Why did Game Change authors, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann keep quiet on one of the 2008 campaign’s juiciest stories–only to spill the beans eighteen months later?

More importantly, why did they tell their readers about the John Edwards scandal only after it became personally profitable to do so?

Political reporters Halperin and Heilemann signed their book deal in June 2008, reportedly for a “mid- to high- six-figure sum.”co-authors of the ubiquitous political tell-all, Game Change.  Sprinkled amongst this cornucopia of unsourced gossip, rumor, whispers and innuendo are nuggets of hard news, particularly about former 2008 Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards.

Of particular interest was the following passage, from the excerpt published by Heilemann’s employer, New York :

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Five minutes into this interview I thought it was a joke. Then it lasted five minutes longer and by that time there was nothing funny about it.  More than ten minutes of network time wasted on a guy ABC thinks might have committed the unforgivable sin of attending a dinner with Dear Leader that he may or may not have been invited to. Gate Crasher III!

Carlos Allen was part of a breathless Good Morning America “exclusive” with Robin Roberts.  (The former ESPN sportscaster, not the Hall of Fame pitcher.) Finally, Roberts got tough with an interviewee.  She treated Allen like he had kidnapped the Lindbergh baby. You’ve got to see the grilling this guy took to believe it.

Of course, the real “sin” here by Gate Crashers I, II, and III is that they are embarrassing the White House showing that it runs its parties with all the security of the Deltas at Faber College.

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