David Shuster: Obama Campaign Didn't Push Story That Hillary Was Behind Passport Files Breach

[housewolf]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/msnbc_reporter_obama_campaign.php

MSNBC Reporter: Obama Campaign Didn't Push Story That Hillary Was Behind Passport Files Breach
By Greg Sargent - March 21, 2008, 5:20PM

I noted below that I was going to try to establish whether the Obama campaign really was peddling the story that Camp Hillary was somehow behind the security breach surrounding Obama's passport files.

After checking into it, I can say that it appears that there's no evidence that this actually happened.

Today on a conference call, a top Hillary adviser attacked the Obama campaign, pointing to the fact that it was alleged on MSNBC this morning that the Obama camp was pushing the tale. This claim appears to have been based on this quote from Morning Joe...

JOE SCARBOROUGH: It's hard to say. It's probably not going to be that big of a story except for the fact that it really helps Barack Obama get some bad news off the front pages of the paper going to the weekend. I think what you're going to see, and already it seems the Obama camp is trying to push the narrative that the supervisor in this episode was a Clinton appointee. They are going to try to point their fingers towards Clinton and make it political.

This appeared to be a reference to a story that MSNBC's David Shuster did yesterday reporting that the former chief of consular affairs received an ambassadorship from Bill Clinton.

But Shuster, who is MSNBC's lead reporter on the passport files story, indicates to me that any reporting suggesting that the Obama campaign pushed this story to him is false. Shuster emails me this:

All of my reporting on the passport story has been based soley on State department and Department of Justice resources. I have received no tips, ledes, contacts, guidance, spin, or anything else from any political campaign.

The story I broke last night about the former chief of consular affairs, Maureen Harty, having received an ambassadorship from Bill Clinton in 1997, was obtained by (1) researching state department web sites and other data bases for the names of current and former consular affairs chiefs, (2) finding a state department biography for Maureen Harty, (3) confirming her ambassadorship via a Clinton foundation web site that had the 1997 press release.

Presuming that Scarborough (who didn't return a call) was basing his assertion on the work done by MSNBC's lead reporter on this story, which seems quite plausible, it appears that Scarborough had this wrong.

[jlake]

1. So Schuster pushed it on his own? He should be suspended..... again.

[angie_love]

2. Yeah and he was on the Today show peddling this false claim

And called Obama "desperate" for trying to link him to passportgate. Matt Lauer also suggested he was "paranoid" for doing it too. I am FURIOUS at this lie. Joe Scarborough is a fucking lying dick.

[City Lights]

3. Scarborough wrong?

Every fucking day.