Harry Reid's office is quickly moving to quash a rumor that got floated in the Nevada press.

The Las Vegas Sun's report on GOP Rep. Dean Heller's (R) decision to not run for Senate -- which mainly focused on wanting to avoid being associated with Sen. John Ensign -- also contained this line: "A Republican operative, granted anonymity to speak freely, speculated that Reid assured Heller that he would not stand in the way of a 2012 run and would even tacitly help him by directing his fundraising network toward Heller."

Reid's campaign manager Brandon Hall shot that down to the Sun that any deal had been made regarding Ensign's Senate seat: "It's a ridiculous claim. Dean Heller made the decision on his own. You'd have to ask him what led to that decision."

In an e-mail to TPM, Reid spokesman Jim Manley was even clearer "The key word is 'speculated,'" Manley wrote. "As we made clear in the story, that theory is absolutely ridiculous. It didn't happen. Period."