Are things getting quieter, or at least changing, on the Wal-Mart front? So says Michael Barbaro in today's NY Times:

Over the last several months, the company has shut down a campaign-style war room set up in 2005 to do battle with Wal-Mart Watch and another group, WakeUpWalMart.com, which is financed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

And Wal-Mart has disbanded an advocacy group, called Working Families for Wal-Mart, intended to rally support for the company (and serve as a counterbalance to the anti-Wal-Mart groups).

A Wal-Mart spokesperson would not go on record for Barbaro's article.

As to another reason why things may have slowed down: "You can't keep up that white hot level of energy," says Meghan Scott, deputy campaign director at WakeUpWalMart.com.

We can imagine this is welcome news for Edelman, who has held the Wal-Mart account for some time.