Roy Blunt (R-MO) and the curious case of the coverup of his extramarital affair with a lobbyist who is now his wife

Via FiredUp Missouri, we get to add Missouri GOP Congressman/Senate candidate Roy Blunt's affair to the drama swirling around Mark Sanford's affair. That's because someone tried to scrub Blunt's affair.

But, just because a newspaper removes the reference to a Republican Congressman's affair with a lobbyist, who he subsequently married, did the affair not happen? Of course it still happened. The better question is why did the Examiner see fit to remove the reference to Roy Blunt's affair in an article about how Mark Sanford's affair affected Republicans in Congress.

Here's what it said initially:

Rep. Roy Blunt, the former House Majority Leader who is now a GOP candidate for Governor in Missouri, is no stranger to scandal, having gone through an affair, a public divorce and remarriage under the scrutiny of the press.

Here's photographic proof:

Here's what the article says now:

Rep. Roy Blunt, the former House Majority Leader who is now a GOP candidate for Senate in Missouri, is no stranger to scandal, having gone through a public divorce and remarriage under the scrutiny of the press.

"This can be a distraction," Blunt said of the Ensign and Sanford scandals. "But I think the issues are big enough that they will quickly overcome the distraction."

Now, there was an obvious error in the original report. Blunt is running for Senate, not Governor. That got corrected. The affair part, however, wasn't wrong and certainly was relevant. Media Matters picked up this story, too:

So, why was the story changed when it is demonstrably true that Blunt did have an affair with a tobacco lobbyist who would go on to become his current wife?

Why indeed?