no Negro dialect,” it looked like it might be a rough week for Harry. Republicans debated whether to force Reid out of his party leadership position, a la Trent Lott, or let him stew in his own juices and allow his opponents in this year’s Nevada Senate race to keep basting him with the comments.

But now it’s Thursday and the story seems so … three days ago. It’s been supplanted by an almost unimaginable trifecta of more interesting and/or weightier news.

Mark McGwire’s steroid admission, the ongoing Leno-Conan saga at NBC, and, most recently, the devastating earthquake in Haiti have captured the public’s attention and sucked up all the journalistic oxygen. That these three events occurred in separate spheres of public life – sports, entertainment, and world affairs – means that every person who’s not a total political junkie has switched off the Reid fiasco.

But this was bound to happen. Aside from the Democrats’ typically brazen willingness to accept in their own that which they forbid in others, and the media’s complicity in this double-standard (can anyone imagine a Republican keeping his job after using the word “Negro”?), Reid had one major thing going for him: Stupid comments are already written into his storyline.

The overarching narrative of a public figure allows for one major (perceived) character flaw for which the person generally will not be held responsible. He or she has wide latitude to keep making the same mistake within the bounds of public expectations.

So, for instance, Bill Clinton was thought a womanizer. One more lady in his life never did make much of a difference. George W. Bush was portrayed as unintelligent. His strange locutions and mangled syntax became a bore. Barack Obama is considered to be a self-adulator. Further examples of the president basking in his own glow elicit eyerolls at best.

Harry Reid? He’s generally viewed as a boob. So a boob-like comment, once the initial shock wears off, fails to evoke much disgust.

All politicians have one of these character-flaw “safe zones” in which repeated screw-ups get overlooked. Joe Biden’s is similar to Reid’s. Sarah Palin’s is similar to Bush’s. Dick Cheney’s is a sort of all-encompassing evilness. Hillary Clinton’s is hyper-ambition.

The same idea applies to Hollywood, too. Charlie Sheen pulling a knife on his wife over the holidays? Same ole Charlie!

Famous people only really get into trouble when they do something outside the narrative – that’s why questions about George Bush’s veracity were more powerful than concerns about his intellect and why Barack Obama fears being incompetent more than he fears being out of touch and why Jay Leno strives so hard to be seen as a good guy, but doesn’t care about being fresh and edgy.

So Harry Reid played to his weakness – his known weakness – and he’ll get a pass. The onslaught of more interesting and pressing news this week hastened the process.