Consider if Richard Nixon had blamed Hubert Humphrey for breaking into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. Or if George H.W. Bush had blasted Bill Clinton for shredding documents about an illegal arms-for-hostages swap with Iran. Consider the gall, the hunger for political power in such a move.
Well, consider this:
Seems the NAFTAgate leak started with -- surprise, surprise -- the Chief of Staff to Canada's conservative PM Stephen Harper. Only the first hint wasn't about stuff the Canadians had heard from the Obama camp. It was about reassurances the Canadians got from the Clinton campaign. According to a reporter who heard the original conversation, Brodie said "someone from (Hillary) Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. . . That someone called us and told us not to worry."
Only somehow this evolved into a story about the Obama campaign giving such reassurances.
That's Josh Marshall, reacting to this story in Canada's Globe and Mail.
What is now a swirling Canada-U.S. controversy began on Feb. 26, when the usually circumspect Mr. Brodie was milling among droves of Canadian media on budget day in the stately old building that once housed Ottawa's train station....
Mr. Brodie wandered over to speak to Finance Department officials and chatted amiably with journalists — who appreciated this rare moment of direct access to the top official in Mr. Harper's notoriously tight-lipped government.
The former university professor found himself in a room with CTV employees where he was quickly surrounded by a gaggle of reporters while other journalists were within earshot of other colleagues.
At the end of an extended conversation, Mr. Brodie was asked about remarks aimed by the Democratic candidates at Ohio's anti-NAFTA voters that carried serious economic implications for Canada.
Since 75 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S., Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton's musings about reopening the North American free-trade pact had caused some concern.
Mr. Brodie downplayed those concerns.
"Quite a few people heard it," said one source in the room.
"He said someone from (Hillary) Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. . . That someone called us and told us not to worry."
Government officials did not deny the conversation took place.
Wait, what? Someone from the Clinton campaign was telling Canadian officials that her rhetoric against NAFTA should be taken "with a grain of salt," and she had the temerity to attack Obama for his campaign allegedly doing the same thing?
Clinton used the story to cast him as a double-talking hypocrite — winking and nudging at Canadians while making contrary promises to American voters.
Of course, the conservative Canadian government subsequently leaked a memo written by a Canadian official that characterized a meeting with an Obama adviser -- a memo twisted into the false NAFTA-gate story that helped sink Obama's numbers in Ohio.
Despite this early indication that it was Clinton's campaign that had contradicted her anti-NAFTA rhetoric, the press dove for the negative story de jure about Obama. And then they asked Clinton if she needed another pillow.
UPDATE: If you'd like to see this story reported in the media (you know, after they check to see if Hillary is comfortable), here's a list of contacts.