Reply #60: *EXCEPT* The Politico reporter is defending his reporting in spite of this

[yodermon]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2008/02/politicos_roger.php

The Hillary campaign is adamantly denying the story. But in several emails to me, Simon defended his reporting.
...
I asked Simon if the official had said anything other than these quotes to indicate that a "strategy" had been settled upon, as his lede reported as fact. Simon declined to say, but pointed to this graf in the story, the suggestion being that Camp Hillary had been offered a chance to deny the story but didn't:

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer told me Monday he assumes the Obama campaign is going after delegates pledged to Clinton, though a senior Obama aide told me he knew of no such strategy.

The problem, of course, is that from this text we don't know what Singer was asked. So I asked Simon whether he had given Singer a chance to directly deny the story's central allegation. He replied: "Yes, absolutely. It was very direct."

So, presuming this is true, here's where we are. We know that an anonymous Clinton adviser predicted that if this results in a stalemate, both sides would fight for each other's pledged dels. Simon took that to mean that the Clinton camp had evolved a "strategy" to do this, and took some form of this notion to Singer, who didn't deny it, and instead tried to turn it back on Obama.