A Political Wire reader sends a column by Martin Schram, published by Scripps Howard on September 26, 2000, that proves "in the craft of politics, big news is rarely new."
It's relevant because a book just released claims to reveal for the first time the name of the person who stole a debate briefing book from Jimmy Carter's 1980 presidential campaign and gave it to Ronald Reagan's team.
Here's what Schram wrote more than nine years ago:
"I had found a top Republican congressional aide who told me what happened. The GOP aide said that a political consultant named Paul Corbin, a gruff old pal of Robert F. Kennedy's who had grown to dislike the Carter crowd, had told him he had gotten the Carter briefing book and given it to Casey - well before it had ever been mentioned in the media. Told of this, Casey said well maybe he had gotten something from Corbin, but he couldn't remember what it was. Couldn't remember if it was just a few sheets of paper, or that briefing book that was almost as thick and heavy as a cement block. Corbin, who'd switched over to help run Democrats for Reagan, declined then to tell me about it on the record, but was denying to everyone he'd obtained any Carter papers or passed them to the GOP."
"A year later, Corbin and I wound up on a pundit panel about other topics, and afterwards I gave him a ride downtown. As I drove, he admitted that I'd gotten it right - he had given the Carter book to Casey."
